Page images
PDF
EPUB

CAPTURE OF THE "ATLANTA."

199.

bars of iron. She bore four great guns, and was provided with a powerful beak. She was named Atlanta, and her commander was Lieutenant W. A. Webb, formerly of the National Navy, who had a crew of one hundred and sixty men.'

Deserters from the Atlanta reported her ready for work, and Admiral Dupont sent the Weehawken, Captain Rodgers, and Nahant, Commander Downes, to Wassaw Sound, to watch her. She was considered by her commander a match for both, and on the morning of the 17th of June, she was seen moving rapidly down the Wilmington River to attack them, accompanied by two wooden gun-boats of Tattnall's Mosquito Fleet, which were intended to tow up to Savannah the captured monitors. After the battle, the Atlanta was to proceed to sea, and destroy or disperse the blockading squadrons off Charleston and Wilmington. She was provided with instruments, and with stores of every kind for a long cruise, especially of choice liquors. No one among the Confederates doubted her invincibility. The gun-boats that accompanied her were crowded with people from Savannah, many of them women, who went down to see the fight and enjoy the victory; and when the National vessels appeared in sight, Captain Webb assured the "audience" that the Yankee monitors would be in tow before breakfast.

Like many prophesies of the Confederates, Webb's was not fulfilled, and the spectators were grievously disappointed. As the ram pushed swiftly toward the Weehawken, the latter held back its fire until its antagonist was within short range, when a gun, sighted by Rodgers himself, sent a fifteeninch solid shot, which carried away the top of the Atlanta's pilot-house, wounded two of her pilots, and sent her aground. Rodgers fired only four more shots. The last one struck the ram point blank, fearfully bent her iron armor, and shivered twelve inches of live-oak planking and five of Georgia pine back of it. One man was killed and seventeen were wounded by the blow, when Webb ran up a white flag. In the space of fifteen minutes after the first shot was fired, the Atlanta was prisoner to the Weehawken, and the astonished Webb said to his crew, Providence, for some good reason, has interfered with our plans, and we have failed of success. I would advise you to submit quietly to the fate that has overtaken you." In that brief space of fifteen minutes, the glowing visions of ruin to the National Navy, the raising of the blockade of Wilmington, Charleston, and Mobile, and the speedy recognition of the Confederacy as a nation by Great Britain and France, which the Conspirators and their friends had indulged when contemplating the Atlanta, faded away. Instead of raiding up the Atlantic coast, spreading terror among the inhabitants of seaport towns, she was taken

1 The Atlanta was 190 feet in length, and 40 in width. Her main deck was only a few inches above the water. From this rose her gun-deck 8 feet, sloping at an angle of about 30 degrees, leaving a flat surface on the top. She was heavily plated with strips of iron two and a half inches in thickness, covering thick oak and pine planking. She was armed with four of Brooke's (English) rifled cannon, whose projectiles were steel-pointed, and at her bow was an iron beak six feet in length, to which was suspended a submarine torpedo, charged with 50 pounds of gunpowder, for blowing up any vessel she might attack.

* Captain Rodgers said his first shot took away from the Atlanta her desire to fight, and the last, her ability to get away. He captured 145 men, including officers, without losing a man himself. The Secretary of the Navy spoke of the affair as "the most marked and extraordinary in the service during the year." The Atlanta made another of the list of Confederate iron-clads which the Nationals had recently captured or destroyed.

200

PLAN FOR THE CAPTURE OF CHARLESTON.

quietly to Philadelphia, and there exhibited for awhile for the benefit of the fund of the Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon.' It is said that the cost of the Atlanta was defrayed entirely by the proceeds of the voluntary sale of their jewelry by the misguided women of the Confederate States. The example was followed at Charleston, where the building of a gun-boat was begun, with the expectation of money from similar sources, to carry it on.

