118

CONFEDERATES AT PORT ROYAL ENTRANCE.

great scientific skill, who had recently been engaged in making a minute examination of this coast. By these well-informed men the channel entrance to Port Royal Sound was found, and so well buoyed in the course of a few hours that the fleet might enter with perfect safety. At three o'clock in the afternoon Commodore Dupont was informed that all of his gun-boats and transports drawing less than eighteen feet water might go forward without danger. The movement commenced at once, and at twilight these vessels were all anchored in the roadstead of Port Royal.

Το oppose the further progress of the expedition, the Confederates had earthworks on each side of Port Royal entrance. The one on the northern side, at Bay Point, Phillip's Island, was named Fort Beauregard, and that on the southern side, near Hilton Head, Hilton Head Island, was called Fort Walker. The latter was a strong regular work, with twenty-four guns; and the former, though inferior to it in every respect, was formidable, being armed with twenty guns.

Fort Walker was manned, when the expedition arrived, by six hundred and twenty men,' under General T. F. Drayton, a wealthy land-owner, whose mansion was not more than a mile distant from it, standing a few yards from the beach, and overlooking a beautiful expanse of land and water. He was a brother of Captain Percival Drayton, commander of the Pocahontas, of this expedition. On the beach at Camp Lookout, six miles from Fort Walker, were sixty-five men of Scriven's guerrillas, who acted as scouts and couriers for the commander. These forces were increased, before the battle commenced, to one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven men.' The force on Bay Point was six hundred and forty men, commanded by Colonel R. G. M. Dunovant. Of these, one hundred and forty-nine, consisting of the Beaufort Volunteer Artillery, garrisoned Fort Beauregard, under the immediate command of Captain Stephen Elliott, Jr., of Beaufort. Dunovant's infantry force was stationed so as to protect the eastern portion of Phillip's Island, and the entrance to Trenchard's Inlet.

T. F. DRAYTON.

In addition to these land forces, there was a little squadron called the "Musquito Fleet," under Commodore Josiah Tatnall, a brave old veteran of the National navy, who served with distinction in the war of 1812, but who had been seduced from his allegiance and his flag by the siren song of supreme State sovereignty. He had followed the politicians of his native

1 Two companies of Wagner's South Carolina First Regiment of Artillery, three companies of Hayward's Ninth South Carolina Volunteers, and four companies of Dunovant's Twelfth South Carolina Volunteers, under Major Jones.

2 The re-enforcements were composed of 450 infantry from Georgia, under command of Captain Berry; Captain Reed's battery of two 10-pounder howitzers and 50 men, and Colonel De Saussure's Fifteenth South Carolina Volunteers, numbering 650 men.

3 See page 138, volume I.

PREPARATIONS FOR BATTLE.

119

Georgia in the wicked ways of treason, and in the course of a few months he had fallen from his high position of an honored commander, kindly placed by his Government in a retreat of ease and comfort, at the naval station at Sackett's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, in New York, to be the chief manager of a little flotilla of eight small armed steamers that had been employed in navigating the shallow waters among the Coast Islands, and losing, by lack of success, even the respect of those whose bad cause he had consented to serve. His achievements on the occasion we are now considering consisted of a harmless show of opposition to the fleet when it anchored in Port Royal roadstead; a successful retreat from danger when a few shots were hurled at his vessels; assisting in the flight of the Confederate land forces upon Hilton Head Island, and in the destruction of his own flotilla to prevent its capture by his late brothers in the National navy.

• Nov., 1861.

On Tuesday, the 5th, Commander John Rogers, a passenger with Dupont, on his way to his own ship, the Flag, accompanied by General Wright, made a reconnoissance in force of the Confederate works in the Ottawa, supported by the Curlew, Seneca, and Smith. The forts on both shores opened upon them, as they desired they should, and an engagement of about three-quarters of an hour ensued, by which the strength and character of those works were fairly tested. In the mean time, the great Wabash had passed safely over the bar, and every thing was now ready for an attack. It was delayed by an ugly wind off shore, and meanwhile the Confederates were re-enforced and their works were strengthened.

Thursday, the 7th, dawned gloriously. The transports were all in sight, and in the light of the morning sun a grand spectacle was speedily presented. It had been ascertained by Rogers and Wright that Fort Walker, on Hilton Head, was by far the most powerful of the defenses, and upon it the bolts of the fleet were chiefly hurled. The order of battle "comprised a main squadron ranged, in a line ahead, and a flanking squadron, which was to be thrown off on the northern section of the harbor, to engage the enemy's flotilla (Tatnall's), and prevent them taking the rear ships of the main line when it turned to the southward, or cutting off a disabled vessel." That flotilla was then lying at a safe distance between Hilton Head and Paris Islands.

