THE CAPTURE OF PORT ROYAL
A FLEET OF SEVENTEEN SHIPS, CARRYING 155 GUNS, SENT TO TAKE A HARBOR
THAT WOULD MAKE A CONVENIENT NAVAL STATION FOR THE ATLANTIC
BLOCKADERS--THERE WERE TWO “EXCEEDINGLY WELL-BUILT EARTHWORKS”
“RATHER HEAVILY ARMED” DEFENDING THE CHANNEL, BUT ONE PART OF THE
SQUADRON ATTACKED THEM IN FRONT, ANOTHER ENFILADED THEM, AND IN
LESS THAN FIVE HOURS THE CONFEDERATES FLED FOR LIFE--A HEAVY GALE
WEATHERED WITH SMALL LOSS--INTERESTING INCIDENTS OF THE BATTLE.
Within a month after the chief Confederate ports on the Atlantic coast
had been blockaded, the imperative need of a nearby naval station,
where ships could lie in a harbor and make repairs and take on coal,
was manifest. To run away north from Charleston and Savannah to Hampton
Roads, every time coal was needed, was something that could not be
tolerated. For, as the reader will remember, the majority of the
steamers of those days could carry no more coal than would last them
for a week or ten days under steam. And what was worse, the machinery
was always going wrong, even though steam-pressures were so low that
steam-chests were known to burst inward on the creation of a sudden
vacuum. The capture of Hatteras Inlet, in a small measure supplied this
want. Vessels drawing no more than thirteen feet of water could make
a harbor there in any but the worst weather. But because the majority
of the blockading ships drew much more than this, the government was
compelled to provide a deeper port. Fortunately, “a harbor sufficient
to contain the largest fleet in the world” lay right where it was
needed. It was a little-known harbor, in those days, even among
shipping merchants, for no great town overlooked its waters, and it was
visited only by coasters. It lay within the State of South Carolina,
about one-third of the distance from Savannah harbor to Charleston, and
it was called very properly Port Royal. Although neglected entirely by
commerce, it was really the best harbor on the Southern coast. The bar
that guarded it lay well out at sea and had an ample depth of water
over it. The channel between Hilton Head on the south and Bay Point on
the north was a mile wide. Although “the land hereabouts is generally
low, the trees are high,” and “a small grove of trees, which tower
above all the other trees like a high-crowned hat,” marked the entrance
to the harbor unmistakably, so that even a stranger could easily work
his way in unless a gale prevailed.
[Illustration: S. F. Dupont.
_From a photograph._]
Accordingly, the government decided to take possession of Port
Royal, and in October, 1861, began to gather a fleet of warships and
transports at Hampton Roads for that purpose. On October 10th Flag
Officer Samuel Francis Dupont hoisted his flag on the steam frigate
_Wabash_, of which Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was commander. The squadron
under him included the _Susquehanna_, Capt. J. L. Lardner; _Mohican_,
Capt. S. W. Godon; _Seminole_, Capt. John P. Gillis; _Pocahontas_,
Capt. Percival Drayton; _Pawnee_, Capt. R. W. Wyman; _Unadilla_, Capt.
N. Collins; _Ottawa_, Capt. T. H. Stevens; _Pembina_, Capt. J. P.
Bankhead; _Seneca_, Capt. Daniel Ammen, and the _Vandalia_, Capt. F. L.
Haggerty. All of these were regular warships, and the _Vandalia_ was
the only sailing ship in the squadron. In addition to these, there
were six merchant steamers that had been purchased and armed for use
as warships. The warships proper carried 125 guns, all told, of which
seven were eleven-inch Dahlgrens, and seventy-nine were eight-inch or
better--most of them being nine-inch. The converted merchantmen carried
from two to eight thirty-two-pounders each, save one, the _Isaac
Smith_, which carried a rifled thirty-pounder. A force of soldiers,
12,000 strong, under Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, was detailed to coöperate
with the squadron, and transports were provided to carry them, while
coal-laden schooners were gathered in order to keep the steamers in
fuel.
