The siege of Charleston and the operations on the south Atlantic coast in the war amoung the states

Front matter

X I 1

CHornell Interattg IGtbrar^

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE

Foreword

BY THE AUTHOR'S DAUGHTER

The following brief historical study is a fragment of a work which was intended to cover the operations against Charleston from their beginning to their consummation. The author, General Samuel Jones, late of the Army of the Confederate States, died before its completion and before he had reached the consideration of his own services in the defense of Charleston. The work is published from an unfinished manuscript left among the author's papers, and after the lapse of a number of years. It is offered now in the belief that it will be found of value and interest to the student of military history.

General Samuel Jones was born December 17, 1 8 19, at Woodfield, the plantation home of his parents, in Powhatan County, Virginia. His father, Samuel Jones, was a nephew and ward of Governor William Giles, of Virginia, under whose care he was brought up, and a graduate of Princeton College. General Jones' mother was Ann Moseley, daughter of Mr. Edward Moseley, of Powhatan County. General Jones was appointed a cadet at West Point Military Academy from Virginia July i, 1837, and was graduated and promoted to brevet second lieutenant July I, 1 841, and to be second lieutenant in the Second Artillery September 28, 1841. His first duty was on the Maine frontier, at Houlton, pending the Disputed Territory controversy. He was on duty at West Point, 1846-51, as assistant professor of mathematics and assistant instructor in artillery and infantry tactics. He was appointed assistant to the Judge Advocate of the Army at Washington and continued in the discharge of the duties of his position until he resigned his commission in the Army of the United States April 27, 1861. On May i, 1861, he was made Major of Artillery in the military force of Virginia and later promoted to be Colonel. On July 22, 1 861, he was made Chief of Artillery and Ordnance of the Army of Northern Virginia. He served on the staff of General Beauregard at the first battle of Manassas, and was promoted to be Brigadier General July 22, 1861, and appointed to the command of the brigade of General Bartow, which had lost its gallant commander on the field of Manassas. (The brigade consisted of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Georgia, and the Fourth Kentucky Regiments of Infantry and Alberto's Artillery.) On January 22, 1862, General Jones was appointed to the command of the department of which Pensacola was the headquarters. He was promoted to be Major General May 10, 1862, and on September 23, 1862, was assigned to the command of the Department of East Tennessee. From April to October, 1864, he was in command of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and from January to May, 1865, of the Department of Florida and South Georgia. Here he made one of the last stands of the Confederacy, and held his position until the surrender at Appomattox.

General Jones was an accomplished soldier and gentleman, proficient in the sciences which entered into his military education, ardently attached to his profession of arms, and true to its highest ideals of conduct. In private life he possessed in a high degree the qualities which win and keep affection and esteem.

Emily Read Jones.

Washington, D. C, September 2, 191 1.

Contents

PAGE

Chapter I 13

Ordinance of Secession — South Carolina Secedes — Fort Moultrie dismantled — Major Anderson transfers command to Fort Sumter — South Carolina takes possession of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney — Star of the West fired on — Dissensions in President's Cabinet — Virginian Peace Conferences — Inauguration of Lincoln as President — Shall Sumter be evacuated?

Chapter II 31

Sumter to be reinforced — Batteries erected on Morris and Sullivan Islands — General Beauregard assigned to command in Charleston — Charleston's defenses strengthened — Fort Sumter prepares for assault — Beauregard demands surrender of Sumter — Refused — Sumter fired on — War fleet unable to succor Anderson — Evacuation of Sumter.

Chapter III 47

War in earnest — South Atlantic Coast invested — Admiral DuPont in command — Fleet scattered — Hilton Head's defenses — Forts Beauregard and Walker attacked — Masterly evolutions of fleet — Colonel Wagner disabled — Fort Walker taken — Fort Beauregard evacuated — Sherman occupies Hilton Head.