FORT WALKER, HILTON HEAD.

The plan of attack was to pass up midway between Forts Walker and Beauregard (which were about two miles apart), receiving and returning the fire of both; and at the distance of two and a half miles northward of the latter, round by the west, and closing in with the former, attack it on

1 Report of Commodore Dupont to the Secretary of the Navy, November 11th, 1861. The main squadron consisted of the Wabash, Commander C. R. P. Rogers, leading; frigate Susquehanna, Captain J. L. Lardner; sloop Mohican, Commander L. W. Gordon; sloop Seminole, Commander J. P. Gillis; sloop Pawnee, Lieutenant commanding T. H. Stevens; gunboat Pembina, Lieutenant commanding J. P. Bankhead; sailing sloop Vandalia, towed by the Isaac P. Smith, Lieutenant commanding J. W. A. Nicholson. The flanking squadron consisted of the gunboats Bienville, Commander Charles Steedınan, leading; Seneca, Lieutenant commanding Daniel Ammen; Curlew, Lieutenant commanding P. G. Watmough; Penguin, Lieutenant commanding F. A. Budd; and Augusta, Commander E. G. Parrott.

120

BATTLE OF PORT ROYAL ENTRANCE.

its weakest flank, and enfilade its two water faces.' The vessels were to pass abreast of the fort very slowly, in the order of battle, and each avoid becoming a fixed mark for the Confederate guns. On reaching the shoal ground making off from the extremity of Hilton Head, the line was to turn to the north by the east, and, passing to the northward, to engage Fort Walker with the port battery nearer than when first on the same course. These evolutions were to be repeated. The captains of the vessels were called on board the Wabash, and fully instructed in the manner of proceeding; and this plan of pursuing a series of elliptical movements was strictly followed in the engagement that ensued.

a Nov. 7,

1861.

a

The signal to get under way was given at eight o'clock in the morning, and the action commenced at about half-past nine, by a gun at Fort Walker, which was instantly followed by one at Fort Beauregard. The Wabash immediately responded, and was followed by the Susquehanna. After the first prescribed turn, the signal for closer action was given, at a quarter past ten, the Wabash passing Fort Walker at a distance, when abreast, of eight hundred yards. In the designated order the fight went on. At half-past eleven the flag of Fort Walker was shot away, and the heavy guns of the Wabash and Susquehanna had SO discomforted the enemy," as

66

Dupont reported, and the shells
from the smaller vessels were
falling so thickly upon them at
the enfilading point, that their
fire became sensibly weaker and
weaker, until their guns ceased
altogether to reply. At a quar-
ter past one P. M., the Ottaça
signalled that the fort was aban-
doned.

Fort Beauregard was also
The gar

silent and abandoned.
risons of both had fled for their
lives.

According to the official and unofficial reports of the Confederate officers and correspondents, Fort Walker had become the scene of utter desolation, at Dismounted cannon lay in all directions, and the dead and dying were seen on every

noon.

side. The place had become utterly untenable, yet it was a perilous thing

1 Dupont's Report.

* Commander John Rogers, in a letter to a friend, said:

"During the action I looked carefully at the fort with a powerful spy-glass. Shell fell in it, not twenty-eight in a minute, but as fast as a horse's feet beat the ground in a gallop. The resistance was heroic; but what could flesh and blood do against such a fire?

"The Wabash was a destroying angel, hugging the shore, calling the soundings with cold indifference, slowing the engine so as only to give steerage-way, signalling to the vessels their various evolutions, and at the same time raining shells, as with target practice, too fast to count."

RETREAT FROM BAY POINT.

121 to leave it. An open space of a mile, directly in range of the National guns, lay between the fort and a thick wood to which they must go for shelter. Across this they ran, each man for himself, divested of every thing that might make him a laggard. Each of the wounded was placed in a blanket and borne away by four men, but the dead were left. The garrison, with their commander, ran six miles across the island, to Seabrook, where they embarked for Savannah.

