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damaged; the garrison had 10 of their 40 guns dismounted or otherwise disabled, and several men wounded-one of them fatally. They were especially impelled to surrender by the fact that our guns were purposely trained on their magazine, which must soon have been pierced and exploded had our fire continued. The credit of this almost bloodless conquest is primarily due to Quincy A. Gillmore, who was at once General and Engineer; Gen. Viele, commanding under him the land forces, and Com'r John Rodgers their naval auxiliaries, who were employed only in transporting and landing the materiel. But the moral of this siege was the enormous addition made by rifling to the range and efficiency of guns. Our artillerists were as green as might be; and their gunnery-as evinced more especially by the mortar-firing-was nowise remarkable for excellence; but the penetration of a solid brick wall of seven feet thick at a distance of 1,650 yards by old 32s (now rifled) to a depth of 20 inches, and by old 42s to a depth of 26 inches, where the same guns, when smooth-bore, would have produced no effect whatever, was so unlooked-for by Gen. Gillmore that he afterward reported that, had he been aware at the outset of what this siege taught him, he might have curtailed his eight weeks of laborious preparation to one; rejecting altogether his heavy mortars and columbiads as unsuited to such service, and increasing, if that were desirable, the distance at which his nearer batteries were planted to 2,300 or even 2,500 yards.

A considerable flotilla of worthless 13 Jan. 23, 1862. 14 Feb. 28.

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old vessels, picked up at various northern ports and taken down to our fleet blockading the entrance to Charleston harbor, being loaded with stone, were sunk across one of the channels. A tremendous uproar was raised against this procedure, mainly by British sympathizers with the Rebellion, who represented it as an effort permanently to choke and destroy the harbor. This accusation is absurd. What was intended was to render it more difficult for blockaderunners, navigated by Charleston pilots, to run out and in under the screen of fog or darkness; and this result was probably attained. No complaint has since been made of any actual injury thus inflicted on the peaceful commerce of Charleston: on the contrary, it has been plausibly asserted that the partial closing of one of the passes, through which the waters of Ashley and Cooper rivers find their way to the ocean, was calculated to deepen and improve those remaining.

Com. Dupont, in his steam frigate Wabash, with twenty other armed vessels, and six unarmed transports, conveying a brigade of volunteers, Gen. Wright, and a battalion of ma rines, Maj. Reynolds, setting out from Port Royal" swept down the coast to St. Andrew's and Cumberland sounds; taking unresisted possession of Fort Clinch on Amelia island, Fernandina, St. Mary's, Brunswick,' Darien," St. Simon's island, Jacksonville," and St. Augustine; where Fort St. Mark-another of the old Federal coast defenses was “rëpossessed" without bloodshed-Gen. Trapier, Rebel commander on this coast, having no force adequate to

15 March 9.

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PENSACOLA AND JACKSONVILLE RETAKEN.

resisting such an expedition-Florida having ere this contributed nearly 10,000 men, out of a total white population of 80,000, to the Confederate armies fighting in other States.

A considerable Union feeling was evinced at various points; a Union meeting held in Jacksonville (the most populous town in the State), and a Convention called to assemble there on the 10th of April to organize a Union State Government; but, on the 8th, Gen. Wright withdrew his forces from that place, sending an invitation to Gen. Trapier to come and reoccupy it. Of course, the projected Union Convention was no more; and those who had figured in the meeting or call whereby the movement was initiated were glad to save their necks by accompanying our departing forces. That settled, for years, the fortunes of Unionism in Florida. And, though Com. Dupont, on returning with his fleet to Port Royal, left a small force at each of the more defensible places he had so easily recovered to the Union, it is questionable that his expedition effected, on the whole, more good than harm for the national cause.

At Mosquito inlet, the farthest point visited by a detail from his squadron, a boat expedition, under Lt. T. A. Budd, of the Penguin, was fired on while returning from an excursion down Mosquito lagoon, Lt. Budd and 4 others killed, and several more wounded or captured. Thus closed unhappily an enterprise which was probably adequate to the complete recovery of Florida, though not able to hold it against the whole power of the Confederacy.

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Pensacola was evacuated by Brig.Gen. Thos. N. Jones, its Rebel commander; who burned every thing combustible in the Navy Yard, Forts McRae and Barrancas, the hospital, &c., &c., and retreated "inland with his command. The place was immediately occupied by Com. Porter, of the Harriet Lane, and by Gen. Arnold, commanding Fort Pickens.

Another naval expedition from Port Royal," under Capt. Steedman, consisting of the gunboats Paul Jones and Cimarone, with three other steamboats, visited the Florida coast in the Autumn, shelling and silencing the Rebel batteries at the mouth of the St. John's.

Gen. Brannan, with a land force of 1,575 men, with a fleet of six gunboats under Capt. Steedman, repeated this visit somewhat later;" expecting to encounter an obstinate resistance: but the Rebel works on St. John's bluff were evacuated-9 guns being abandoned on his advancing to attack them; and he retook Jacksonville without resistance, but found it nearly deserted, and did not garrison it. The Rebel steamboat Gov. Milton was found up a creek and captured.