PAGE

Chapter IV 6i

Port Royal occupied — Panic of inhabitants — Looting Beaufort — Tybee Island — Gunboat reconnoissance of South Carolina waters — General Lee in command of military department — South Carolina's military force — Want of artillery — Scarcity of arms.

Chapter V 74

Confederate defense centered on Charleston — Military districts — Sherman's broad opportunities — Capture of Savannah planned — Delays — Fernandina occupied — Jacksonville and St. Augustine abandoned — Reduction of Fort Pulaski planned — Difficulties of approval — Fort Pulaski — Siege of Pulaski — Reduction and surrender.

Chapter VI 87

Blockade — Lack of Confederate resources — Inferiority of equipment — Charleston's strategic value — Investment of Charleston — Charleston and Savannah Railroad — Denfenses of railroad — James Island — Unsuccessful assault — Vigor of Confederate fire — Confederate position again assaulted — Engagement at Secessionville — Federal reports of action — Federal Republic — Within the Confederate lines.

Chapter VII 117

Operations on the South Atlantic Coast — General Hunter's policy — Expedition up the St. John's — Capture of St. John's Bluff — General Hunter is succeeded by Major General Ormesby Mitchell — Expedition toward Pocotaligo — Engagement at Frampton's plantation and Pocotaligo — Negro troops — General Saxton's activities — Contraband.

THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON ii

PAGE

Chapter VIII 143

Strengthening the blockade — Palmetto State and Chicora — Blockading fleet attacked — Result of engagement — Federal reports — Blockade raised — Foreign consul's report — Diversity of statements — Capture of the Isaac Smith.

Chapter IX 164

The Merrimac — The monitors — Fort McAlister — Advance on Charleston — Fort Sumter again assailed — Ironclads in action — Result of Confederate fire to ironclads — Report of action — Confederate loss — Review of the engagement — Lincoln's dispatch — Feeling in the North — Investment of Charleston postponed.

Chapter X 190

Federal lack of co-operation — Army and navy at odds — Hunter and DuPont relieved of commands — Gillmore in command of army — Dahlgren commands navy — Topography of Charleston harbor and city — Gillmore's plan of operations — Strength of the defense — Attack on Morris Island — Success of movement — Confederate loss — Assault of Battery Wagner — Repulse — Loss on both sides.

Chapter XI 222

Battery Wagner's armament increased — Its importance in the defense of Charleston — Attack on Federal position — Success — Wagner again bombarded — Whole Confederate defenses engaged — Terrific fire — Scenes in Charleston — Suffering of the besieged — Bayonet assault — Repulse — Confederate loss — Federal loss — Bombardment continues.

PAGE

Chapter XII 247

Assault of Wagner abandoned — Its reduction by siege planned — Fort Sumter again bombarded — Siege operations — Federal defenses — Death of Captain Wampler — Sumter silenced — The "Swamp Angel" — Surrender of Sumter and Morris Island demanded — Charleston bombarded.

Chapter XIII 262

Resumption of operations against Wagner — Siege lines tightened — Losses and sick list enormous — North clamors for reduction of Charleston — Night attack on Wagner — Repulse — Wagner bombarded — Horrors of the siege — Evacuation of Morris Island — Confederate; loss.

Chapter XIV 278

Dahlgren demands surrender o f Fort Sumter — Fort Moultrie engaged — Assault of Fort Sumter — Disastrous result — Army and navy mutually jealous — Obstacles in approach to Charleston — Can the harbor be entered? — Second bombardment of Fort Sumter — Sumter still resists — What now? — Operations against Charleston abandoned.

Chapter I

Ordinance of Secession — South Carolina Secedes — Fort Moultrie dismantled — Major Anderson transfers command to Fort Sumter — South Carolina takes possession of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney — Star of the West fired on — Dissensions in President's Cabinet — Virginian Peace Conferences — Inauguration of Lincoln as President — Shall Sumter be evacuated?