[Illustration: C. R. P. Rodgers.
_From a photograph._]
The older readers of this will remember very well the excitement
occasioned throughout the nation by the gathering of this vast fleet
at Hampton Roads. For the administration had determined to keep the
destination of the expedition a secret, and it succeeded so well that
the mystery remained until after the fleet was gone.
[Illustration: S. W. Godon.
_From a painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._]
On October 28th the _Vandalia_ sailed away from Hampton Roads at
the head of the coal fleet of twenty-five schooners, the schooner
captains having been ordered to go to Tybee Bar, Savannah, in case
they parted company. The next day, October 29, 1861, the squadron, the
most powerful aggregation of fighting ships the United States had ever
brought together, steamed slowly out of the Chesapeake and headed away
to the South “after considerable delay in forming a double echelon line
outside.” All that night and all the next day the squadron was easily
kept in hand, but during the next night the easterly breeze hardened
and the seas began to grow. As the squadron passed Cape Hatteras, on
the 31st of October, two of the transports touched on the Diamond Reef.
No damage was done, but as the squadron continued down the coast the
wind canted to the southeast, and before nightfall of Friday, November
1st, a hurricane was upon them. The flag officer gave orders for each
captain to look out for himself, and at that the fleet slowly scattered
as the ships were headed into the gale.
That was a night never to be forgotten by any landsman afloat in the
fleet. As the seas rose the foam and spoondrift turned into tossing,
phosphorescent flames that swept across the black water, adding terrors
by their weird light to the fears already excited by the laboring of
the ships. The warships were well found and able, of course, but a
sorrier fleet of transports was never sent to sea, for it was composed
in great part of inland water steamers, lighters, and ferryboats, and
here they were trying to live in a Hatteras hurricane.
The first to suffer disaster was the transport _Governor_, a
side-wheeler, carrying a battalion of marines, 700 strong. As night
came on, the big arching timbers known as the hog-braces gave way one
after another. The marines and the crew worked together to repair
the damage, with partial success; but she rolled so heavily that her
smoke-stack was pitched over the rail, and it was then impossible to
keep a full head of steam on, and the pilot could no longer control
her. In swinging off into the trough of the sea, she was strained so
badly that the seams were opened. The leak grew worse and the rudder
chains parted, and there she lay, absolutely helpless and steadily
filling with water, in spite of the labors of hundreds of willing men
at the pumps and with buckets.
At last daylight came, and with it help. The sailing ship _Sabine_,
Captain Ringgold, hove in sight. It was known that the ships were on
soundings, and the _Sabine_ anchored, with the _Governor_ astern of her
also at anchor. Then the _Sabine_ paid out chain until she was near
enough for a transfer of the men. Seven were killed by being caught
between the ships or tumbling into the sea, but the rest were saved,
with their arms. The _Governor_ sank. The transport _Peerless_ was
also lost, but her people, twenty-six in number, were taken off by the
_Mohican_, Captain Godon.
[Illustration: Josiah Tattnall.
_From an engraving by Hall._]
Off Charleston the squadron took the _Susquehanna_ from the blockaders,
and on Monday morning, November 4th, the flagship, with twenty-five
other vessels of the fleet, came to anchor off the bar at Port Royal,
and here they were eventually joined by all the others that survived
the gale.
The storm was widespread, and the people at the North watched the
clouds with an anxiety that was equalled by the hope of the South.
Moreover, it was the first great expedition the nation had undertaken,
and the people were unused to war.
Meantime, some one in the confidence of the government had betrayed
the secret, and on November 1st, two days after the fleet sailed, the
Confederate Secretary of War telegraphed a warning to the forts at Port
Royal and the Confederate fleet at Savannah. The Confederate squadron
was under Commodore Josiah Tattnall, he who braved the fire of the
Mexican works at Vera Cruz. “His flagship consisted of an old passenger
St. John’s steamer, mounting one 32-pound gun forward and one 18-pound
gun aft. Then came two ancient, used-up tug-boats, each mounting one
32-pound gun; the next, a rotten North River cattle-boat, mounting one
18-pound gun; a dwarfish tug-boat from the James River, slightly armed,
bringing up the rear.”
