網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

cians, clergymen. Others were afterwards added, making seventy-four men and nineteen women, all of whom were assigned to posts of duty on the plantations, as enumerated in the month of June, 189 in number on 17 islands, with a negro population of 9,050. Among these were 309 mechanics and house servants, 693 old, sickly, and unable to work, 3619 children not useful for field labor, and 4429 field hands. More than four thousand of the last were paid for their labor on the cotton crop, covering 5480 acres of land. In addition, 8315 acres of provisions, corn, potatoes, etc., were planted. A satisfactory statement, considering the disadvantages under which the work was undertaken, in the partial demoralization of the laborers in the interval of months of idleness after the departure of their masters, the loss of cattle and beasts of burden, and the stores of corn on the plantations, the want of clothing, the inadequate supply of implements of agriculture, the unfavorable effects of intercourse with the army, and not least the discouraging influence of the non-payment at the proper time of the wages promised for the labor on the last year's crop of cotton, which had been taken possession of by the Government. Among 4,030 laborers, $5,479 was paid under Mr. Pierce's agency-a very small sum certainly, for several months' labor, though eked out by various contributions of clothing and provisions. Small, however, as the payment was, we are told, "the laborers received it with great satisfaction, as, if nothing more, it was at least a recognition of their title to wages, and to treatment as freemen." The number of cases of discipline for idleness reported to and acted upon by the military authorities, did not exceed forty. The systematic efforts at education and religious instruction had been pursued with the most encouraging results. Reading and spelling, and in some instances writing, had been taught to the children, and the Sabbath

Schools and Churches had been well attended. Though in his opinion more might have been accomplished, the agent, considering the disadvantages and obstructions of the work, came to the conclusion "that under the guidance and with the help of the fugitive masters, had, they been so disposed, these people might have made their way from bondage and its enforced labor, to freedom and its voluntary and compensated labor, without any essential diminution of products, or any appreciable derangement of social order. In this as in all things, the universe is so ordered that the most beneficent revolutions, which cost life and treasure, may be accomplished justly and in peace, if men have only the heart to accept them."*

Following the occupation of Port Royal, possession was taken by Captain Dupont of Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savannah River. It was supposed that this important position, offering a ready means of assault upon Fort Pulaski, and controlling the approach to Savannah, would not be taken without a struggle. The defences, however, consisting of a strong martello tower and battery at its base, were found abandoned on the arrival of the Union fleet, which quietly anchored in the harbor; and the objects of the expedition in closing the channel was further facilitated by the obstructions placed by the enemy in the river at Fort Pulaski. On the 25th of November, Captain Dupont reported to Secretary Welles,-"I have the honor to inform the department, that the flag of the United States is flying over the territory of the State of Georgia. * *By the fall of Tybee Island, the reduction of Fort Pulaski, which is within easy mortar distance, becomes only a question of time."

A prominent event on the coast of South Carolina was the arrival in December of what was called the "Stone

* Mr. Pierce's Report to the Secretary of the Treasury,

Port Royal, June 2, 1862.

THE STONE FLEET.

Fleet." This was a collection of old and condemned merchant vessels, chiefly whalers, which had been purchased in the New England ports by order of the Secretary of the Navy, with the intention of aiding the Southern blockade by sinking them as an obstruction to the entrances of the harbors of Charleston and Savannah. A similar attempt had been made in the mouth of September, when a number of schooners, purchased in Baltimore, had been sunk in Ocracoke Inlet, in North Carolina. Much was expected from the fleet, which set sail on its errand from New Bedford, at the end of November. The vessels, some twenty-five in number, of three or four hundred tons each, had been especially prepared for their peculiar errand. They were stripped of their copper, and of all but the necessary equipment to enable them to reach their destination, and were as heavily laden as the navigation of the Atiantic would permit, with blocks of granite. Holes were bored in the sides, under water, in which pipes were inserted, carefully secured with plugs, to be withdrawn at the proper time, for the sinking of the vessels. Thus laden and provided, this novel expedition in due time was gathered to the blockading squadron on the coast of South Carolina, and on the 20th of December an important portion of it, sixteen of the whaling vessels from New Bedford and New London, some of them notable ships in their day, were sunk off the harbor of Charleston. The operation, which was conducted under the charge of Fleet-Captain Charles H. Davis, was skillfully and scientifically contrived. The place chosen for the sinking of the vessels was the bar at the entrance of the main ship channel, six miles distant, in a direct southern line, from Fort Sumter. The plan was to arrange the ships in such a manner as, without entirely destroying, would effectually perplex the navigation. They were accordingly placed at intervals from one another, chequer-wise, so that