When, on the 20th of December, i860, the representatives of the people of South Carolina, in convention assembled, passed by a unanimous vote an Ordinance of Secession dissolving the connection of that State with the Government of the United States, Charleston which for a long time had been one of the most important seaports on the Atlantic coast of America, became a point of increased interest and solicitude both in this country and abroad.

Of the constitutional questions involved in the act of secession it is no part of the writer's purpose to treat. He proposes to give with the circumstances leading to them only a connected narrative of the principal military and naval operations against Charleston and on the South Atlantic coast which followed the secession of South Carolina and ten other Southern States.

Immediately on the withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union, — indeed for many weeks before the passage of the Ordinance of Secession, — the condition of the military defenses of Charleston harbor became most naturally a question of grave importance. At that time Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, was the only one of the forts constructed for the defense of the harbor that was occupied by United States troops. It was garrisoned by Companies E and H of First Regiment United States Artillery, Major Robert Anderson, of that regiment, commanding, the aggregate force present being less than eighty men.

When Congress met in December it was generally understood that the convention of the people of South Carolina which had been called to meet at Columbia on the 17th would surely and speedily pass an Ordinance of Secession. In anticipation of that event the representatives in Congress from that State called upon the President, Mr. Buchanan, and assured him that their State would in no way molest the forts until time and opportunity could be had for the consideration and amicable adjustment of all questions growing out of the altered relations between the State and general government, provided the latter would not in the meantime send reinforcements to, or change the military status in, the harbor of Charleston. The President declined to give any formal pledge in regard to the course he would pursue, but it is claimed, on what authority need not be stated here, that he approved of the suggestions, and that an informal understanding was arrived at to the effect that the military status in Charleston harbor should remain unchanged pending negotiations for the amicable adjustment of all questions relating to public property, including the forts within the limits of the State. And to the end that there might be no needless delay in the settlement of those important questions, one of the first acts of the convention after passing the Ordinance of Secession was to depute Mr. Robert W. Barnwell, Mr. James H. Adams, and Hon. James L. Orr, eminent citizens of the State, to proceed to the city of Washington "to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States, as agents of the Confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and generally to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington."

On the nth of December, a few days after the interview between the President and the representatives of South Carolina, instructions were sent from the War Department to Major Anderson, in accordance with the understanding claimed to have been agreed on. They were in substance that he should carefully avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression, and to that end he was instructed, not without evident and imminent necessity to occupy any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude. At the same time he was ordered to hold possession of the forts in the harbor, and if attacked "to defend himself to the last extremity," or, as subsequently modified, "as long as any reasonable hope remained of saving the fort." His force was obviously too small to occupy more than one of the three forts in the harbor, but an attack on, or attempt to take possession of, any one he should regard as an act of hostility, and in that event he was authorized to occupy that one of the forts which in his judgment could be most easily defended. He was further authorized to take this precautionary measure whenever he might have tangible evidence of a design on the part of the authorities of South Carolina to proceed to any hostile act.

Those instructions are such as are not infrequently given by a military superior to an inferior, when the former has not, or does not choose to express, a clear and distinct purpose as to what is to be done by the latter. In such cases the instructions are so worded as in any event to shield the one who gives, and throw the responsibility of action on the one who has to execute them.

It was as well known at the War Department as to Major Anderson, that Fort Sumter could at that time be more easily and securely held than could

Fort Moultrie. If Major Anderson had remained at Moultrie, tlie weaker post, and had he been attacked, and his post captured, he would have been liable to censure under his instructions. Under the same instructions, if he abandoned the weaker and occupied the stronger fort, he thereby became open to censure for taking a "position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude,"

Major Anderson was in the embarrassing position which besets a soldier "when the bugle gives an uncertain sound." He ardently desired to avoid, if possible, a hostile collision, and he believed — or apprehended — that a collision would occur if he remained at Fort Moultrie. He was a well trained and tried soldier, and an accomplished gentleman, with a high and scrupulous sense of honor. He acted as might have been expected of such an officer so circumstanced.

On the morning of the 27th of December Charleston and Washington and the whole country were startled by the announcement that during the preceding night Major Anderson had dismantled Fort Moultrie, spiked the guns, burned the carriages, cut down the flagstaff, and transferred his little command to Fort Sumter. An explanation of his course was immediately demanded by the Secretary of War, and as promptly given. Anderson replied that he had reason to believe the authorities of South Carolina designed to proceed to a hostile act. He abandoned Fort Moultrie because he was certain that if attacked, his garrison would be sacrificed and the command of the harbor lost. He had spiked his guns and burned their carriages to prevent their being used against himself ; that if attacked, his garrison would never have surrendered without a fight; and he had felt it to be his solemn duty to remove his command from a fort which he could not probably hold longer than forty-eight or sixty hours, to one in which his power of resistance was greatly increased. And he might have added, if it would have been respectful, that he could hold Sumter long enough to give the Administration time to decide on the course it would pursue in the critical emergency and assume the responsibility which properly belonged to it instead of devolving it on one of its subordinate officers.

This act of Major Anderson produced serious complications both in the political and military States. The government of South Carolina, regarding it as a violation of the pledge, expressed or implied, to maintain the status quo, immediately took possession of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney and other public property. And the political excitement throughout the country was greatly heightened.

As yet South Carolina was the only State which had seceded, and it was by no means certain that she would not continue to be alone in that movement. The course of Major Anderson and the attitude assumed by the Government in Washington went far toward precipitating secession in other States. Its effect in Georgia was quickly manifested. There was a fort — Pulaski — at the entrance to the Savannah River which was not garrisoned, but in the care of an ordnance sergeant. What more probable, judging by what had just occurred in Charleston harbor, than that the Government of the United States would speedily throw a garrison into Fort Pulaski and thus close the entrance from the sea to Savannah in the event of the secession of Georgia? Excitement ran high in the State, especially in Savannah. Governor Brown of that State had in the previous November called a convention of the people of the State to meet on the i6th of January, but long before the convention could meet the fort which commanded the approach to the chief city of the State would be occupied by United States troops unless steps were taken to prevent It. Assurances came from trusted representatives in Washington that the United States Government would resort to coercive measures, and produced the profoundest sensation. Notwithstanding that the State was still in the Union and its ultimate secession extremely doubtful, leading citizens of Savannah had resolved to seize Fort Pulaski without waiting for the assembling of the convention and its doubtful action, or for the sanction of the Executive of the State. Somewhat more moderate coujisel, however, prevailed, and it was agreed to await the action of the Governor, who, on an urgent request from the Mayor of Savannah, hastened to that city, where he arrived on the evening of January 2. Late In the night, and after mature deliberation, he ordered Colonel Alexander R. Lawton, commanding the First Georgia Volunteers, to take possession of Fort Pulaski, "and to hold It against all persons, to be abandoned only under orders from me or under compulsion by an overpowering hostile force." "^

The next day Colonel Lawton, with detachments of the Chatham Artillery (Captain Claibourne), the Savannah Volunteer Guard (Captain Scrivin), and the Oglethorp Light Infantry (Captain Bartow)," numbering about one hundred and twenty-five men, took formal possession of the fort without opposition, in the name of the State of Georgia.

Fuel was added to the fire by the sailing from New York on January 5, under instructions from the Headquarters of the Army, of the steamer Star of the West, with two hundred men, Lieutenant Charles R. Wood, Ninth United States Infantry, commanding, to reinforce and provision Fort Sumter. The Star of the West arrived off the bar of Charleston harbor late in the night of the 8th, and early in the morning crossed the bar and proceeded up the main channel toward Sumter, the Union ensign flying from the flagstaff. She was warned off by shots fired across her bow from a battery at Cumming's Point, but, disregarding the warning, she ran up a large United States flag at her fore and proceeded on her course, when the fire was directed at her, three shots striking her. The vessel then came about and steamed away, to New York.

'The Governor's order was in writing, and is of interest as a part of the history of the terms. See Appendix. 'Killed at first battle of Manassas.

The Cabinet was hopelessly divided in opinion. The Secretary of State had resigned because the President would not send reinforcements to Charleston. The Secretary of War, regarding Major Anderson's movement as a breach of faith with the representatives of South Carolina, resigned because the President would not withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter and from the harbor of Charleston. Startling events followed one another rapidly. In quick succession the States of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana seceded from the Union. A congress of representatives of those States assembled at Montgomery, Ala., on February 4 and inaugurated a new government, giving to it the name of "The Confederate States of America," which was soon joined by other Southern States.

It is difficult at this day to conceive the excitement and anxiety that pervaded Washington city during that eventful winter and spring. The lobbies of the hotels and of the Capitol and the galleries of the two houses of Congress were thronged with eager crowds discussing, or listening to the discussions of, the all-absorbing question of the day. As State after State seceded, and it was known that its representatives in Congress would rise in their places to announce the fact and withdraw, anxious crowds poured into the Capitol, and long before the hour of meeting of the houses the galleries were packed to the extent that it was difficult to escape from them before the adjournment, which was often far into the night.

To no class in the country we ts of more absorbing and vital interest than to the officers of the Army and Navy who were natives and citizens of the Southern States. They could but watch with feverish anxiety the march of events which they were powerless to influence, though so nearly concerned in, and which were hastening rapidly and inevitably to a result which most of them unquestionably deeply deplored. Many of them, as their States seceded, resigned their commissions and returned to their homes in the South. Their resignations were accepted, and they left the old service and joined the new, unmolested by the Federal authorities, no one at that day openly impugning their honor and integrity for pursuing the path to which, in their judgment, duty and honor prompted.

Probably the preponderance of opinion at the time was that a disruption of the Union was inevitable and would be effected without war — when a Southern and Northern republic would exist side by side for a time, but a brief time; that when party rancor which then raged so fiercely subsided and it should become obvious that the mutual interests of the different sections were more potent than the questions which unhappily antagonized and divided them the two would come together again in a new and more satisfactory union under one government and one flag.

In the meantime good and patriotic men in all sections of the country, statesmen in the better sense of the term, as distinct from mere party politicians, were throwing oil on the troubled waters and striving with all their might to bring about an amicable adjustment of all questions in dispute, to avert, if possible, the calamities of war, which the course of fanatics and party politicians in both sections, who prized party ascendancy above the public weal, had for years tended to bring upon the country.

To this end a Peace Conference assembled in Washington on February 4. It originated in the General Assembly of Virginia, which, deprecating secession, invited the other States to send commissioners to meet five of her own most eminent citizens, "to consider, and, if practicable, agree upon some suitable adjustment of the questions which were then rending the Union asunder." Twenty-one States — seven slave-holding and fourteen non-slave-holding — were represented. It was presided over by the venerable Ex-President John Tyler, and contained many eminent and patriotic citizens of the States represented. A plan of adjustment was agreed upon, which it was earnestly hoped would prove satisfactory to all concerned. It was reported in both houses of Congress, but the withdrawal from that body of the representatives of six States had left one party largely in the ascendancy, and the plan proposed by the Peace Conference was rejected, not without manifestations of contempt.

President Buchanan succeeded in tiding over the few remaining days of his administration without bringing on a war between the States.

One of his last acts was to intimate indirectly through a distinguished Senator — Mr. Hunter of Virginia, to Mr. Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy — that he would be pleased to receive in Washington a commissioner or commissioners from the Confederate Government, and would lay before the Senate any communication that might be made through them. On this invitation Mr. Crawford of Georgia, Mr. Forsyth of Alabama, and Mr. Roman of Louisiana were appointed special commissioners to represent the Confederate States in Washington.

On the 4th of March, just one month after the Government of the Confederate States had been established and put In operation, Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated as President of the United States. All eyes were eagerly directed to the new President with the most anxious solicitude, as to the course he would pursue under the complicated and embarrassing circumstances that surrounded him.

The representatives of the Confederacy were not formally and officially received by the President, but in a few days after the inauguration they were, through the agency of two Justices of the Supreme Court, — Justices Nelson of New York and Campbell of Alabama, — In communication with Mr. Seward and other members of President Lincoln's Cabinet.

The all-important question. What should be the relations between the United States and the Confederated States? seemed to depend on the course which the former would pursue in regard to Fort Sumter. If the troops were withdrawn and amicable relations maintained, it was believed that the eight remaining slave-holding States would remain in the Union, and time and the efforts of lovers of the Union throughout the whole country might develop some satisfactory solution of the political conflict. If, however, an attempt were made to throw reinforcements and provisions into Sumter, thus manifesting a purpose to coerce the States which had seceded, a hostile collision would ensue, and some — perhaps all — of the remaining slave-holding States would secede and join the Southern Confederacy. Unquestionably a vast majority of intelligent men in the Southern States believed, without the shadow of a doubt, that any and every State of the Union possessed an inherent and reserved right to secede for cause, and that it rested with a convention of the people of the State, duly convened, to decide absolutely when a cause had arisen. Probably a majority of the same people believed that no sufficient; cause had at that time arisen. An attempt, however, to coerce into the Union a State which had seceded, thus converting a union of consent into one of force, would be generally regarded as so radical and dangerous an infringement of the rights of the States as not only to justify, but to demand, secession as the only adequate mode and measure of redress.

Eminent gentlemen high in official position, zealous in devotion to the Union, whose opinions and counsel were entitled to weight, strongly advised the evacuation of Fort Sumter. Among them were Lieutenant General Scott, General-in-Chief of the Army, and General Totten, Chief of Engineers.

The President, in great doubt and perplexity as to the best course to pursue in regard to Fort Sumter, addressed the following brief note to the Secretary of War :

Executive Mansion, March is, 1861. To The Honorable Secretary of War.

Dear Sir: Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it? Please give me your opinion in writing on this question. Your obedient servant,

A. Lincoln.

The Secretary replied that he had been most reluctantly forced to the conclusion that it would be unwise to make such an attempt. His opinion was based on those of the army officers who had expressed themselves on the subject, including the General-in-Chief of the Army, the Chief of Engineers, and all of the officers then within Fort Sumter, whose written opinions the Secretary embodied in his answer. The plan proposed by Mr. G. V. Fox, late of the navy, would, he said, be entitled to his favorable consideration if he "did not believe that the attempt to carry it into effect would initiate a bloody and protracted conflict. No practical benefit will result to the country or the Government by accepting the proposal alluded to, and I am therefore of the opinion that the cause of humanity and the highest obligation to the public interest would be best promoted by adopting the counsels of those brainy and experienced men whose suggestions I have laid before you."

General Scott, who six weeks previously had strenuously opposed the evacuation of Fort Sumter and had urged that it be reinforced, had under the altered aspect of a*ffairs changed his opinion. To attempt it now would, in his opinion, require, in addition to the means already at command, a fleet of war vessels, — ^which could not be assembled in less than four months, — five thousand additional regular troops, and twenty thousand volunteers. To organize such a force, even if undertaken immediately and without the sanction of Congress, — which was not then in session, — could not in his opinion be done in less than six or eight months. "As a practical military question," he said, "the time for succoring Fort Sumter, with any means at hand, had passed away nearly a month ago. Since then a surrender under assault or from starvation has been merely a question of time." The abandonment of the fort in a few weeks he regarded as a sure necessity, and since it must be done "the sooner, the more graceful on the part of the government." He went further, and advised the abandonment of Fort Pickens, at the entrance to the harbor of Pensacola; and, in addition to the military reasons assigned for this course, added the further reason that "our Southern friends are clear that the evacuation of both the forts would instantly soothe and give confidence to the eight remaining slave-holding States and render their cordial adherence to this Union perpetual."