THE PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION
The force which General Sherman was fitting out at Annapolis was
destined, in conjunction with the navy, to secure a harbor on the
Southern coast to serve as a base for the blockading fleets. General
Sherman was a veteran regular officer of artillery, who had greatly
distinguished himself at the battle of Buena Vista, a thorough soldier,
a strict disciplinarian, devoted to his profession, and moreover a man
of ability, sound judgment, and true patriotism, but perhaps somewhat
deficient in enterprise. He personally applied for General Stevens, for
whom he entertained great esteem, as one of his brigade commanders. His
force numbered some twelve thousand, all new, raw volunteers, except two
regular batteries and the Highlanders, who, having fought at Bull Run,
were looked up to as veterans by the other troops, and was divided into
three brigades, commanded by Brigadier-Generals Egbert L. Viele the
first, Isaac I. Stevens the second, and Horatio G. Wright the third.
General Stevens's brigade consisted of the Highlanders, the 100th
Pennsylvania or Roundheads, Colonel Daniel Leasure; the 50th
Pennsylvania, Colonel B. C. Christ; and the 8th Michigan, Colonel
William M. Fenton. They were all brave, patriotic, and intelligent men,
the best types of American volunteers, and destined to render great and
glorious service to the very end of the war, participating in many
battles and engagements, and preserving their colors without a stain.
The Michiganders, as they were familiarly called, were largely of New
England stock, many of them farmers' boys, and had all the grit,
intelligence, and enterprise of their lineage. The 50th Pennsylvania
were Pennsylvania Dutch, descendants of the Germans who settled the
central part of the State before the Revolution, and were slower, more
heavily moulded than the others, but always steadfast and reliable. The
Roundheads came from the western, more mountainous part of the Keystone
State, and were of the vigorous Scotch-Irish stock, with many tall,
rawboned men.
The regiments were quartered in the Naval Academy buildings and grounds.
On Colonel Leasure's recommendation, General Stevens took a large brick
building as headquarters, but soon after moving into it an ambulance was
driven up to the front door, and a soldier in an advanced stage of the
smallpox, his face perfectly black and festering, was taken out of the
vehicle on a stretcher and borne into the house, which, it seems, had
been selected as a smallpox hospital. Needless to say that headquarters
fled before this visitation. General Stevens, indignant at Leasure's
carelessness in the matter, summarily ordered him out of his own
spacious quarters and took them for himself, greatly to the colonel's
disgust, who was heard to exclaim that there were too many Roundheads
about for him to submit to such an indignity; but the incident had a
good effect in showing that the new commander would stand no trifling.
The Highlanders arrived on the 18th, and the next day the troops were
taken off in small bay steamboats to the large ocean steamships anchored
two miles out, and embarked upon them. The largest of these vessels, and
second only to the Great Eastern, was the Vanderbilt, a noble side-wheel
ship of three thousand tonnage, which had recently been given the
government by Cornelius Vanderbilt, the old commodore, and was named
after him. His favorite captain, Le Favre, a skillful navigator and
accomplished gentleman, commanded her. On this fine steamer were crowded
General Stevens and staff, the Highlanders, the 8th Michigan, and a
hundred quartermaster's employees, all together over two thousand men. A
large number of surf-boats and quantities of tents and baggage were
piled in confusion on her decks, leaving scarce standing-room for the
troops. The Roundheads and one battalion of the 50th embarked on the
Ocean Queen, while Colonel Christ with the remainder of his regiment
were loaded on the Winfield Scott.
Captain and Assistant Quartermaster William Lilly here joined the
command as brigade quartermaster. He had met General Stevens during the
presidential campaign and won his confidence, of which he proved
unworthy, and owed his appointment to the general's recommendation.
General Stevens was also joined by Colonel William H. Nobles, who had
seen much service on the frontier, and whom he appointed
lieutenant-colonel of the Highlanders, but he was unequal to the
position and soon afterwards resigned. The general appointed as his
first aide-de-camp Lieutenant William T. Lusk, of the Highlanders, an
educated and high-toned gentleman, who had abandoned his studies in
Germany to fight for his country, and who proved a brave and excellent
officer, and has since achieved distinction in his profession as a
physician. The remaining members of the staff were Dr. George S. Kemble,
brigade surgeon; Captain L.A. Warfield, brigade commissary; and
Lieutenants Henry S. Taft and William S. Cogswell, signal officers.
