SHERMAN'S PROCLAMATION.

123

retributive justice, so long withheld, was about to be laid heavily upon the chief offender, South Carolina.1

"A thrill pervaded the loyal land

When the gladdening tidings came to hand;
Each heart feit joy's emotion!

The clouds of gloom and doubt dispersed,
The sun of hope through the darkness burst,
And the zeal the patriot's heart had nursed
Burned with a warm devotion."

The joy of the Loyalists was equaled in intensity by the sadness of the Secessionists everywhere. The latter perceived that an irreparable blow had been dealt against their cause, and throughout the Confederacy there was much wailing, lamentation, and bitter recriminations. It was believed that Charleston and Savannah would soon be in possession of the National forces, and that Forts Sumter and Pulaski would be "repossessed" by the Gov

ernment.

General R. S. Ripley, an old army officer who had abandoned his flag, was the Confederate commander of that sea-coast district,' having his headquarters at Charleston. He had arrived

on Hilton Head just before the action commenced, but retired to Coosawhatchie, on the main, satisfied that no glory was to be achieved in a fight so hopeless on the part of his friends. It was under his advice that the Confederate troops abandoned that region to the occupation of the National forces. The latter fact was officially announced by General Sherman, in a proclamation to the people of South Carolina on the day after the battle. Unfortunately, a portion of that proclamation was couched in such terms, that neither the personal pride nor the political pretensions of the rebellious leaders

R. S. RIPLEY.

was offended. It was so lacking in positiveness that they regarded it with perfect indifference. Indeed, it was difficult to get them to notice it at all.

In all the cities and towns in the Free Labor States flags were flung out, and in many places salvos of cannon were fired. The chimes of Trinity church, in the city of New York, beneath its great flag that floated from its spire, rang out two changes on eight bells, and twelve airs, under the direction of Mr. Ayliffe, the celebrated chimist. The airs were as follows: Hail Columbia; Yankee Doodle; Air from "Child of the Regiment;" Home, Sweet Home; Last Rose of Summer; Evening Bells; Star Spangled Banner Airs by De Beriot; Airs from Fra Diavolo;" Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean; Hail Columbia; and Yankee Doodle.

The Secretaries of War and of the Navy publicly tendered to the commanders of the expedition and to their men thanks, and the latter issued a General Order on the 16th of November, in which it was directed that a national salute should be fired from each navy-yard at meridian on the day after the reception, to commemorate the signal victory.

2 See page 311, volume I.

He acknowledged their pretensions to State sovereignty by speaking of the dictates of a duty" which he owed to a great sovereign State;" and he flattered them by speaking of them as "a proud and hospitable people, among whom he had passed some of the pleasantest days of his life." Then he assured them that they were in a state of active rebellion against the laws of their own country, and that the civilized world stood amazed at their course, and appalled by the crime they were committing against their "own mother." He narrated some

124

FLIGHT FROM THE COAST ISLANDS.

Messengers were sent with it, under a flag of truce, first to Port Royal Island, and thence to the main. The Confederate officers they met told them there were no "loyal" citizens in South Carolina, and that no others wanted it, and advised them to turn back with their bundle of proclamations. They acted upon this recommendation, and so ended the attempt to conciliate the South Carolinians.

General Sherman set vigorously to work to strengthen his position on Hilton Head, for it was to be made a depot of supplies. Mechanics and lumber had been brought out in the transports. Buildings were speedily erected; also an immense wharf; and in a short time the place assumed the outward appearance of a mart of commerce. Meanwhile, Dupont sent his armed vessels in various directions among the islands and up the rivers of the coast of South Carolina, in the direction of Charleston; and before the close of November, every soldier occupying earthworks found here and there, and nearly every white inhabitant, had abandoned those islands and fled to the main, leaving the negroes, who refused to accompany them, to occupy their plantations and houses. Everywhere, evidences of panic and hasty departure were seen; and it is now believed that, had the victory at Port Royal been immediately followed up, by attacks on Charleston and Savannah, both cities might have been an easy prey to the National forces. Beaufort, a delightful city on Port Royal Island, where the most aristocratic portion of South Carolina society had summer residences, was entered," and its arms and munitions of war seized, without the least resistance,' there being, it was reported, only one white man there, named Allen (who was of Northern birth), and who was too much overcome with fear or strong drink to give any intelligible account of affairs there. The negroes everywhere evinced the greatest delight at the advent of the "Yankees," about whom their masters had told them fearful tales; and it was a most touching sight to see them-men, women, and children-flocking to the island shores when the vessels appeared, carrying little bundles containing all their worldly goods, and with perfect faith that the invader was their

a Nov. 9, 1861.

of their crimes, implored them to pause, and warned them that they would bring great evils upon their State. He assured them that he and his troops would respect any constitutional obligations to them, and begged them to believe that if, in the performance of their duty in enforcing the National authority, some of those obligations should be neglected, such neglect came only because of the "necessities of the case." The general had been specially instructed by the War Department to treat all slaves as General Butler had been authorized to treat them at Fortress Monroe, and to assure all loyal masters that Congress would provide just compensation to them for the loss of the labor of their slaves taken into the public service.