It was a fleet in which machinery and men were wholly unprotected and,
for the purposes of war, was worthless. The Confederate forts were
two in number--one, on Hilton Head, on the south side of the channel,
called Fort Walker, and the other, on Bay Point, opposite, called Fort
Beauregard. These two forts were two and five-eighths miles apart.
As described by Scharf, “they were exceedingly well-built earthworks
and were rather heavily armed, Fort Walker mounting 23 guns and Fort
Beauregard 18, a total of 41; but 22 of these were only 32-pounders or
lighter pieces, so that there were in fact but 19 guns fit to cope with
the at least 100 heavy rifles and shell-guns of the Federal ships. Gen.
Thomas F. Drayton was in command of both posts, with his headquarters
at Hilton Head, and Col. R. M. Dunovant had immediate command at Fort
Beauregard. The defences were garrisoned by about 2,000 men, but this
force was very deficient in trained artillerists, and a small supply of
shot and shell forbade much practice with the larger guns.”
[Illustration: Plan of Fort Walker on Hilton Head.
_From a drawing by R. Sturgis, Jr., in 1861._]
John N. Maffitt, a better authority on the Confederate side, says that
“the construction of these works had been reprehensibly procrastinated
until the ninth hour, when, in haste and confusion, raw troops,
strangers to any ordnance above a 12-pound field piece, were hurried
into the imperfectly-constructed earthworks to battle without drill or
target practice against a masterly array of force.
“The excuse offered by the commanding general for neglecting to
exercise and familiarize his artillerists with target-drill was the
scarcity of ammunition. The commodore replied: ‘Half the allowance
spent in practice will more likely insure good results for the balance
in fighting.’”
Within a few hours after the flagship reached the bar at Port Royal,
all but two or three of the government force was safely anchored
inside. They found that the channel marks had all been removed or
placed to deceive. Capt. Charles H. Davis and Mr. Boutelle of the coast
survey went in the coast survey steamer _Vixen_ to replace the buoys,
being guarded by five of the smaller warships. When this had been done
four of the gunboats--the _Ottawa_, the _Seneca_, the _Pembia_, and the
_Penguin_--anchored within three miles of Fort Walker.
Meantime Commodore Tattnall had brought his river-boat squadron through
the inland waters to help defend Port Royal, and seeing the gunboats
within reach, he made a dash at them, regardless of the character of
his own ships. It was like Tattnall to do that; but he was fighting his
own countrymen now, and not Mexicans or Chinese. Capt. T. H. Stevens,
of the _Seneca_, who was senior officer, without waiting for orders
from the flagship, got up anchor, and with the four gunboats headed in
to meet the Confederates. Of course the encounter could have but one
result, for the government force was much the greater, and after Lieut.
Daniel Ammen had fired an eleven-inch shell into Tattnall’s _Savannah_,
Tattnall turned and ran. And that was the end of the offensive warfare
waged by that Confederate squadron.
The plan of attack chosen by Flag Officer Dupont was to divide his
force into two squadrons. The first included the _Wabash_, the
_Susquehanna_, the _Mohican_, the _Seminole_, the _Pawnee_, the
_Unadilla_, the _Ottawa_, the _Pembina_, and the _Vandalia_ in tow
of the _Isaac Smith_, a steam gunboat that had been obliged to throw
overboard all but one of her guns in the gale, and so was useless for
any other purpose than that of a tug. The smaller squadron included
the _Bienville_, the _Seneca_, the _Curlew_, the _Penguin_, and the
_Augusta_, of which all but the _Seneca_ were converted merchantmen
carrying thirty-two-pounders; the _Seneca_, being armed with one
eleven-inch Dahlgren and a twenty-pounder rifle, besides two howitzers,
was the only one of much consequence for attacking an earthwork.