The transports sailed on the 20th and reached Fortress Monroe the next
day. Here were awaiting them a fleet of thirty warships, under Commodore
Samuel F. Dupont, and a large number of sailing vessels laden with
munitions and stores. The expedition lay here at anchor for a week,
completing the necessary preparations. Commodore Dupont held many
conferences on his flagship, the Wabash, with General Sherman and the
brigade commanders, at which the objective point was decided upon. The
weather was fine, the sea smooth, and the blue road-stead, covered with
the great fleet, comprising every variety of vessel,--the great, grim,
black warships, with their frowning batteries; the transports, swarming
with blue-clad soldiers; the deep-laden sailing ships, with their tall
spars,--presented an impressive and animated scene, enlivened by the
numerous launches and cutters darting from ship to ship with officers
bearing dispatches or exchanging calls. One of the swiftest and nattiest
of these small craft was the captain's gig of the Vanderbilt, manned by
a crew of fine oarsmen from the Highlanders, which attracted much
attention from the army and navy alike, was the envy of other
headquarters, and was kept busy conveying General Stevens and staff over
the waters blue.
It was a fine, bracing autumn afternoon, October 29, when the great
fleet sailed out of the Chesapeake in two parallel columns a mile apart.
The giant warship Wabash led the right column, followed in single file
by the war vessels, thirty in number, a black and formidable array. The
left column was composed of the transport steamers, crowded with troops,
each towing one of the sailing-vessels, and also contained some thirty
ships. The Vanderbilt towed the Great Republic, a four-masted,
full-rigged ship of four thousand tons, the largest sailing-ship then
afloat. Besides a vast cargo of stores, she carried on her main and
upper decks a great number of artillery horses. Thus the mighty armada
steadily ploughed its way out to sea, with flags waving and bands
playing, a glorious and awe-inspiring sight; while the troops,
exhilarated by the novel and stirring scene and the excitement of
sailing to an unknown destination, their hearts swelling with the hope
and determination of soon dealing the rebel lion a mighty and perhaps
fatal blow, cheered and cheered again until they could cheer no more.
The third day a furious storm struck the combined fleet and scattered it
far and wide. At midnight, in the height of the tempest, the great
hawsers by which the Vanderbilt was towing her consort threatened to
tear off her quarters under the terrific strain of the mountain billows,
and had to be cut asunder with axes, and the Great Republic was
abandoned to her fate in the raging storm, furious sea, and black night.
When day broke no other sail was visible amid the driving and tossing
billows. Later in the day General Stevens opened the sealed orders with
which every ship was provided, to be opened in case of separation from
the fleet, in presence of Captains Le Favre, Stevens, and Lilly, and
announced that the destination and point of rendezvous was off Port
Royal, one of the finest harbors on the Southern coast, situated midway
between Charleston and Savannah. The Vanderbilt, the swiftest of the
fleet, arrived off the entrance on November 3, among the first. The
other ships came straggling in, and by the 6th were nearly all assembled
and anchored just outside the bar, save four, the Governor and Peerless,
that foundered in the storm, and the Osceola and Union, that were driven
ashore. The loss of life, however, was small under the circumstances,
being seven drowned and ninety-three captured. The 50th Pennsylvania, on
the Winfield Scott, came near going to the bottom, and were only saved
by incessant pumping and bailing, and throwing overboard the entire
cargo.
Port Royal was defended by earthworks on each side of the entrance, Fort
Walker on Hilton Head, the south side, and Fort Beauregard on Bay Point,
on the north. These were strong and well-constructed forts, with heavy
parapets, traverses, and bomb-proofs, mounted forty-one guns of large
calibre, and were garrisoned and defended by three thousand troops,
under General Thomas F. Drayton, whose brother, Captain Percival
Drayton, commanded the gunboat Pocahontas in Dupont's fleet. The enemy
had also three small gunboats in the bay, under Commodore Tatnall,
formerly an officer of the United States navy.
After reconnoissance by his gunboats, Commodore Dupont decided to attack
the forts with his fleet, and arranged with General Sherman that the
troops were to land in small boats on the open beach during the naval
bombardment and carry the works by assault, in case the navy failed to
shell the enemy out. Accordingly, on the morning of November 7 the
surf-boats, of which there were a large number, and all the boats
belonging to the vessels, were launched, and brought up alongside or
astern of the transports, and the troops of Stevens's and Wright's
brigades were provided with ammunition and one day's cooked rations, and
held in readiness to land and attack. While they awaited this movement
in high-wrought expectation, the following order was written by General
Stevens and read to them, and had a marked effect to increase their
determination and ardor:--
HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, EXPEDITIONARY CORPS,
S.S. VANDERBILT, November 7, 1861.
GENERAL ORDERS No. 5.