1 Among the trophies secured at Beaufort, and now (1867) preserved at the Washington Navy Yard, was a 6-pounder brass cannon, which had been captured from the British while marauding on the coast of South Carolina during the war of 1812. It was deposited in the trophy room of the National Arsenal, at Charleston, and there it remained until the conspirators in that city seized it, with the other public property, and appropriated it to their use. According to their code of ethics, the act of seizure conferred the right of ownership, and so they had the name of "South Carolina" engraved upon the cannon. It also bore the date of its construction, "1803." Its carriage was modern, having been made after its

CANNON CAPTURED AT BEAUFORT.

capture from the British. It, too, was of brass, and was decorated with stars.

2 Report of Lieutenant Sproston, of the Seneca, who was the first to land at Beaufort. He says that while he was talking with Mr. Allen, at his store in Beaufort, an intelligent mulatto boy dismounted from a horse, and said, "The whole country have left, sir, and all the soldiers gone to Port Royal Ferry. They did not think that you could do it, sir." He informed him that there were then about 1,000 soldiers at the ferry, a portion of whom were the Beaufort Artillery, under Captain Elliott.

CONQUEST ON THE GEORGIA COAST.

125

deliverer, expressing a desire to go on board the ships, evidently fearing that their masters would return.' The latter had used great exertions, by persuasion, threats, and violence, to induce their slaves to accompany them in their flight to the interior, but with very little success.

2

With equal ease Dupont took possession of Big Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River, from which Fort Pulaski, which was within easy mortar distance, might be assailed, and the harbor of Savannah perfectly sealed against blockade runners. On the

approach of the National gunboats, the de
fenses, which consisted of a strong martello
tower erected there during the war of 1812,
and a battery at its base, were abandoned, and
on the 25th Dupont wrote to
the Secretary of War: "The flag
of the United States is flying over the terri-
tory of the State of Georgia."

994

a Nov., 1861.

Before the close of the year the National authority was supreme from Wassaw Sound, below the mouth of the Savannah, to the North Edisto River. Every fort on the islands in that region had been abandoned, and there was nothing to make serious opposition to National authority. But at the close of November, and in the month of December, over the curious net-work of creeks and rivers on that coast hung the black clouds of extensive conflagrations, evincing intense hostility to that authority by the South Carolinians. Vast quantities of cotton were on the islands when the National forces came; and, when the first panic had

Nowhere in the South were the negroes so shut out from all knowledge of the world as among these coast islands. Their masters assured them that the Yankees" were coming to steal them and sell them into bondage in Cuba; and some described the "Northerners" as monsters who would devour them, or kill and bury them in the sand. But most of these simple people did not believe a word of these tales; on the contrary, they believed the Lord had sent the "Yankees" to take them out of bondage. This faith and hope was most remarkable.

2 When the National forces reached Beaufort, the negroes, finding themselves sole occupants of the place and property, had begun to pillage. They reported that their masters, before their departure, had tried to drive them back into the woods, in the direction of the main, and numbers of them had been shot and killed. Commander Rogers. in a letter to a friend (Nov. 9th), said: "A boat which came off to the Seneca said one man (giving his name) shot six of the negroes."

This was the appearance of the tower when I sketched it, in April, 1866. Its height had been somewhat diminished by demolishing a portion of its upper part, on which rested a roof. Such towers had been erected early in the present century along the British coasts, as a defense against an expected invasion by Bonaparte. The lower story was used for stores, and the upper, being boinb-proof, as secure quarters for the men. The walls terminated in a parapet, behind which cannon were placed. The tower at Tybee was built of solid masonry, like the best of those on the British coast.

4 Besides those on Hilton Head, and at Bay Point on Phillip's Island, there were five other fortifications on

these islands, namely, on Botany Bay Island. North Edisto; on Otter Island, St. Helena's Sound; on Fenwick's Island; on Bay Point, on the South Edisto River; and on Sam's Point, on the Coosaw River. The little sketch here given of the fort on Bay Point, South Edisto, conveys an idea of the general form of these works, which were constructed of loose earth, and blocks of tough marsh sod.

5 See map on page 126.

FORT ON BAY POINT.

126

THE COAST ISLANDS AND COTTON.

passed by, planters returned stealthily and applied the torch to that which was gathered and ungathered, that it should not fall into the hands of the invaders.'