The larger squadron was to steam in past the fort on Hilton Head (on
the south side of the channel), at a distance, when abreast, of 800
yards, and bombard it while passing in; the small squadron was to keep
at the north side of the larger one and give such attention as it might
at long range to Fort Beauregard over on the north side of the channel.
When the forts had been passed, the larger squadron was to turn back
and steam out past Hilton Head, firing as before, while the little
squadron remained in the harbor to head off any attack from Commodore
Tatnall, and, what was of more importance as the event proved, to
attack the forts from the rear.
For both forts had been planned to face the roadstead and open sea, and
very little had been done to protect the landward faces from an attack
from within the harbor.
An offshore gale of wind prevented an attack on the 6th, but the
morning of the 7th came with scarcely a ripple on the sea, and at 9
o’clock the two squadrons of warships, in the order named, headed with
a flood tide in close order to attack the fort on Hilton Head. They
steamed along at six knots per hour, and at 9.26 o’clock precisely a
puff of white smoke was seen on the parapet of the fort at the south.
Instantly an answering puff was seen on Fort Beauregard at the north,
and a round black ball from each came bounding over the smooth water,
to fall short and sink out of sight. In a minute the _Wabash_ replied
with her two big ten-inch pivots, the _Susquehanna_ followed with an
eight-inch pivot, and in ten minutes more the whole fleet was engaged.
A hundred huge shells were falling upon and around the fort, burying
themselves for a moment in its walls, and then bursting and throwing
great masses of sand in the air--masses of sand that fell upon the
gunners and the guns there.
But, though inexperienced in war, and but slightly trained in the
handling of great guns, the men within the forts were a sturdy host,
and fought back in a way that must excite the admiration of all who
read the story. The ships were drawing nearer steadily, and there was
need for rapid work. To bring one cartridge from the magazine every
time a gun was to be loaded required too much time, and the gun’s crews
in the forts, regardless of the bursting shells that fell thickly
around them, brought cartridges by the armful, and piled them beside
the guns.
Nevertheless, they labored in vain. Fire as swiftly as they might and
as accurately as they could, the majestic column of steamers passed
in with the tide, unimpeded, until well within the harbor, when the
longer column turned slowly around and came back, heading to pass this
time within 600 yards instead of 800 as before. Sweeping out to sea,
they came back again, passing once more at the shorter and more deadly
range, and then a number of them came to anchor at a distance of 1,200
yards from the fort, and began a steady fire at a sure range, while
“the _Vandalia_, in tow of the _Isaac Smith_ by a long hawser, swept
in long, graceful, but inconvenient curves past and among these
vessels. The _Unadilla_, whose machinery was disabled, pursued her
eccentric orbit, her commanding officer hailing and requesting other
vessels to get out of the way, as he ‘could not stop.’ As he swept
by, again and again the droll song of the man with the cork leg that
would not let him tarry was brought to mind.” So says Ammen. But while
the _Unadilla_ amused the government forces she was not amusing the
Confederates, for she kept her batteries working as relentlessly as her
machinery worked.
[Illustration:
Fort Walker.
_Susquehanna._
_Wabash._
_Bienville._
_Ottawa._
_Curlew._
_Seneca._
Fort Beauregard.
Bombardment of Port Royal, S. C.
_From an engraving by Ridgeway of a drawing by Parsons._]
And then came the steamer _Pocahontas_, under Capt. Percival Drayton,
a Southern-born naval officer whose regard for his oath had prevented
his deserting the flag. The _Pocahontas_ had been delayed at sea by
the great gale, but although she arrived too late to join in the
procession, she ran in close to the beach southeast of the fort,
and, stopping there, opened an enfilading fire. There was a single
thirty-two-pounder on this flank of the fort, and Gen. Thomas Drayton,
commanding the fort, had it trained on the _Pocahontas_. General
Drayton on shore and Captain Drayton afloat, brothers, were firing on
each other. But the gun ashore was knocked to pieces by a shot from the
ship, and thereafter the fire of the _Pocahontas_ began to drive the
Confederates from their guns, for there were no traverses between the
guns to protect the men from an enfilading fire.