So too at Fort Beauregard the retreat had been hasty. General Drayton had vainly endeavored to send over re-enforcements to the little garrison there, that fought bravely

and well. Seeing danger of being cut off from retreat, Colonel Dunovant ordered them to flee while there was a chance for safety. Leaving an infernal machine in Fort Beauregard for a murderous purpose,' and a note for Commodore Dupont," Captain Elliott and his command retreated with the rest of the troops, first to St. Helen's, then to Port Royal Island, and then to the

PLAN OF FORT BEAUREGARD.

main, with all possible haste, for the Charleston and Savannah Railway. The loss on board the fleet during the action was very slight. Dupont reported it at thirty-one, of whom eight were killed. The Confederate officers reported their loss in both forts at fifty, of whom ten were killed in Fort Walker, but none in Fort Beauregard. On the evening succeeding the battle, a procession of seventeen boats, from the Wabash, conducted the remains of the dead to their burial-place on Hilton Head, near Pope's man

1 The fair fame of Captain (afterwards General) Elliott as a humane man and honorable soldier received an unerasable blemish by an act at this time perfectly consistent with the fiendish spirit of the conspirators, but not at all so with what common report says was his own. He left the Confederate flag flying, and its halliards so connected with a percussion-cap apparatus, that when the victors should enter the fort and attempt to pull down the ensign of treason, a mine of gunpowder beneath would be exploded. Fortunately, the arrangeinent was so defective that no life was lost by a partial explosion that occurred.

? The following is a copy of Elliott's note to Dupont :

"Bay Point, Nov. 7th, 1861.

"We are compelled to leave two wounded men. Treat them kindly, according to the poet's saying-Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. We abandon our untenable position that we may do the cause of the Confederate States better service elsewhere.

Respectfully,

"STEPHEN ELLIOTT, JR."

The Latin quotation in the above is a line from Virgil's Ænead, in which Dido, remembering her own misfortunes, pities the errors of Æneas. It says, "Not unacquainted with misfortune, I have learned to succor the distresses of others." I am indebted to the Rev. John Woart (who was chaplain at the U. S. General Hospital at Hilton Head when I visited that post in April, 1866) for a copy of Elliott's note, taken from the original by Captain Law, of the New Hampshire, then in that harbor. The humane injunction of Elliott was in a spirit directly opposed to his act in the matter of the infernal machine. He doubtless acted under the orders of his superiors. Captain Elliott became a brigadier-general, and commanded Fort Sumter during a greater portion of the siege of that fortress. He was blown up by the explosion of the mine at Petersburg, when one of his arms was broken. He died at Aiken, South Carolina, in March, 1866.

The vessels engaged were all more or less injured by the Confederate cannon. The Wabash was struck thirty-four times. Its mainmast was injured beyond hope of repair, its rigging was cut, and it was made to leak badly.

122

LANDING OF NATIONAL TROOPS.

sion, in a grove of palm and orange trees, not far from the fort; and on the following day, Dupont issued a stirring general order, in which, after speaking in praise of his officers and men, he said: "The flag-officer fully sympathizes with the officers and men of the

@ Nov. 8. 1861.

squadron, in the satisfaction they must feel at seeing the ensign of the Union once more in the State of South Carolina, which has been the chief promoter of the wicked and unprovoked rebellion they have been called upon to suppress." The flags captured at the forts were sent to the Navy Department, where they were put to a better use as curtains for a window.

Up to the time when the forts were silenced, the land forces were only spectators of the conflict; then it was their turn to act, and promptly they performed their duty. The transports containing them at once moved forward, the launches were prepared, and a flag of truce was sent ashore to ask whether the garrison had surrendered. There was no one there to respond. The Union flag was hoisted by Commander Rogers,' amid the greetings of cheers from the fleet and transports; and very soon the surface of the water was dark with a swarm of troops in boats made specially for such occasions. Early in the evening, the brigades of Generals Wright and Stevens had landed on the beach, which was so flat that the water is always shallow a long distance out. Wright's men landed first, close by Fort Walker; and so eager were they to tread the soil of South Carolina, that many of them leaped from the boats and waded ashore. Fort Walker was formally taken possession of, and General Wright

ninth New York and Eighth Michigan, crossed over to Bay Point the next morning, and took possession of Fort Beauregard. The victory was now complete, and the universal joy which it created in the Free-labor States found public expression in many places; for it seemed as if the hand of

1 "Commodore Dupont," Rogers wrote to a friend, "had kindly made me his aid. I stood by him, and I did little things which I suppose gained me credit. So, when a boat was sent on shore to ask whether they had surrendered, I was sent. I carried the Stars and Stripes. I found the ramparts utterly desolate, and I planted the American flag upon those ramparts with my own hands-first to take possession, in the majesty of the United States, of the rebel soil of South Carolina."