The brigadier-general commanding the second brigade trustfully
appeals to each man of his command this day to strike a signal blow
for his country. She has been stabbed by traitorous hands, and by
her most favored sons. Show by your acts that the hero age has not
passed away, and that patriotism still lives. Better to fall nobly
in the forlorn hope in vindication of home and nationality than to
live witnesses of the triumph of a sacrilegious cause. The Lord God
of battles will direct us; to Him let us humbly appeal this day to
vouchsafe to us his crowning mercy; and may those of us who survive,
when the evening sun goes down, ascribe to Him, and not to
ourselves, the glorious victory.
By order of BRIGADIER-GENERAL STEVENS.
HAZARD STEVENS,
_Capt. and Ass't Adj't-Gen_.
At nine o'clock on the bright, clear morning, with a smooth sea, the
great war fleet crossed the bar, and deliberately advanced to attack the
forts in a long column of single ships, while the transports lay at
anchor just outside with their decks, masts, and shrouds covered with
the troops, eagerly watching the scene. Commodore Dupont in the Wabash
led the long string of warships slowly up the middle of the bay,
receiving and replying to the fire of both forts until two miles beyond
them, then turned to the left in a wide circle and led back past Fort
Walker, at a thousand yards distance, opening upon it broadside after
broadside. At the same time a flanking column of five gunboats steamed
up the bay nearer to Bay Point and poured its broadsides into Fort
Beauregard, and, steering towards the other side, advanced against
Tatnall's fleet, driving it into Skull Creek, which cuts off Hilton Head
on the inside, and then, taking position near the shore and flanking the
fort, opened upon it a destructive fire. Meantime the main column, led
by the Wabash, was majestically and slowly passing the work, each
succeeding vessel opening its batteries upon it in turn as it came
within range, and maintaining a rapid fire as it drew past. The naval
gun fire was terrific, rising at times to a continuous roar; dense
clouds of smoke belched forth and hung about the ships, while the white
puff-balls showed where the great 11 and 9-inch shells were bursting
over and about the work. The enemy replied with a brisk and
well-maintained fire, and many of his missiles could be traced by the
great columns of water dashed up as they ricochetted across the bay
beyond the vessels. After passing down the bay as far as the depth of
water permitted, Dupont turned and again led the fleet in front of Fort
Walker, at much closer range than before, pouring upon the devoted work
a still more terrific fire. As the admiral repeated this manoeuvre for
the third time, one of the light-draught gunboats, pushing closely in at
six P.M., discovered that the enemy had fled, and sent a boat with a
small party ashore, who pulled down the rebel flag and hoisted over it
the glorious stars and stripes. What cheers then burst forth from ship
to ship of the crowded transports, what joy and relief from suspense
were felt by the officers who had so anxiously watched the bombardment
for hours, momentarily looking for orders to land and assault the works,
which were so stubbornly resisting the navy, can never be realized by
those not actors in the scene.
The flight of the enemy was panic. They left their flags flying, their
tents standing, and all their supplies. Tatnall's mosquito fleet
hastened up Skull Creek, and, with the aid of some large flatboats,
ferried the fugitives across that stream. The fact that the enemy's
retreat might have been cut off and his entire force captured, by
sending gunboats up the inner channels separating Hilton Head and Bay
Point from adjacent islands, lent wings to his flight. The opportunity
was not improved. Fort Beauregard was abandoned in equal haste, although
not subjected to nearly so severe a battering as Fort Walker. The navy
lost only thirty-one killed and wounded; that of the enemy was
sixty-six.
The morning after the bombardment the Highlanders went ashore on Bay
Point, and occupied Fort Beauregard and the deserted camp, and the rest
of the troops were landed on Hilton Head. The beach shoals very
gradually, and the men and impedimenta had to be loaded from the ocean
steamers into small boats, which took them in until they grounded, a
hundred yards or more from the beach, when the troops had to jump
overboard and wade ashore. All the camp equipage and supplies had to be
taken ashore in the arms of men detailed for the purpose, so that the
landing was a very laborious and tedious process.
The enemy's camp bore witness to his panic flight; clothing, bedding,
half-cooked provisions, even a rebel flag over one tent and a sword
inside, and in another an excellent repast, with jelly, cake, and wine,
were found abandoned. General Drayton's headquarters, in a large
building near Fort Walker, was abandoned in such haste that the horses
in the stable were left behind, and General Drayton's own charger, a
fine, handsome bay horse of medium size, but compactly built and of
great spirit and endurance, was captured here and became the favorite
horse of General Stevens. Back of the fort was a large field in sweet
potatoes, and it presented a singular appearance after the soldiers
landed and discovered it, covered with thousands of men, all digging the
tubers for dear life. General Sherman facetiously remarked that General
Drayton planted that potato-field on purpose to demoralize his army.
Immediately after landing, General Sherman held a conference with his
general officers as to undertaking an offensive movement. The enemy was
evidently demoralized, and either Charleston or Savannah might fall
before a sudden dash, and offered a tempting prize. But the general
opinion was that a movement upon either involved too great risks, and
that the first duty was to fortify and render absolutely secure the
point already gained. General Stevens alone dissented from this view. He
strenuously urged an aggressive movement inland to the mainland, then,
turning to right or left, against one of the cities. In answer to
objections, he declared that the overpowering naval force rendered
Hilton Head already secure, and it could be fortified at leisure. The
navy, too, could support an advance, and cover a withdrawal in case of
need. The country was full of flatboats used by the planters for the
transportation of cotton. Hundreds of these could be collected among the
islands by the negroes, and would furnish means of transporting the
troops up, or ferrying them across the inland waters, which, instead of
an obstacle, could thus be made an aid to the movement. But the cautious
counsel prevailed, and General Sherman reaped the reward of his lack of
enterprise by being superseded a few months later, after rendering
faithful service. Certainly he lost a great opportunity. With such
subordinates as Generals Stevens and Wright, and the navy to assist, he
might have taken Savannah, and could not have been badly damaged, even
if repulsed. General Stevens had visited Savannah as an engineer officer
shortly after the Mexican war, and his habit of acquiring information
about every subject that interested him entitled his views to more
attention. But, after all, the general, like the poet, is born, not
made, and Sherman may have been wisely governed by his own limitations.
As will be seen hereafter, this idea of a movement inland, and making
use of flatboats, took a deep hold of General Stevens's mind.
He placed his brigade in camp a mile back from the beach, and was given
charge of an extensive line of works, laid out by Captain Q.A. Gilmore,
the chief engineer officer. He pushed this work with his accustomed
vigor, detailing daily the greater part of his force as working parties.
He had a full quota of officers turn out with the men, the details
verified every morning, and kept some of his staff always on the work.
The troops, seeing that no shirking was tolerated, gave diligent labor,
and within a month the line, over a mile in length, was completed. The
Highlanders, however, continued to occupy Bay Point, and made many
scouting expeditions on neighboring islands. Considerable sickness broke
out among the troops on Hilton Head,--smallpox, measles, and
typhoid,--and there were many deaths, so that the practice of playing
the dead march at funerals was forbidden, notwithstanding which the
troops were generally in fine condition and spirits. General Stevens
himself had a severe attack of bilious fever, from which he but slowly
recovered. The following letters give a pleasant sketch of life at
Hilton Head:--
HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, E.C.,
HILTON HEAD, November 28, 1861.
MY DEAREST WIFE,--We are getting on in the most quiet manner
possible. As I wrote you a day or two since, my brigade is almost
exclusively occupied in throwing up intrenchments. It has been hard
at work the last ten days, working even the last Sunday. I have
to-day nearly thirteen hundred men in the trenches. We are living at
my headquarters quite comfortably. For instance, to-day is
considered a sort of Thanksgiving Day, being the day set apart for
Thanksgiving in some of the States. I have for dinner, at half past
five o'clock, roast turkey, boiled turkey, and a fine boiled ham.
This ought to be pretty satisfactory. In our stores we have two
dozen fine turkeys, growing in better condition every day. These
turkeys we buy from the negroes. We have plenty of beef and mutton
and sweet potatoes, also oysters and fish.
HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, E.C.,
HILTON HEAD, December 5, 1861.
MY DEAR WIFE,--We are enjoying fine weather, and the health of the
troops is daily improving. My brigade is still at work on the
intrenchments. They have done an immense amount of work, much to the
satisfaction of General Sherman. Hazard takes great interest in
everything. We are living quite comfortably; have an old house with
a fireplace, which answers for my office and Hazard's office and our
quarters. Hazard has three and sometimes four clerks, two
messengers, and, when needed, an officer to assist him. Our mess
consists of the brigade quartermaster, Captain Lilly; the brigade
surgeon, Dr. Kemble; my aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Lusk; Hazard, and
myself. We have a most excellent cook, brought from New York, and a
good dining-room servant picked up here. We have our breakfast at
seven o'clock, lunch at twelve, and dinner between half past five
and six. How long we shall remain here, I cannot form an
idea,--probably some months. We are most wanting in books. I must
also get some more military books, and now regret I left so many
behind me. Hazard is in the trenches to-day. I keep a large force
out, and all my staff that can be spared.
[Illustration: PORT ROYAL AND SEA ISLANDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA]