chain to bring her stern close to our bow. Spars were rigged out over the stern of the frigate, and every arrangement made for whipping our men on board, and some thirty men were rescued by this means. Three or four hawsers and an iron stream cable were parted by the plunging of the vessels. The Governor at this time had about three feet of water, which was rapidly increasing. It was now evidently intended by the commanding officer of the Sabine to get the Governor alongside, and let our men jump from the boat to the frigate. In our condition this appeared extremely hazardous. It seemed impossible for us to strike the frigate without instantly going to pieces. We, however, were brought alongside, and some forty men succeeded in getting on board the frigate. One was crushed to death between the frigate and the steamer in attempting to gain a foothold on the frigate. The port bow of the Governor struck the starboard quarter of the frigate, and carried away about twenty feet of the hurricane deck from the stem to the wheel-house. The sea was running so high, and we being tossed so violently, it was deemed prudent to slack up the hawser and let the Governor fall astern of the frigate, with the faint hope of weathering the gale till morning. All our provisions and other stores, indeed every movable article, were thrown overboard, and the water-casks started to lighten the vessel. From half-past three until daybreak the Governor floated in comparative safety, notwithstanding the water was rapidly gaining on her. At daybreak preparations were made for sending boats to our relief, although the sea was running high; and, it being exceedingly dangerous for a boat to approach the guards of the steamer in consequence, the boats lay off and the men were obliged to jump into the sea, and then be hauled into the boats. All hands were thus providentially rescued from the wreck, with the exception, I am pained to say, of one | corporal and six privates, who were drowned or killed by the crush or contact of the vessels. Those drowned were lost through their disobedience of orders in leaving the ranks or abandoning their posts. After the troops were safely reembarked, every exertion was directed to securing the arms, accoutrements, ammunition, and other property which might have been saved after lightening the wreck, and I am gratified in being able to say, nearly all the arms were saved, and about half the accoutrements. The knapsacks, haversacks, and canteens were nearly all lost." About ten thousand rounds of cartridges were fortunately saved, and nine thousand lost. The transport continued to float some three hours after she was abandoned, when she sunk. It remains to add to this narrative of extraordinary peril and hardship, the warm testimony of Major Reynolds to the courage and fortitude of the men in this desperate emergency, and his lively tribute of gratitude to the officers of the Sabine, who rescued his command from utter destruction. "Too much praise," says he, "cannot be bestowed upon the officers and men under my commandall did nobly. The firmness with which they performed their duty is beyond all praise. For forty-eight hours they stood at the ropes and passed water to keep the ship afloat. Refreshments in both eating and drinking were passed to them at their posts by non-commissioned officers. It is impossible for troops to have conducted themselves better under such trying circumstances. * Under God we owe our preservation to Captain Ringgold and the officers of the Sabine, to whom we tender our heartfelt thanks for their untiring labors while we were in danger and their unceasing kindness since we have been on board the frigate. The Peerless, a small steamer formerly employed on Lake Ontario, between *Major Reynolds to Flag-officer Dupont, U. S. Ship Sabine, At Sea, November 8, 1861. PERILS OF THE FLEET. 101 Lewiston and Toronto, laden with beef The Winfield Scott, government transcattle, also fell a victim to the gale. She port, a new iron steamer, barely esgave signals of distress when the Star caped destruction. She had on board of the South came up, and in the tumult five hundred men of the 50th Pennsylof the storm unhappily ran into her vania regiment, whose efficient conduct quarter. She was so much injured by the assisted greatly in the preservation of collision, that though the cattle, eighty- the ship. "She had been laboring fearseven in number, were thrown overboard fully all Friday afternoon and night, to lighten her, she was unable further to when the discovery was made about one struggle with the waves. The gunboat A. M. that the after hold contained five Mohican, Commander Gordon, came to feet of water. An examination showed her aid, and took off all on board, twen- an extensive leak around the rudderty-six in number. The captain was the head, and, what was still more alarming, last to leave the fast sinking vessel. He that the woodwork of the upper part of quietly launched his life-boat, placed his the vessel, at its uniting point with the trunk in it and reached his deliverer in iron hull, on the whole of the starboard perfect safety.* side, abaft the wheel, yawed open at every lurch, affording an entrance for immense volumes of water. The Captain immediately ordered the ship to be lightened, by throwing overboard her cargo, and two rifled cannon, which constituted his armament. This was commenced, and the after hold soon afterwards was emptied of the immense quantities of provisions, tents and camp equipage which it contained. The soldiers worked energetically with the crew in baling, and their efforts were vastly more arduous in consequence of the choking of the vessel's steam pump by the rubbish in the hold. This labor was persistently kept up during the whole night, but all they could do only sufficed to keep the leak from gaining. In the interval the masts had been cut away, and the light hamper of the upper deck torn off. At 8 A. M. the gunboat Bienville bore down to them, and, having been informed of their condition, was requested to remain by them. A boat was then sent from the Winfield Scott to the Bienville, containing three disabled soldiers and a woman, the wife of one of the officers. This boat was swamped alongside the gunboat after the passengers had left it, and then the Bienville sent one of her life-boats to The propeller Osceola, Captain J. F. Morrill, of 177 tons, belonging to New York, which had joined the fleet at Hampton Roads, laden with beef cattle and provisions, was driven in the gale, before dawn on Saturday, on the Day Breaker, off North Island, near Georgetown, on the coast of South Carolina. She bilged in two hours, the cattle, of which there were thirty-nine on board, soon taking to the water, and many of them reaching shore. The vessel having become a wreck, the officers and crew, twenty in number, took to their boats and reached North Island, where they were taken prisoners.† The Union, Captain J. I. Sawin, a new steamer, a staunch, fast vessel, built at New York for the use of the Quartermaster's Department at Fortress Monroe, went ashore in the gale off Beaufort, North Carolina, where her crew and passengers, a few soldiers,-seventythree in all, were landed in safety, taken by the enemy, and carried prisoners of war into the interior. The Union was heavily laden with stores which were destroyed with the wreck. A few of the horses on board were saved.‡ * Port Royal Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune, bring away some of the soldiers. After November 14, 1861. + Statement of Capt. Morrill, N. Y. Herald, Nov. 14, 1861. New York Herald, November 14, 1861. one trip, performed safely, this boat met a similar fate to the other. Among throw the guns overboard, meaning the rifled cannon, about three hundred of the soldiers plunged their muskets into the sea, under the impression that they were obeying directions, and in their zeal it was not long before their overcoats followed their arms."* The The Mayflower, a small river boat, resisted the tempest bravely under the guidance of her skillful commander, Captain Phillips; one of her paddle-boxes was stove, but she escaped other injury and was towed out of the region of the tempest by the friendly Atlantic. gunboat Mercury lost one of her two rifled guns thrown overboard to lighten her, and the Isaac Smith, for the same sufficient reason, was compelled to part in the same way with an armament of eight 8-inch guns. The Florida, a sidewheel steamer of about twelve hundred tons, and nine guns, was disabled in her machinery and put back in distress. The transport Belvidere and two of the New York ferry-boats, the Ethan Allen and Commodore Perry, put back to Fortress Monroe, and brought the first news of the storm. those, however, who left the leaking The weather moderating on Saturday, the steamers and ships began to rejoin the Wabash off the Coast of South Carolina. On passing Charleston, Commodore Dupont sent in the Seneca to direct Captain Lardner to bring the steamer Susquehanna to Port Royal, and on Monday the 4th of November, at eight in the morning, the flag-ship was anchored off the bar at Port Royal with some twenty-five vessels in company and many more heaving in sight.‡ In consequence of the peculiar configuration of the coast, simply bringing the vessels to the scene of action was a work of no slight difficulty and embarrassment It required consummate knowledge and November 4. New York Times, November 14, 1861. *Correspondent, Steamship Atlantic, Port Royal Iniet, Atlantic Correspondence of the Herald, November 14, Flag Officer Dupont to Secretary Welles, November APPROACH TO THE HARBOR. 103 the nicest adjustment of skill. Fortun-quate naval defences of the region. The ately the amplest resources of this na- force at his disposal consisted of a squadture had been provided in the composi- ron of eight small armed steamers fitted. tion and equipment of the fleet. Beside, for the inland navigation among the isthe experience to be looked for in lands. They opened fire, but their stings the naval officers, which was in no re- were feeble and fruitless and they were spect wanting on the occasion, especially readily brushed away by a shot or two in the skill of the chief of Commodore from the national gunboats, when they Dupont's staff, and fleet captain Com- retired under the shelter of the forts. mander Charles H. Davis, the expedition was provided with a most important coadjutor in Mr. Boutelle, a gentleman of rare scientific ability, who had been employed for several seasons within a few years past in the government survey of this very coast. Others also were well informed of the peculiar trials of the service, and they had every artificial aid at hand to meet them. It was first necessary to strike the channel from the sea some ten miles from the land, a formidable bar stretching at that distance seaward over more than two miles. The usual buoys marking this ocean pathway had been removed by the rebels and there was no feature of sufficient prominence on the shore line to make any bearings reliable. The channel was, however, by the aid of the fleet-captain, Commander Davis and Mr. Boutelle in the Vixen, discovered at once, sounded out and buoyed. These proceedings were the rapid work of several hours, when at three o'clock the flag-officer, Commodore Dupont, was informed that he could with safety send forward the lighter transports, drawing less than eighteen feet, and all the gunboats. This was immediately effected, and before dark they were securely anchored in the roadstead of Port Royal. There they were met by the mosquito fleet, as it was popularly termed, of Commodore or Admiral Josiah Tatnall, a venerable officer of the American Navy, who, at the outset of the struggle, abandoning an honorable post of duty at Sackett's Harbor, had sheltered himself in his native State, and was now employed in leading the inade The next day, Tuesday, was employed in a reconnoissance in force by Commander John Rogers of the United States Steamer Flag. who, being temporarily on board the flag-ship as a passenger on the way to his vessel, had offered his services and been placed on the staff of the Commodore. He was accompanied by Brigadier-General Wright in the gunboat Ottawa and supported by the Seneca, Curlew and the Isaac Smith. The object of the movement was to test the strength of the batteries on shore, which were found to consist of several important works erected on either side of the entrance. On the one side at the south-easterly point of Hilton Head Island stood Fort Walker, evidently a regularly constructed earthwork of considerable extent, and on the opposite land of Bay Point on Phillip's Island, about two and a half miles across the channel, another work, Fort Beauregard of inferior dimensions and less regularity, but still formidable from its position and armament. The advance of the portion of the fleet sent in called forth the fire of the forts and demonstrated their scientific construction, relative importance, and power of resistance, mounting at least twenty guns each. The batteries of both forts were engaged for about forty-five minutes with no other injury to the defenders than three men slightly burnt in Fort Beauregard from the explosion of a caisson struck by a rifle shell. Meanwhile, the tide serving, the passage of the formidable bar was effected by the gigantic flag-ship of the Expedition, the Wabash, an affair of no Official Report of General Drayton. of the ferry boats which had been provided to transport the troops over the shallow waters to the shore in the rear of the forts, had compelled a change of plan, by which the coöperation of the military was abandoned, and the whole responsibility of the attack was thrown upon the navy. It had been ascertained by the reconnoissance, that Fort Walker, on Hilton Head, was the most powerfully armed of the defences, that the greater part of its guns were presented on two water fronts, and that the flanks were but slightly guarded, especially on the north, where an attack was less to be expected. Tatnall's fleet of seven steamers was known to occupy the northern portion of the harbor, stretching across the distance little anxiety and peril, for the opportunity had to be carefully watched, and the transit left but a foot or two of water under her keel. Had she failed and been stranded the success of the Expedition might at least have been seriously impaired. Well might the arrival of this proud vessel in the safe waters beyond be greeted by lusty cheers of the crew of the frigate Susquehanna and the crowded ranks of the soldiers in the Atlantic, Vanderbilt, and other huge transports which followed her. This was the work of the morning. The after part of the day was passed in laying down the necessary buoys for further progress. There was also a slight detention from the temporary grounding of the Wabash on a dangerous shoal as she ventured too far within in the anx-between the two islands which bounded iety of her commander to get the outline of the forts before dark. At night, however, all were anchored out of reach of the guns of the fort, ready for a struggle on the next day, which, proving to be ill adapted for the advance in consequence of a stormy wind off shore from the southward and westward, the attack was necessarily postponed. While the delay gave the defenders of the forts opportunity to marshal their men, receive reinforcements and strengthen the work, the constant watchfulness and anxiety to which it subjected them on the other hand tended to neutralize these advantages. The next day, Thursday the 7th, proved favorable, and under the clear sky of a morning of great beauty, the flood tide serving in the forenoon, it being high water that day, about half-past eleven, the armed vessels of the fleet advanced over the tranquil water to the deadly encounter. The transports, The transports, freighted with their thousands of soldiers, destined from the peculiar nature of the service to be spectators, rather than, as they at first anticipated; participators in the fight, remained behind, yet within sight of the grand movement. The loss the entrance. The order of battle, as described by Commodore Dupont in his official report, "comprised a main squadron ranged in a line ahead, and a flanking squadron, which was to be thrown off on the northern section of the harbor to engage the enemy's flotilla and prevent them taking the rear ships of the main line when it turned to the southward, or cutting off a disabled vessel. The main squadron consisted of the frigate Wabash, Commander C. R. P. Rodgers, the leading ship; the frigate Susquehanna, Captain J. L. Lardner; the sloop Mohican, Commander L. W. Gordon; the sloop Seminole, Commander J. P. Gillis; the sloop Pawnee, Lieutenant Commanding R. H. Wyman; the gunboat Unadilla, Lieutenant Commanding N. Collins; the gunboat Ottawa, Lieutenant Commanding T. H. Stevens; the gunboat Pembina, Lieutenant Commanding J. P. Bankhead, and the sailing sloop Vandalia, Commander F. S. Haggerty, towed by the Isaac Smith, Lieutenant Commanding J. W. A. Nicholson. The flanking squadron consisted of the gunboat Bienville, Commander Charles Steedman, the leading ship; the |