Although the attack on Sumter in April was a failure, the Government was determined to renew the attempt in connection with a land force. Dupont's views were so decidedly in opposition to the measure, because he could anticipate no other result than failure again, that soon after the capture of the Atlanta, when Gillmore was preparing to move vigorously in a siege of Charleston, Dupont was relieved, and Commodore Foote was appointed his successor. The latter died in New York while on his way to his new post of duty, and Admiral Dahlgren was ordered to the command of the

JOHN A. DAHLGREN.

squadron. That officer reached Port Royal on the 6th of July, and heartily sympathizing with Gillmore in his plans, entered vigorously upon the duties assigned him.

[graphic]

3

Gillmore found Folly Island well occupied by National troops. under General Vogdes, who had employed them in preparations for future work. Through its almost impenetrable jungles he had cut roads, and it was thoroughly picketed in every part. He constructed a strong work on the southern end of it, to command the approaches down the Stono River. Another was erected on Folly River that commanded Secessionville; and at a narrow part of the island, a mile from its northern end, a line of intrenchments was cast up, with a redoubt at each end. Such was the situation on that island, soon to be made famous in history, when Gillmore arrived there, and, with the practiced eye of a skillful engineer, after traversing it, selected positions for batteries to bear the fortifications on Morris Island. His plan of campaign was quickly conceived. It was to approach Charleston by Folly and Morris Islands. To do this, he must overcome Fort Wagner, on the latter island, a very strong work, lying within twelve hundred yards of Fort Sumter, heavily

[graphic]

upon

1 See page 578, volume I.

GILLMORE'S HEAD-QUARTERS ON FOLLY ISLAND.

2 See page 202, volume II.

3 Folly Island is about seven miles in length, and not over one in width at its broadest part. On the west it is separated from James's Island by marshes traversed by Folly River, a narrow but deep stream. The eastern side borders on the ocean. Light-House inlet, which separates it from Morris Island, is five or six hundred yards wide. At the time we are considering, the island was covered with pine timber throughout nearly its whole extent, with an almost impenetrable tangled undergrowth. "I have never seen such a mass of briers and

FORTIFICATIONS ON FOLLY ISLAND.

201

armed and fully garrisoned by veterans, under Colonel Lawrence M. Keitt. This carried, Battery Gregg, on Cummings's Point, must fall as a consequence, when the National guns might be brought to bear heavily on Fort Sumter, and possibly hurl their shot and shell into the city of Charleston. To this work Gillmore now addressed himself.

1863.

The first movement of the new commander was to cause the erection of strong batteries on the northern end of Folly Island, to cover the passage of his troops over Light-House inlet. These were begun under the direction of General Vogdes, on the 15th of June, and were prosecuted with vigor under a heavy fire, frequently, from the Confederate guns on Morris Island. The Nationals were completely masked by the thick pine forest, and their foe could only guess their position and what they were about, for they were as silent as mutes. Their works were completed at the beginning of July, and were superior of their kind. They were made of sand and marsh sod. The batteries were embrasured and

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

July S.

ceeded to distract the attention of the Confederates, and mask his real design, by sending General A. H. Terry, with nearly four thousand troops, up the Stono River, to make a demonstration against James's Island, while Colonel Higginson, with some negro troops, went up the Edisto to cut the Charleston and Savannah railway, so as to prevent troops from being sent from the latter to the former place. Higgins went in the gun-boat John Adams, with two transports, but in his attempt to reach the railway he was repulsed, and returned with two hundred "contrabands," who gladly followed him. Terry's movement was successful, for it drew the attention of the Confederates to James's Island, and caused them to send re-enforcements thither from Morris Island.

с

July 10.

Thirty hours after Terry's departure, General George C. Strong silently

thorns anywhere else," wrote a conspicuous actor in the military events there. "There was not a road of any description, and the only way to pass from one end of the island to the other, was along the beach, which was not always practicable at high tides."-History of the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment, by its commander, Brevet Brigadier-General W. W. H. Davis, page 218.

This was the appearance of one of the bomb and splinter-proofs of Gillmore's works on Folly Island, at the time of the writer's visit there, in the spring of 1866. This picture is from a photograph by Samuel A. Cooley, photographer of the Fourth Army Corps.

