314

BATTLE OF SOUTH MILLS.

masonry and guns was toward the sea, and it perfectly commanded the nar row ship channel at the entrance to the harbor.

We found Fort Macon very much in the condition in which Burnside observed it when he entered it, excepting the absence of fragments of shot and shell and cannon and carriages, made by the National missiles. On its wall, landward (seen in shadow in the engraving), that bore the brunt of the bombardment, were the broad wounds made by shot and shell; and here and there the remains of furrows made by them were seen on the parades, the ramparts, and the glacis. After passing half an hour pleasantly with Captain King, the commandant, and other officers of the garrison, and making the sketch on the preceding page, we departed for the Ben Deford in the tug that took us from it and on the following day left the harbor for the waters in front of Fort Fisher.

While Parke and Lockwood were operating at Beaufort Harbor, troops under General Reno were quietly taking possession of important places on the waters of Albemarle Sound, and threatening Norfolk in the rear. The movement was partly for the purpose of assisting Parke in his siege of Fort Macon, and partly to gain some substantial advantages on the Sounds.

a April 19. 1862.

Reno's force consisted of the Twenty-first Massachusetts, Fifty-first Pennsylvania, the Sixth New Hampshire, and a part of the Ninth and Eighty-ninth New York. They advanced in transports up the Pasquotank to within three miles of Elizabeth City, and, landing cautiously in the night," a part of them under Colonel Hawkins were pushed forward to surprise and intercept a body of Confederates known to be about leaving that place for Norfolk. Hawkins took with him portions of the Ninth and Eighty-ninth New York, and Sixth New Hampshire; and a few hours later he was followed by General Reno and the remainder of the troops.

Hawkins was misled by a treacherous or incompetent guide, and, marching ten miles out of his way, lost so much time that in retracing his steps he came in behind General Reno. Meanwhile the Confederates had been apprised of the movement, and when the Nationals were within a mile and a half of South Mills, near Camden Court-house, they were assailed with grape and canister shot from the foe, who were in a good position with artillery, having a dense forest in their rear for a protection and cover, and swamps on their flanks. The attack was bravely met. Reno's superior numbers soon flanked the Confederates, and the latter hastily withdrew. A gunboat under Captain Flusser had, in the mean time, driven the foe out of the woods along the river-banks. Hawkins's Zouaves had made a gallant charge, but were repulsed, and in this the chief loss to the Nationals occurred. They had fifteen killed, ninety-six wounded, and two made prisoners. The loss of the Confederates is not known. They left thirty killed and wounded on the field. This engagement is called THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MILLS. The defeat of the Third Georgia regiment in the fight produced much consternation in Norfolk.

General Reno allowed his wearied troops to rest on the battle-field about six hours, when they returned to the boats. For want of transportation, he was compelled to leave some of his killed and wounded behind.

Winton, at the head of the Chowan; Plymouth, at the mouth of the

OPERATIONS IN THE REAR OF NORFOLK.

315

Roanoke; and Washington, at the head of the Pamlico River, were all quietly occupied by the National forces.'

This occupation so widely dis

ATLANTIC
OCEAN

traits of character that marked him as an energetic, sagacious, and judicious commander, and led to his appointment to more important posts of duty.

For the remainder of the year, the coasts of North Carolina were in the possession of the National troops. Its ports were closed, either by actual occupation or by blockading vessels, and its commerce ceased entirely, excepting such as was carried on by British blockade-runners. These, in spite of the greatest vigilance of the blockading squadrons cruising off its entrances, constantly entered the Cape Fear River, with military supplies and necessaries for the Confederates, until the fall of Fort Fisher, at the beginning of 1865. These blockade-runners were steamships, built expressly

1 At about this time, an expedition under Commodore Rowan was sent to obstruct the Dismal Swamp Canal, in the rear of Norfolk. Rowan left Elizabeth City on the 23d of April, with the Lockwood, Whitehead, and Putnam, each with an officer and a detachment of troops. In the afternoon he landed one hundred men (fifty on each bank), and then, with a launch on the canal carrying a heavy 12-pounder, went forward about two miles. They sunk a schooner in the canal, and filled the stream, for about fifty yards above it, with stumps and trunks of trees, brush, vines, and earth. In this work they met with no opposition. In fact, the Confederates themselves had evidently abandoned the use of the canal, for they had obstructed it farther on toward Norfolk.

316

EXPEDITION AGAINST FORT PULASKI.

for the purpose, and were remarkable for strength and speed. They drew but little water, and had raking smoke-stacks. Every part of them was

Georgia, having for their first object the capture of Fort Pulaski, and ultimately other important points and posts between the Savannah River and St. Augustine in Florida.

We have seen that at the close of 1861 the National authority was supreme along the coast from Wassaw Sound, below the Savannah River, to the North Edisto, well up toward Charleston.' National troops were stationed as far down as Daufuskie Island; and so early as the close of December, General Sherman had directed General Quincy A. Gillmore, his Chief Engineer, to reconnoiter Fort Pulaski and report upon the feasibility of a bombardment of it. Gillmore's reply was, that it might be reduced by batteries of rifled guns and mortars placed on Big Tybee Island, southeast of Cockspur Island, on which the fort stood, and across the narrower channel of the Savannah; and that aid might be given from a battery on Venus Point of Jones's Island, two miles from Cockspur, in the opposite direction. While waiting orders from Washington on the subject, the Forty-sixth New York, Colonel Rosa, was sent to occupy Big Tybee.

At about this time" explorations were made by the Nationals for the purJan., 1862, pose of finding some channel by which gun-boats might get in the rear of Fort Pulaski. Lieutenant J. H. Wilson, of the Topographical Engineers, had received information from negro pilots that convinced him that such channel might be found, connecting Calibogue Sound with the Savannah River. General Sherman directed him to explore in search of it. Taking with him, at about the first of January, 1862, seventy Rhode Island soldiers, in two boats managed by negro crews and pilots, he thridded the intricate passages between the low, oozy islands and mud-banks in that region (always under cover of night, for the Confederates had watchful pickets at every approach to the fort), and found a way into the Savannah River above the fort, partly through an artificial channel called Wall's Cut, which had for several years connected Wright's and New Rivers.

1 See page 125.

He

OBSTRUCTIONS IN SAVANNAH RIVER.

317

reported accordingly, when Captain John Rogers made another reconnoissance at night, and so satisfied himself that gun-boats could navigate the way, that he offered to command an expedition that might attempt it. Sherman and Dupont at once organized one for the purpose. The land troops were placed in charge of General Viele,' and the gun-boats were commanded. by Rogers. Another mixed force, under General II. G. Wright' and Fleet

captain Davis, was sent to pass up to the Savannah River, in rear of Fort Pulaski, by way of Wassaw Sound, Wilmington River, and St. Augustine Creek. The latter expedition found obstructions in St. Augustine Creek; but the gunboats were able to co-operate with those of Rogers in an attack on the little flotilla of five gun-boats of Commodore Tatnall, which attempted to escape down the river from inevitable blockade.

others escaped.

a Jan. 28, 1862.

Tatnall was driven back with two of his vessels, but the

The expedition, having accomplished its object of observation, returned to Hilton Head, and the citizens of Savannah believed that designs against that city and Fort Pulaski were abandoned. Yet the Confederates multiplied the obstructions in the river in the form of piles, sunken vessels, and regular chevaux-de-frise; and upon the oozy islands

and the main land on the right bank of the river they built heavy earthworks, and greatly enlarged and strengthened Fort Jackson, about four miles below the city. Among the most formidable of the new earthworks was Fort Lee, built under the direction of Robert E. Lee, after his recall from Western Virginia, in the autumn of 1861.

CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE.

Soon after the heavy reconnoissance of Rogers and Wright, the Nationals made a lodgment on Jones's Island, and proceeded, under the immediate direction of General Viele, to erect an earthwork on Venus Point, which was named Battery Vulcan. This was completed on the 11th of February, after very great labor, and with a little battery on Bird Island, opposite

1 These troops consisted of the Forty-eighth New York; two companies of New York volunteer engineers, and two companies of Rhode Island volunteer artillery with twenty heavy guns.

2 Wright's troops consisted of the Fourth New Hampshire, Colonel Whipple; Sixth Connecticut, Colonel Chatfield; and Ninety-seventh Pennsylvania, Colonel Guess.

This is from a sketch made by the author from the deck of a steam-tug, just at sunset in April, 1866. These were only the remains of the formidable obstructions, those from the main channel having been removed. The scene is near Fort Jackson. On the right are seen earthworks on a small island, and on the left the shore of the main land, while in the distance is the City of Savannah.

4 A causeway was built across the island, chiefly by the Forty-eighth New York, over which heavy mortars

318

BOMBARDMENT OF FORT PULASKI.

(Battery Hamilton), effectually closed the Savannah River in the rear of Fort Pulaski. That fortress, as we have already observed,' was a strong one on Cockspur Island, which is wholly a marsh. Its walls, twenty-five

feet in height above high water, presented five faces, and were casemated on all sides, and mounted one tier of guns in embrasures and one en barbette.

The absolute blockade of Fort Pulaski may be dated from the 22d of February. Preparations were then made on Tybee Island to bombard it. Nearly all of the work had to be done in the night, and it was of the same laborious nature as that performed on Jones's Island. It took about two hundred and fifty men to move a single heavy gun, with a sling-cart, over the quaking mud jelly of which Tybee Island is composed; and it was often with the greatest difficulty that it was kept from going down twelve feet to the bottom of the morass, when, as sometimes it happened, it slipped from the

QUINCY A. GILLMORE.

readiness to open fire on the fort. On that day the commanding General

six guns, were in

were dragged. The islands near the mouth of the Savannah are formed of mud, of jelly consistency, from four to twelve feet in depth, and resting on half liquid clay. The surface is covered with a light turf of matted grassroots. Over this the causeway was built, of poles covered with loose planks; and upon this road mortars weighing more than eight tons were dragged, and placed in battery on heavy plank platforms. This labor was all performed at night.

1 See page 179, volume I.

2 "No one," said Gillmore in his report, "can form any but a faint conception of the Herculean labor by which mortars of eight and a half tons weight, and columbiads but a trifle lighter, were moved in the dead of night over a narrow causeway bordered by swamps on each side, and liable at any moment to be overturned, and buried in the mud beyond reach."

These were batteries Stanton and Grant, three 10-inch mortars each; Lyon and Lincoln, three columbiads each; Burnside, one heavy mortar; Sherman, three heavy mortars; Halleck, two heavy mortars; Scott, four columbiads; Sigel, five 80-pounder Parrott, and one 48-pounder James; McClellan, two 84-pounders and two 64-pounders James; Totten, four 10-inch siege mortars. Totten and McClellan were only 1,650 yards from the fort; Stanton was 8,400 yards distant. Each battery had a service magazine for two days' supply of ammunition, and a depot powder magazine of 3,000 barrels capacity was constructed near the Martello tower, printed on page 125, which was the landing-place for all supplies on Tybee.