Meantime the smaller squadron left within opened an enfilading fire on
both the Hilton Head fort and Fort Beauregard on the north side of the
channel. “This enfilading fire on so still a sea annoyed and damaged
us excessively,” says General Drayton in his report. It became more
annoying still as time passed, for the ebb tide began to run, and the
gunboats were swept down until within 400 yards of the forts, and shots
from even the howitzers began to tell with deadly effect. It was a
storm that no force of men could stand. By 1.15 P.M., according to one
account, and by 2 o’clock at the latest, “all but three of the guns
on the water front had been disabled, and only 500 pounds of powder
[remained] in the magazine” of the Hilton Head fort. The work of the
fleet was done. The Confederates began to evacuate the fort on Hilton
Head. Lookouts on the _Ottawa_ were the first to see the men leaving
the fort, and signals were soon flying to announce the fact. In a
moment the _Pembina_ was signalling the same story, while men who ran
aloft on the _Wabash_ hailed the deck to confirm the news.
[Illustration:
Fort Walker.
_Vandalia._
_Susquehanna._
_Seminole._
_Wabash._
_Bienville._
Fort Beauregard.
Bombardment and Capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard, November 7,
1861.
_From an engraving by Perine._]
At this the order to cease firing fluttered in the air. The _Wabash_
and the _Susquehanna_ steamed close in where their huge broadsides
would bear directly on the fort, and Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was sent in
a boat to make an examination.
“The entire fleet, now resting on its guns, watched the whaleboat
pull out from the wing of the huge frigate and make its way like a
cockleshell toward the grim and silent fort. Thousands of eyes centered
on the little boat with increasing interest as she drew nearer the
shore. Her keel soon grated on the beach, and the officers were seen to
jump out, approach the fort and enter, and for a time they were lost to
view. Then Commander Rodgers was seen scrambling up the highest part
of the ramparts, carrying the American colors with him; and at the
first glimpse of the beautiful ensign the long suspense gave place to
tremendous cheers from every craft in the fleet.” So says Maclay.
Although the main attack had been made on the Hilton Head fort, the
one at the north had received attention at long range from the larger
squadron, and the gunboats within the harbor had enfiladed it. It had
suffered so much, in fact, that the troops abandoned it as soon as
they saw that Hilton Head had surrendered. Vessels that were sent to
reconnoitre found the flag down, and the next morning Capt. Daniel
Ammen of the _Seneca_ hoisted the American flag over the building that
had been used as headquarters there. Of his experience Ammen has
written as follows:
“He went into the house without a suspicion of possible injury, and
found everything had been removed. The earthworks and magazines were
hastily examined, and the encampment under the pine trees half a mile
distant was then visited.
“Returning to the vicinity of the earthworks, where our flag had been
hoisted an hour before, a dull explosion was heard, a cloud of smoke
went up, and when it passed away there was no vestige of the small
frame house upon which our flag had been hoisted. A sailor walking
near had fallen into the snare by his foot striking a wire fastened to
a peg, through which a ‘spur tube’ had exploded a quantity of powder
placed under the floor of the house. The sailor was knocked down and
stunned for a few minutes.”
The government loss in the fight was eight killed, and six seriously
and seventeen slightly wounded. The Confederates lost “eleven killed,
forty-eight wounded and four missing.”
Admiral Porter says that “the victory at Port Royal put new life into
Union hearts.” It “gave the powers of Europe notice that we could and
would win back the forts that had been filched from us.” It “showed
conclusively that the time-honored theory that one gun on shore was
equal to five on shipboard no longer held good.” And of Dupont he says
that “all the qualities of a great commander were possessed in an
eminent degree” by him.
The harbor of Port Royal remained under the flag. The adjoining waters
were patrolled by government gunboats, and Tybee Island and other
approaches to Savannah soon fell into government hands. Later on Port
Royal was used as a base for the operations against Charleston, which
will be described further on.