121

they might form disturbing currents, and it was supposed, would be held in their places by the same influences which had aided in the formation of the bar. The weather was favorable for the operation, and though there was some irregularity in the settling of the vessels, turning them from their appointed places, the affair, upon the whole, was carried out according to the programme and pronounced a success. "The bar," wrote an enthusiastic reporter, when he had witnessed the removal of the sails, the departure of the captains with the final spoil of the dismantled vessels, and had listened to the harmless guns of Sumter as the last vessel was submerged, "the bar is paved with granite, and the harbor is a thing of the past." This opinion or expectation was freely expressed by a portion of the press in exaggeration of the consequences of the measure, which was on the other hand pronounced, by persons acquainted with the nature of the coast, as at most but a temporary inconvenience. The former notion for a while, however, appeared to prevail, and was eagerly caught up by foreign journals indisposed to show much consideration for the necessities of the United States Government, and was made the occasion for the most violent outcries against the proceeding, as a barbarous and cruel violation of the laws of nature, and rights of the civilized world. It was even made the subject of diplomatic inquiry and remonstrance, when the British Foreign Minister was assured by Mr. Seward that there was no intention of permanently destroying one of the harbors of the world, and reminded that even after the sinking of the ships the port had been entered, and the blockade broken without difficulty by an unfriendly contraband English trader.

A more serious disaster, at the time. to Charleston, was the extensive conflagration which broke out while this stone

*Special Correspondence of the New York Tribune,

December 26, 1861.

flect expedition was in progress. It carried out with remarkable accuracy.

commenced on the night of the 14th of December, and continued the following day. A number of churches and public buildings, with several hundred dwellings, warehouses and factories were destroyed, inflicting a loss of millions-a loss probably far greater than would have been experienced by a serious bombardment by the fleet lying off the harbor, and in the neighboring waters of Port Royal.

The first movement of consequence in General Sherman's Department after the occupation of Beaufort, was a joint military and naval expedition, directed against a fortified position of the enemy on a mainland at Port Royal Ferry. To destroy the works at this point was an obvious necessity, as they gave the command of the narrow river communication, surrounding Port Royal Island with opportunities for its permanent obstruction to the foe, opposed any attempt to penetrate the country, and threatened the Union troops at Beaufort. A small Government steamer, the Mayflower, had been fired into while proceeding to sound the channel of the river, and one man killed. Accordingly, at the end of December, a method of attack was arranged by General Sherman and Captain Dupont, in which their forces were jointly to coöperate. The enemy's works at the ferry being situated midway opposite the northern shore of the island, on the Coosaw River, it was arranged that they should be assailed by the gunboats approaching from both east and west, while a heavy force should be thrown across below, to attack them on their left flank. Another body of troops was to be at the ferry, ready to cross as soon as the way was prepared by the gunboats. The command of the naval operations was assigned to Commander C. R. P. Rodgers; the military movements were conducted by Brigadier-General Stevens. The preparations of both were made with the greatest skill, and

To give spirit and eclat to the movement, the first day of the New Year was selected for its accomplishment. Though probably well assured of the final result, in the resources of the gunboats, there was prospect enough of serious work should the assault, as was to be expected, be resisted with determination, to give to the undertaking sufficient importance and responsibility.

On the 31st of December the last

preparations were made for the attack. Commander Rodgers brought up from the station at Hilton Head to Beaufort the gunboats Ottawa, Lieutenant Commanding Stevens, the Pembina, Lieutenant Commanding Bankhead, and the four large boats of the Wabash, each carrying a 12-pound howitzer, under Lieuten ants Upshur, Luce and Irwin, and Acting-Master Kempff. At sunset they were joined by the armed steamer Hale, Acting-Master Commanding Foster. The two other vessels of the force assigned to Commander Rodgers, the gunboat Seneca, Lieutenant Commanding Ammen, and the ferry boat Ellen, Master Commanding Budd, passed up the Broad River, on the westerly side of Port Royal Island, to approach the ferry by Whale River towards the north. In the night, the vessels in Beaufort River ascended to within two miles of the Coosaw, awaiting the movement at daylight. General Stevens, meanwhile, was forwarding his forces to the vicinity of the ferry, and to the point of embarkation at the corner of the island, where Brickyard Creek, a continuation of the Beaufort River, unites with the Coosaw. The troops destined for the expedition, were Colonel Frazer's 47th and Colonel Perry's 48th New York regiments, and the regiments of General Stevens' brigade, the 79th New York Highlanders, Major Morrison, the 50th Pennsylvania, Colonel Crist, the 8th Michigan, Colonel Fenton, and the 100th Pennsylvania "Roundheads," Colonel Leasure.

BATTLE AT PORT ROYAL FERRY.