22

Gen. R. Saxton next dispatched,"
on three transports, an expedition,
composed of two negro regiments
under Col. Thos. W. Higginson, 1st
S. C. Volunteers, which went up "
to Jacksonville, captured it with
little resistance, and held it as a re-
cruiting station for colored volun-
teers. Two White regiments were
soon afterward sent to rëenforce
them; but hardly had these landed
when a peremptory order came from
Gen. Hunter for the withdrawal of
21 March 6, 1863.
22 March 10.

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the entire force; and, as if this were | Beaufort to Charleston. No inhabinot enough, several buildings were fired by our departing soldiers-of the 8th Maine, it was said, though that regiment laid it to the 6th Connecticut-while hundreds of inhabitants, who desired to leave with our forces, were put ashore after they had embarked, and left to meet the vengeance of the Rebels as they might. The beautiful old town was substantially destroyed; though our higher officers did their best to save it-a high wind fanning the flames, which swept all within their reach. The deserted inhabitants-many of them hearty Unionists-were left to famish among their ashes and ruins; though the few families who were brought away to Hilton Head were treated with considerate humanity. Pensacola was likewise abandoned" and burned-burned by the Rebels, it was asserted-but that would neither be reported nor believed within the lines of the Confederates -so that it may be fairly concluded that by this time whatever Unionism there had been in Florida-that is, among the Whites-was pretty thoroughly eradicated by those who were sent thither as upholders of the National cause.

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tants were left on Edisto but negroes; and the cotton which the departing Whites could not remove they had, for the most part, burned. The fall of Pulaski, soon afterward, gave us extension and security on the other flank; and now Gen. Hunter and Com. Dupont proposed to extend our possession still farther toward the city by the reclamation of Wadmilaw and Johns islands, bringing us within cannon-shot of Charleston. To this end, various and careful reconnoissances were made, and soundings taken; ending with marking by buoys the channel of Stono river, separating Johns from James island; whereupon, our gunboats Unadilla, Pembina, and Ottawa, crossed" the bar at its mouth and proceeded up that river: the Rebel earthworks along its banks being abandoned at their approach. Thus the gunboats made their way slowly, carefully, up to a point within range of the Rebel batteries guarding the junction of Stono with Wappoo creek, barely three miles from Charleston, whose spires and cupolas were plainly visible, over the intervening trees, from the mast-heads of our vessels.

But this bold advance of our gunboats, unsupported by infantry, was a blunder. These were too weak to effect any thing but give the enemy warning of what they must be prepared to meet. Nearly two weeks had thus been spent ere Gens. Hunter and Benham, with their soldiers, landed" on James island; and three more days elapsed ere Gen. Wright came up from Edisto with the residue of their forces. Such dis

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guarding camps, &c. The direct attack was made by Brig.-Gen. Isaac I. Stevens," with Col. W. M. Fenton's brigade, composed of the 8th Michigan, 17th Conn., and 28th Mass., and Col. Leisure's, comprising the 79th New York (Highlanders), 46th do., and 100th Pa., with 4 detached companies of artillery, &c.in all, 3,337 men. Stevens had these in position at 3 A. M. at our outer picket line, within rifle-range of the enemy, and advanced at 4-the morning being cloudy and dark--so swiftly and noiselessly that he captured most of the Rebel pickets, and was within 100 yards of the main defenses, not having fired a shot, when Lamar opened on him with grape and canister, plowing bloody lanes through the storming party, and destroying its compactness if not impairing the momentum of its charge.

The 8th Michigan-Col. Fenton's own-was in the direct advance, immediately supported by the Highlanders, with the residue of both brigades ready and eager to do and dare all that men might; and, if well directed valor could have carried the enemy's works by direct assault, they would have done it. But the neck of dry land over which it was possible to advance was barely 200 yards wide, completely swept by grape and canister at close range from six guns in the Rebel works, as well as by their musketry; while insuperable abatis, a ditch seven feet deep, and a parapet nine feet high, rendered such an assault a simple squandering of precious lives. The 8th Michigan lost here 185 out of 534 men, including 12 out of 22 officers; the High

Killed, a few weeks later, at Chantilly.

landers lost 110 out of 450; and our total loss was at least 574, whereof Stevens's two brigades lost 529nearly all within half an hour. The Rebel loss was 204; Lamar and Lt.-Col. Gaillard being among the wounded.

Though it was plain that the enemy's works could not be carried by storm, a second but feebler assault was made on them after the failure of the first, aided by a flank advance on the enemy's right by a battalion of the 3d R. I. artillery, Maj. E. Metcalf, with the 3d N. H. and 97th Pa.; but nothing was accomplished; and our entire force fell back, unpursued, but leaving their dead and some of their severely wounded to fall into the hands of the enemy. And this virtually terminated in defeat Gen. Hunter's ill-managed advance upon Charleston.

Four months afterward-Gen. Hunter having been succeeded in command of this department by Gen. O. M. Mitchel-the latter planned an advance, not aimed at Charleston, but due northward from Beaufort, with intent to break the railroad connection between Charleston and Savannah, by destroying bridges, &c., about Pocotaligo and Coosawhatchie. Gen. Mitchel being prostrated by the disease of which he ultimately died, the execution of this project was confided to Brig.-Gen. J. M. Brannan, with an effective force of 4,448 men.

This force, embarked on gunboats and transports, moved" up Broad river to the junction of the Coosawhatchie and Tullifinny, where it was landed and pushed inland; first meeting resistance when 5 or 6 miles on

30 Oct. 21-2.

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