In this connection it

is proper to say, that so soon as the report of the existence of a vast quantity of abandoned cotton on these coast islands-cotton of the most valuable kind-reached 0 Washington, an order went forth

for its secure preservation and preparation for market. Agents were appointed for the purpose, and the military and naval authorities in that region were directed to give them all necessary aid. Measures were taken to organize the negro population on the islands, and to carry forward all necessary work on the abandoned plantations. This business was left in the control of the Treasury Department, and was efficiently and wisely managed by Secretary Chase, who appointed Edwin L. Pierce as a special agent for the purpose. a 1862. At the beginning of February following, Mr. Pierce reported that about two hundred plantations on fifteen of the South Carolina coast islands were occupied, or under the control of the

COAST ISLANDS.

1 The Charleston Mercury of Nov. 30th, 1861, said: "The heavens to the southwest were brilliantly illu minated with the patriotic flames ascending from burning cotton. As the spectators witnessed it, they involuntarily burst forth with cheer after cheer, and each heart was warmed as with a new pulse. Such a people can never be subjugated. Let the holy flames continue to ascend, and let the demons of hell who come here on their diabolical errand learn a lesson and tremble. Let the torch be applied wherever the invader pollutes our soil, and let him find, as is meet, that our people will welcome him only with devastation and ruin. Our people are in earnest, men, women, and children, and their sacrifice will ascend as a sacred holocaust to God, crying aloud for vengeance against the fiends in human shape who are disgracing humanity, trampling down civilization, and would blot out Christianity. Patriotic planters on the seaboard are hourly applying the torch to their crops of cotton and rice. Some are authorized by military authorities to destroy their crops, to prevent ravages by the enemy. Plantations on North Edisto and in the neighborhood, and elsewhere on the coast of South Carolina, are one sheet of flames and smoke. The commanding officers of all the exposed points on our coast have received positive instructions to burn or destroy all property which cannot be conveniently taken away and is likely to be seized by the enemy."

2 The Sea Island Cotton" of commerce is the product of a narrow belt of coast islands along the shores of South Carolina, and in the vicinity of the mouth of the Savannah River. The seed was obtained from the Bahama Islands, and the first successful crop raised in South Carolina was on Hilton Head Island, in 1790. It is of the arborescent kind, and noted for its long fiber, adapted to the manufacture of the finest fabrics and the best thread. It always brought a very high price. Just before the war, when the common cotton brought an average of ten or twelve cents a pound, a bale sent from South Edisto Island brought, in Liverpool, one dollar and thirty-five cents a pound.

MOVEMENT AGAINST PORT ROYAL FERRY.

127

Union forces, and that upon them there was an aggregate negro population of about eight thousand, exclusive of several thousand colored refugees at and around Hilton Head. The industrial operations in this region under the control of the Government will be further considered hereafter.

The only stand made by the Confederate forces in defense of the South Carolina coast islands, after the battle of the 7th of November, was at Port Royal Ferry, on the Coosaw, at the close of the year. They had a fortified position there, and a force estimated at eight thousand strong, under Generals Gregg and Pope, from which it was determined to expel them. A joint land and naval expedition against this post was undertaken, the former commanded by Brigadier-General

Stevens, and the latter by Commander C. R. P. Rogers. The troops employed by Stevens were Colonel Frazier's Forty-seventh and Colonel Perry's Forty-eighth New York regiments, and the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, Major Morrison; Fiftieth Pennsylvania, Colonel Crist; Eighth Michigan, Colo

nel Fenton; and the One Hundredth Pennsylvania ("Round Heads "), Colonel Leasure, of Stevens's brigade; in all about four thousand five hundred men. The naval force assembled at Beaufort for the purpose was composed of the gun-boats Ottawa, Pembina, Hale, and Seneca, ferry-boat Ellen, and four large boats belonging to the Wabash, each of them carrying a 12-pounder howitzer, under the respective commands of Lieutenants Upshur, Luce, and Irwin, and Acting Master Kempff.

a 1861.

The expedition moved in the evening of the 31st of December." A large portion of the vessels went up the Broad River, on the westerly side of Port Royal Island, to approach the Ferry by Whale

Creek; and at the same time General Stevens's forces made their way to a point where the Brick Yard Creek, a continuation of the Beaufort River, unites with the Coosaw. There he was met by Commander Rogers, with launches, and his troops were embarked on large flat boats, at an early hour in the morning." The Ottawa, Pembina, and Hale soon afterward entered the Coosaw, and at Adams's plantation, about three miles below the Ferry, the land and naval forces pressed forward to the attack, two of the howitzers of the Wabash accompanying the former, under Lieutenant Irwin.

& Jan. 1, 1862.

Stevens threw out the Eighth Michigan as skirmishers, and the gun-boats