123

At four in the morning Commander ing assisted in destroying the works of Rodgers started in advance with the the enemy at Seabrook on their way. launches, and at daylight joined General The ferry was now reöpened, when the Stevens at the place of embarkation on Pennsylvania Roundheads passed over, the river. The troops were placed on and occupied the fort, where they were flatboats, and at eight o'clock the first joined about four o'clock by General detachment-the Highlanders and 50th Stevens' advanced guard. "The enePennsylvania-was landed in safety, un- my," continues Commodore Rodgers, in der cover of the launches at Chisholm's his Report, "appearing in force and in Plantation, about four miles below the line of battle upon the right of our ferry, by water. Lieutenant Irwin of troops, at fifteen minutes past four the navy, accompanied them with two o'clock the Ottawa moved down the rivof the light howitzers from the Wabash. er a short distance with the Pembina, The Ottawa, Pembina and Hale now en- and opened fire with 11-inch Parrott tered the Coosaw, and the expedition guns, their shells falling among the eneproceeded in force to the next landing, my's troops with great effect, driving about a mile above, at Adam's Planta- them into the woods and clearing the tion. There the remainder of the troops flank of our column, where the skirmishintended for this movement were landed, ers had been engaged, and the enemy and, joined by the party from below, had opened fire from a field battery of proceeded with the military operations several pieces. Soon after sunset we of the day. ceased firing for a while, and the enemy sent a flag of truce to one of our advan ced posts, to ask permission to carry off their killed and wounded. Just then the gunboats reöpened, and before General Stevens' messenger could convey his reply, that the firing should cease for an hour, to enable the enemy to carry off their wounded, the officer who had brought the flag had galloped off. At sunset I landed our heavy howitzer, directing Lieutenant Upshur to place it in battery with the guns already on shore under Lieutenant Irwin, there being no artillery with the brigade but that of the Wabash. At the same time Lieutenant Luce, with the second launch and its rifled gun, and Lieutenant Barnes, with the Hale, were sent to the lower landing to protect the boats and steamer in which our troops had crossed, and superintend their removal to the ferry, which was accomplished about midnight. At sunrise we reëmbarked our boat-guns. At thirty minutes past nine o'clock on the morning of the 2d, the enemy again appearing in the wood, we opened a hot fire of shot and shells from the Ottawa, Seneca. Pembina. Ellen, and Hale, and

At half-past one in the afternoon, General Stevens set his column in motion, throwing out skirmishers in advance, whose work was greatly facilitated by the steady fire from the gunboats into the woods in their front as they proceeded. The 79th Highlanders led the way, while the brunt of the affair, as it proved, fell upon the Michigan regiment, which was employed in skirmishing on the right flank. On approaching the ferry, fire was opened from a concealed battery of the enemy, in the woods, which the Michigan soldiers met at close quarters with great gallantry. Nine members of the regiment were wounded in the conflict, including Major Watson. The only other casualties of the day were two members of the 50th Pennsylvania slightly wounded. The Ottawa presently reached the Ferry, but no answer was returned to her guns from the shore. In anticipation of the visit of the gunboats, the fort had been abandoned, and the guns, with the exception of one, removed. The Seneca and Ellen, meanwhile, had come within signal distance from the other side, hav

after firing briskly for a time, slackened the fire so as to drop a shot or shell into the woods about once a minute. At forty minutes past nine o'clock our troops began to recross the ferry, and were all over by noon, our field-guns having been landed, at the request of General Stevens, to cover the rear of the returning column. The enemy made no further demonstration." The batteries were destroyed, and

a

the houses in the vicinity burnt. The rebels suffered severely from the fire of the gunboats, and the muskets of the Michigan regiment. Such was the affair at Port Royal Ferry on the 1st of Januarysimple but effective demonstration of the resources and spirit of the Union forces on the coast which secured the uninterrupted possession of the advantages gained on the islands by the victory at Hilton Head.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE TRENT AFFAIR.

A FEW days after the occupation of Port Royal, described in the last chapter, while men's minds were fully occupied with the calculation of the possibilities or probable consequences of the recent victory, loyal citizens throughout the country were gratified with the unexpected intelligence of the capture of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the newly appointed Confederate Commissioners to England and France. The escape of the blockade by these persons with their Secretaries of Legation from Charleston, South Carolina, had been a matter of particular congratulation with the rebels. They were the bearers, it was understood, of communications to the respective Governments to which they were sent, which would doubtless advance the much longed for recognition by the great European powers of the Southern Confederacy. The prominent position of the Ambassadors among the chief promoters and instigators of the rebellion from the beginning; the confident arrogance of the Virginian who had the credit of representing the pride and spirit of the Old Dominion in their intensest form of hostility to the North, with the well-known bold intriguing character of Slidell, undoubtedly gave to their movements peculiar interest and importance.

James Murray Mason was born in Fairfax County, Virginia, in the year 1797. He was a member of one of the oldest and most honored families in the State. The first ancestor of the family who came to the country, was an English royalist who had been a member of the English Parliament in the reign of Charles I., had served as an officer in the loyalist army in the Revolution, and on the defeat at Worcester escaped in the disguise of a peasant and embarked for Virginia. A member of the family, in the American Colonial Era, married a daughter of Sir William Temple. All will remember the services in the War of Independence rendered by George Mason, and the prominent part borne by him in the formation and adoption of the Constitution. He was the grandfather of the present Confederate ambassador to England. Educated at the University of Pennsylvania and at the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, where he was prepared for the bar, the grandson early entered upon political life. He was several times a member of the Virginia. House of Delegates, became a Member of Congress in 1837, and ten years after took that seat in the United States Senate which he held till the outbreak of the rebellion. His position in that body for

« 上一頁繼續 »