2 See explanation of this word in this connection on page 501, volume I.

202

July 9, 1863.

⚫ July 10.

THE NATIONALS ON MORRIS ISLAND.

embarked two thousand men' in small boats, on Folly River, and rowed softly, thoroughly masked by the tall marsh grass and the shadows of night, to the junction of that stream with LightHouse inlet. The movement was unperceived by the Confederate sentinels, and the occupants of Morris Island were astounded when at dawn, the next morning, Vogdes's unsuspected batteries opened a tremendous cannonade, and Dahlgren's monitors, Weehawken, Catskill, Montauk, and Nahant, at the same time opened a cross fire, and there stood revealed a strong force ready to pass over and give battle. After a two-hours' cannonade, during which Dahlgren's guns were directed toward Fort Wagner to keep its garrison quiet, General Strong threw his men rapidly ashore in the face of a heavy fire of artillery and musketry, and by nine o'clock in the morning, after a sharp but short struggle, he had full possession of all the Confederate works on the southern end of Morris Island, with eleven guns and much camp equipage. The Confederates fled toward Fort Wagner, hotly pursued by Strong as far as a oncefine mansion, known as the Beacon House, where they came in range of the guns of the fort, and halted. Three-fourths of the island was now in possession of the Nationals. Strong's skirmishers pushed up to within musket-range of Fort Wagner. But prudence required a suspension of operations for awhile, for the weather was intensely hot, and the victorious troops had been under arms all night.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

July 11.

BEACON HOUSE.

2

Strong's troops rested the remainder

3

of the day and the night following, and at five o'clock the next morning he led them to an assault on Fort Wagner. They pressed boldly up, and had reached the parapet, when they were met by a fire so withering that they recoiled, yet without very serious loss. The Nationals. were not disheartened by the repulse, while the attack created the greatest consternation at Charleston. Mayor Macbeth, after consultation with Beauregard, "advised and earnestly requested all women and children, and other non-combatants, to leave the city as soon as possible," in anticipation of an attack; and the Governor of the State made a requisition of three thousand negroes, to work on additional fortifications for the defense of the city. The Charleston press made frantic appeals to the people that revealed its fears,*

1 These consisted of the Third New Hampshire, Sixth and Seventh Connecticut, Ninth Maine, Seventysixth Pennsylvania, four companies of the Forty-eighth New York, and a battalion of sharp-shooters.

2 This was the appearance of the Beacon House after the struggle for the possession of Fort Wagner, on the 18th of July. It was the head-quarters, for awhile, of Acting Brigadier-General W. W. H. Davis, of the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania, and was used by Gillmore as a signal station.

3 The loss of the Nationals on Morris Island since the landing of Strong, the day before, was about 150 men. Beauregard reported the Confederate loss during the same time at 300 men. The troops engaged in this assault were the brigades of Generals Strong and Seymour, and consisted of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, Forty-eighth and One Hundredth New York, Third New Hampshire, Ninth Maine, and Sixth and Seventh Connecticut.

4 The Charleston Courier urged the exertion of every effort to retake the sea-coast islands. "Failing in this," it said, "and even should Sumter become untenable, then let us resolve on a Saragossa defense of the

BATTLE ON JAMES'S ISLAND.

208

and Beauregard, as usual, issued bombastic orders, and fulminated harmless thunder of words against the "Yankee abolitionists."

It was now evident to General Gillmore that Fort Wagner was stronger than he supposed it to be, and that it could only be taken by regular approaches. He carefully calculated the chances of success, and concluded that while the Confederates might concentrate a greatly superior force on his front, the island was so narrow, with the sea on one side and a deep creek and marshes on the other, that he need not fear danger from flank movements. Besides, should the Confederates attempt an advance from Fort Wagner, Dahlgren's guns would fatally sweep them with an enfilading fire. Satisfied that he might proceed with safety, he did so, and at once cast up sheltering works in the vicinity of the Beacon House, preparatory to a bombardment and another assault on Fort Wagner.

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »