The young man joined the regiment immediately after it crossed the Potomac, and had borne a musket in some of its skirmishes, and was appointed adjutant on the advancement of the former adjutant, David Ireland, to a captaincy in the regular army.

General Stevens’s appointment as brigadier was made on the 28th, and on the following day he was formally assigned to the command of the third brigade of Smith’s division, consisting of the four regiments already under his charge, viz., the Highlanders, 33d and 49th New York, and 47th Pennsylvania. He retained the immediate command of the Highlanders in addition to that of the brigade.

A few days afterwards Smith’s division and other troops of the right wing were advanced some four miles permanently, without encountering the enemy. About noon, soon after the troops had come to a halt, General McClellan, escorted as usual by a numerous staff, appeared on the scene, and, after visiting different points, dismounted, and sat down to a lunch which his attendants spread for him. He invited General Smith and some other officers to partake of the repast, but ignored the presence of General Stevens, who was quite near. The latter may have been unduly sensitive, but he regarded the omission as an intentional slight, and remarked that he actually pitied McClellan.

General Stevens named the new position occupied by his brigade, which was not far from Falls Church, the Camp of the Big Chestnut, from a huge sylvan monarch near by. A train of one hundred and forty-four wagons came over from Washington to move the tents and baggage of the command,—what a contrast to later campaign days, when four wagons only, or even less, were allowed to a brigade!—but even this number proved inadequate to bring everything at one trip. The new adjutant of the Highlanders directed the wagon-master to send some wagons back for what was left behind, but that functionary flatly refused, alleging that he was under orders to make but one trip, and then return to the city. The adjutant thereupon applied to the general for instructions in the premises, but his reception was hotter than he bargained for. “Have you a thousand men at your disposal, and suffer yourself to be set at defiance by a wagon-master? If you are not man enough to make your authority respected, you are not fit to be an officer. Go back to your regiment and attend to your duty.”

Smarting under this unexpected rebuke, the young officer again summoned the wagon-master and reiterated the order, and, on his second refusal to obey it, had him lashed fast to a neighboring tree. Four of his wagoners, equally contumacious, shared the same fate; and a sergeant and four soldiers of the ever ready and capable Highlanders were soon driving the teams back to the old camp, and in a few hours safely returned with the left-behind goods. The bound wagon-master and teamsters were then set free and ordered to mount their wagons and drive off instantly, an order which they obeyed with alacrity, and returned to Washington doubtless madder if not wiser men. Although at times a severe and exacting man, General Stevens always encouraged his subordinates to self-reliance, to do things, “to take the responsibility,” in Jackson’s phrase, and was sure to back them up if they acted in this spirit.

Drilling, picketing, and tree-felling fully employed the troops, at Camp of the Big Chestnut. By McClellan’s orders the woods, which covered a good part of the country, were slashed, the roads blocked, and the whole front obstructed by felled trees. The troops were ordered to get under arms and stand in line for half an hour before daylight every morning in anticipation of an attack which never came. This was an especially disagreeable and unhealthy task, for the Potomac fog shrouded the country at that hour, the autumnal mornings were damp and chilly, and the men would stand coughing all along the line. Many a poor fellow owed his death or disablement to this useless exposure. Strict orders were issued to avoid any movement which might lead to a collision with the enemy, and especially to shun everything which might bring on a general engagement. The orders frequently repeated these cautions, and seemed to be filled with a nervous apprehension of fighting. General Stevens thought this passive-defensive attitude all wrong. He took great pains to inculcate and develop a bold and enterprising spirit in his own brigade, especially charging his pickets to hold their ground in case of attack, and was delighted when a detachment of the 49th New York stood firm, and handsomely repulsed a dash of the enemy.

At breakfast on October 16 General Stevens unexpectedly received orders to turn over the command of his brigade to the senior colonel, and report in person to General Thomas W. Sherman at Annapolis, Md., by daylight the next morning. By eleven o’clock A.M. he had written farewell orders to the brigade and to the Highlanders, devolved the command upon Colonel Taylor, of the 33d New York, had all his belongings packed up, and mounted his horse to ride to Washington.

To avoid anything like a scene, the general was about to ride away without visiting the regiment and bidding them farewell, but Captain David Morrison, the senior officer, came and begged him to say good-by in person, saying that the regiment was formed and was most anxious to see him. He rode in front of the line, and in a few feeling words expressed his regards and hopes for them and bade them farewell. As he wheeled and rode off, a spontaneous and universal cry of “Tak’ us wi‘ ye! Tak’ us wi’ ye!” burst from end to end of the line, and tears stood in many a manly eye.

Stopping only two hours in Washington, during which he called at the War Department and secured the appointment of his son as captain and assistant adjutant-general of United States volunteers, and to make necessary purchases, he took the cars in the afternoon for Annapolis.

As they rolled along through the pleasant rural scenery of Maryland, General Stevens threw off all traces of care and became as cheerful and light-hearted as a boy. He fell to talking about the recent experiences in the Army of the Potomac in a most interesting and instructive way, exposing and condemning the mistakes and evil effects of McClellan’s passive-defensive management, and pointing out what he deemed to be the right course. Instead of obstructing the entire front with blocked roads and tracts of slashed woods, which would impede the enemy’s attack indeed, but would also confine the Union troops to the strict defensive, making it impossible to manœuvre them offensively outside the works, the front should have been kept clear and unobstructed, and the ground carefully studied and understood by subordinate commanders, with the view of throwing a heavy force upon the enemy’s flank, or any weak point he might offer, in case he attacked. Instead of restraining the natural enterprise and ardor of the troops, prohibiting and deprecating all hostile contact with the enemy, as if they were no match for the rebels, thus keeping them under the cowing of Bull Run, and aggravating the awe of the enemy’s prowess inspired by that defeat, they should have been continually brought face to face with the foe, scouts and reconnoissances kept afoot and boldly pushed, and parties of picked men under picked officers sent to fall upon the enemy’s pickets and exposed detachments at every favorable opportunity. Such a course, he declared, would most speedily give the troops confidence and restore their morale, would foster and develop their natural enterprise and bravery, and would most effectively and quickly make them reliable soldiers. He had none of that distrust of volunteers often felt by regular officers, and which undoubtedly influenced McClellan, for he knew how quickly such splendid material as the brave young volunteers then flocking to the country’s defense would become soldiers, if well officered and under a bold and skillful commander. He discussed, also, McClellan’s character without the least trace of animosity, admitting his ability and patriotism, but lamenting his fatal lack of boldness and decision, which, he said, rendered his failure inevitable, and finally he exclaimed, with great feeling and conviction, “I am glad to leave McClellan’s army. I am rejoiced to get out of that army. I tell you that army under McClellan is doomed to disaster.”

They reached Annapolis that evening, and were most cordially received by General Sherman, and by Colonel Daniel Leasure, of the 100th Pennsylvania, known as the “Roundheads,” which was to form part of General Stevens’s new brigade. His first act on reaching Annapolis was to apply by telegraph to the Secretary of War, in conjunction with General Sherman, for the Highlanders. He also personally telegraphed the President to that effect. Colonel Leasure, too, telegraphed the Secretary that his regiment was largely composed of the descendants of Scotch Covenanters and Cromwell’s soldiers, and were anxious to be joined by the Highlanders. Both the President and secretary were desirous of granting the request, but it was first referred to General McClellan, and properly, as the regiment was in his army. He strenuously objected to it, protesting that he could not possibly spare one of his best veteran regiments. But Mr. Lincoln again overruled the “Young Napoleon,” and ordered the Highlanders to Annapolis to rejoin their beloved commander.

CHAPTER XLIX
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:—

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 manœuvre 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:—

CHAPTER L
BEAUFORT.—ACTION OF PORT ROYAL FERRY

Scarcely were the works at Hilton Head completed when General Stevens was ordered, early in December, to occupy Beaufort, as an advanced post threatening the mainland, and affording protection to the negroes on the islands. This was a town of five thousand souls, delightfully situated on Port Royal Island on the banks of Beaufort River, some fifteen miles above Hilton Head. It was a place of fine mansions and houses, almost wholly exempt from the poorer class, the seat of wealth and refinement, and often styled the Newport of the South. It was the headquarters of the Sea Islands, upon which alone was grown the fine, long stapled Sea Island cotton, worth a dollar a pound during the war. With unbounded confidence in the strength of the forts at the harbor entrance, and in the prowess of their defenders, the most chivalric blood of Carolina, the people of Beaufort listened to the thunder of Dupont’s guns on the eventful 7th of November, and from the steeples and roofs watched the moving masts and clouds of smoke of his fleet as he attacked the works; and when the appalling news reached them of his victory, the whole white population fled in terror, only one white person, and he a native of New England, remaining in the town. From all the islands the flight of the planters was equally hasty and complete. Negroes, live-stock, large quantities of cotton, household goods and furniture, and even wearing apparel, were all abandoned in the panic exodus. Since the bombardment, raiding parties of the enemy were venturing over with increasing boldness, burning the cotton and terrorizing the negroes. These numbered at least ten thousand, thus abandoned by their masters, and were scattered over the extensive archipelago, but chiefly upon Port Royal, Ladies’, and St. Helena islands.

The more intelligent house servants having gone with their owners, nearly all the negroes left on the islands were in the densest ignorance, some of them the blackest human beings ever seen, and others the most bestial in appearance, and there were even some native Africans, brought over by slavers in recent years. They were not put to hard labor, judging by Northern standards, and were set so light a daily task in the cotton-field that they would usually finish it in the forenoon, and have the rest of the day to themselves. The only food furnished them was a peck of shelled Indian corn a week apiece, which the black women had to grind into meal upon rude stones turned by hand; but this ration was eked out by fish and oysters, with which the waters abounded, by the poultry which they were allowed to keep, and also by the vegetables from their little garden patches. At Christmas they were given a liberal dole of fresh beef for a grand feast. The turkeys, of which great numbers were kept on every plantation, were deemed a kind of royal fowl, reserved for the whites like the cattle, and tabooed to the blacks, who were not allowed to raise them as they did the common barnyard fowl. But upon the flight of their masters the negroes were prompt enough to take them for their own, and used to sell them to the troops at generous prices.

These ignorant and benighted creatures flocked into Beaufort on the hegira of the whites, and held high carnival in the deserted mansions, smashing doors, mirrors, and furniture, and appropriating all that took their fancy. After this loot, a common sight was a black wench dressed in silks, or white lace curtains, or a stalwart black field-hand resplendent in a complete suit of gaudy carpeting just torn from the floor. After this sack, they remained at home upon the plantations, and reveled in unwonted idleness and luxury, feasting upon the corn, cattle, and turkeys of their fugitive masters.

Embarking his brigade and a section of Battery E, 3d United States artillery, under Lieutenant Dunbar R. Ransom, on steamers at Hilton Head, General Stevens on the Ocean Queen, with the 50th Pennsylvania, reached Beaufort at seven in the evening of December 11, landed, and threw out a strong picket on the main road across the island, known as the shell-road. The negroes stated that a party of rebel cavalry had visited the town that afternoon, and threatened to return at night and lay it in ashes. At midnight they came riding down the shell-road; but being fired upon by the picket, the whole party, with the exception of the “colonel” and his son, took to their heels, and never drew rein until they reached the mainland, ten miles distant, according to the report of the doughty commander.

The next morning the remainder of the troops landed, and General Stevens advanced across the island on the shell-road to Port Royal Ferry on the Coosaw River, with two regiments and Ransom’s guns. The rebel cavalry, falling back without resistance, crossed the ferry, taking to the farther side the ferry-boat and ropes and all other boats. The Coosaw is a large and deep tidal river, separating the island from the mainland. It is bordered by wide, impassable marshes, across which at the ferry long causeways extended on each side from the firm land to the main river. A small, square ferry-house stood at the end of each causeway, and the one on the farther side had been strengthened and converted into a blockhouse, and from it the enemy fired on the Union advance. But the first shell from the 3-inch rifled gun went crashing through the extempore blockhouse, and sent its brave defenders scampering up the long causeway. Two adventurous soldiers then swam the river and brought back a boat, in which a party crossed over, demolished the blockhouse, and returned with the ferry scow and paraphernalia.

A strong picket-line was posted along the river, a good force left in support at a cross-roads some miles back on the shell-road, and the general with the remainder of the party returned to Beaufort.

General Stevens at once cleared the blacks out of town, and established a camp in the suburbs for the temporary reception of refugees and vagrant negroes. He placed the troops under canvas in the outskirts, and prohibited their entering the town without a permit, and strictly forbade all plundering, or even entering the empty houses. Guards were posted over a fine public library, the pride of the town, which, however, had been thrown about in utter disorder; patrols were kept scouring the streets, and the strictest order and discipline were enforced.

In order to protect the negroes and keep the enemy within his own lines, General Stevens strongly picketed the western or exposed side of Port Royal and Ladies’ islands, guarding all the landing-places, and watching the Coosaw and Broad rivers for twenty-five miles. Knowing the difficulty of maintaining so long and exposed a line of outposts against an enterprising enemy, he threw him on the defensive by the boldness of his advanced line, and by a succession of well-planned and daring raids upon his pickets on the opposite shore. Thus Lieutenant Benjamin F. Porter, of the 8th Michigan, on the night of December 17 captured a picket of six men on Chisholm’s Island, and on several occasions small parties were thrown across the Coosaw in boats, the enemy’s pickets were driven off, and the buildings from which they fired upon the Union pickets were destroyed. So successfully was this policy carried out that the enemy made but one counter attack during the six months that General Stevens occupied the islands, viz., an attempt on the picket on Barnwell Island, February 11, 1862, and that was repulsed without loss on our side.

The first and, as it turned out, only serious operation undertaken by General Sherman was the siege of Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River. A large force of troops, under General Viele, and heavy guns and mortars were dispatched to this quarter, and Captain Q. A. Gilmore, the chief engineer officer, was given charge of the siege works.

General Wright was sent down the coast with a considerable force, and in March occupied Fernandina and Jacksonville, Fla., which had been abandoned by the enemy.

By the end of December the enemy erected a strong field-work on the mainland, opposite and commanding Port Royal Ferry, and repulsed the efforts of the gunboats to dislodge him. The naval authorities pronounced it impracticable to reduce the work, or to keep the river open with the light wooden gunboats which alone could operate in those waters. Negro refugees reported a large force of the enemy at Garden’s Corners, only four miles from the ferry. They were endeavoring to obstruct the channel by driving piles in it. Opposite Seabrook, at a point a mile and a half above the ferry, they were throwing up a formidable-looking battery. Their increased activity and boldness, as well as their success in closing the river to the navy, indicated aggressive action; for with the river closed they could throw a force upon Port Royal Island without fear of its being cut off, could raid the plantation and negroes, and could compel the Union commander to maintain a large force on the island, or run the risk of losing a small one.

Impressed with the importance of dislodging the enemy and keeping the river open, General Stevens laid before General Sherman a plan to that end, which the latter promptly approved. It was simply to throw a sufficient force across the river several miles below the ferry, advance up the left bank, beat any force that might be found covering the work, and take it in the rear. Three light-draught gunboats were to coöperate in the movement. At the same time, two gunboats entering the Coosaw from Broad River through Whale Branch and small bodies of troops from Seabrook Landing and opposite the ferry were to threaten the enemy on the upper side, and distract his attention from the real attack. It was decided to reinforce General Stevens with two regiments from Hilton Head for the movement,—the 47th and 48th New York.

Nearly every plantation on these islands was supplied with large flatboats, used chiefly for the transportation of cotton. Ever since his occupation General Stevens had been quietly collecting these scows at Beaufort, with a view to using them in future operations. During the night of December 30 over one hundred of these flats, with a crew of negro oarsmen and a guard of two soldiers in each boat, were sent up Beaufort River, Brickyard Creek, and an inlet or creek which branches from the Coosaw near the northeast corner of the island and extends inland southwesterly several miles. There was an excellent landing-place two and a half miles up this creek, and only eight miles from Beaufort, with good roads between. At this landing, screened from sight of the enemy by well-wooded banks, the fleet of flatboats lay during the day. Every precaution was taken to prevent any negro from leaving the party and giving information of the movement.

Commodore Dupont furnished the desired gunboats, placing them under the command of Captain C.P.R. Rodgers. About noon on the 31st that officer reached Beaufort with the Ottawa and Pembina, followed by the Hale, and the details of the joint movement, and particularly the signals to enable the troops and ships to act in concert, were arranged between him and General Stevens. About dark the 47th and 48th New York, under Lieutenant-Colonel James L. Fraser and Colonel James H. Perry respectively, arrived on the transport steamer Boston.

Two companies of the Roundheads were left to guard the town and depot of Beaufort. Another company of that regiment took post three miles out at the cross-roads. Two companies of the Highlanders and two of the Roundheads, under Captain William St. George Elliott of the former, were posted at Seabrook, with orders, when the gunboats came through Whale Branch and opened on the enemy’s battery, to cross over and take it if practicable. Colonel Leasure, with the remainder of his Roundheads and one company of the Highlanders, was stationed at the ferry to observe the enemy, make a demonstration against him, and cross over if circumstances permitted. Flatboats were collected at both points in readiness for the crossing. Lieutenant Ransom, with his guns, was also posted near the ferry. Four companies of the 50th Pennsylvania were left in Beaufort with orders to embark on flats at midnight and proceed upstream to the mouth of the creek already mentioned.

After dark the remainder of the brigade, viz., the 8th Michigan and six companies of the 50th Pennsylvania from Beaufort, and seven companies of the Highlanders from Seabrook and other advanced posts, from which they had been relieved by the Roundheads during the day, marched to the well-hidden landing-place on the creek, where the flats lay awaiting them. At one A.M. New Year’s morning the embarkation commenced. The landing-place was narrow, and only two or three flats at a time could be loaded, which made the embarkation slow, tedious, and confused. Each boat was ordered to push off into the stream as soon as loaded, and proceed far enough down it to give plenty of room for others. But the creek became almost blocked with flats crowded with men, laden to the gunwale, and apparently floating about without aim or order. The night was dark, a pale mist rose on the water, the sickly beams of a half moon struggled through the gloom, the fires and lanterns flared at the landing, the smothered orders, oaths and calls of officers from flat to flat, striving to avoid becoming separated from their regiments, made a babel of voices, and all added to and heightened the appearance of hopeless confusion. The scene to the painter or poet was weird and picturesque in the extreme, but to a soldier most exasperating.

When half the troops were afloat, and the embarkation of the remainder, proceeding steadily though slowly, was assured, General Stevens entered his barge and, rowing rapidly downstream, placed himself at the head of the flotilla. Each boat as passed was ordered to follow. Their progress, deeply laden as they were, was necessarily slow, but as they took up the movement, the dense and confused mass very soon lengthened out into an orderly column, and the perplexities and misgivings of many an officer gave place to the alacrity and confidence which aggressive action ever inspires. The first faint pencilings of dawn were streaking the eastern sky as the flotilla slowly drew out of the mouth of the creek and entered the river. The fog lay low upon the water, and completely shrouded the farther shore. Here joined Captain Rodgers with four launches, each armed with a 12-pounder boat howitzer, and the four companies of the 50th Pennsylvania, which embarked at Beaufort. Then hove in sight the gunboat Ottawa.

Noiselessly the stalwart blacks strained at the muffled oars, the long ashen blades steadily rose and dipped; the blue-coated masses sat in silence, muskets in hand, straining their eyes ahead; while the flotilla, like a huge black cloud, slowly crept over the face of the broad sound, here a mile and a half wide. After an age of cramped waiting and suspense, the dim, spectral trees lining the low shore opposite comes in sight; the launches and swiftest boats now shoot rapidly ahead, the rowers straining every nerve, and the soldiers anxiously scanning the hostile shore; a score of gray forms are discerned among the trees; a straggling volley spatters harmlessly over the water, and the next instant the boats drive upon the bank, and the landing is effected. General Stevens’s barge outstripped the other boats, and he leaped ashore the first man, closely followed by Captain John More and ten picked men of the Highlanders, and the enemy’s pickets took to their heels.

It was now found that the 8th Michigan, through some strange mistake, had remained near the mouth of the creek, notwithstanding the explicit orders, repeated, too, by General Stevens in person when passing down the creek. Orders were immediately dispatched to Colonel Fenton to proceed across and up the river and land at the Adams House, some three miles above, where there was an excellent landing-place. Colonel Perry had received orders the night before to follow the gunboats, and debark his two regiments at the same point as soon as it was in the possession of the landing party. Thither were also sent the empty flats.

Skirmishers and scouts were thrown out while the troops were landing, and several negroes were picked up who proved useful as guides. With the Highlanders in the advance, preceded by two companies deployed as skirmishers, and followed by two boat howitzers under Lieutenant Irwin, of the navy, and the 50th Pennsylvania bringing up the rear, the little column pushed rapidly on, taking a course parallel to the river, and traversing woods and swampy and difficult ground, without any road for most of the way, and at eleven A.M., after a hot and fatiguing march, reached a position abreast of the Adams house. Small parties of the enemy, who fired a few shots, were observed at several points on the march, but a few shells from the howitzers and the Highlanders’ skirmishers easily brushed them aside.

The column now rested for two and a half hours while the remainder of the troops were debarking, for the landing-place was contracted, and the regiments on the Boston had to be put ashore in small boats. At 1.30 P.M. General Stevens formed his order of march, and moved forward for the fort, marching parallel to the river. The Highlanders, with two companies skirmishing in advance, led the way; the two naval howitzers followed; Colonel Christ’s 50th Pennsylvania and Colonel Fenton’s Michiganders formed the support, and the 47th and 48th New York the reserve. The column advanced in echelon, the Highlanders nearest the river, and each succeeding regiment battalion distance in rear of and to the right of the one preceding it. This formation was equally well adapted to meet an attack in front or on the right flank. The river protected the left.

A broad belt of cotton-fields stretched along the river to and beyond the ferry, some three miles distant. Back of the open fields a body of woods presented an irregular front, from a mile to half a mile distant from the river. Over these fields the skirmishers advanced steadily, followed by the entire command in the order by echelon described, each regiment moving in line, or occasionally by the flank, or by column of companies, according to the ground, with the regularity of parade. The signal officer, Lieutenant Henry S. Tafft, kept with the skirmishers, signaling constantly with his colleague, Lieutenant Cogswell, on the Ottawa, thus directing her fire, and establishing perfect concert of action afloat and ashore. The shells from the gunboat tore the wood just in front of the skirmishers as they advanced. As the troops advanced in this order the scene from the gunboats was most inspiriting,—the wide strip of open country, the dark, frowning forest beyond it, the broad, silver-hued river with the black gunboats, and line after line of dark-blue infantry, tipped with steel, moving onward over the fields with the steady, rapid, irresistible flow of billows rolling across the sea.

The column had advanced a mile in this order when a puff of smoke and the roar of a gun burst from the edge of the woods, followed by others in rapid succession, and a battery, well screened in the timber, opened a rapid fire of shells over and among the leading regiments. But, without pause, General Stevens continued his movement, regardless of the noisy shelling, until the third regiment, the Michiganders, was fully abreast with the battery. Then halting, he brought his three leading regiments into line, facing the woods, wheeling them to the right, and advancing the Highlanders and 50th on a line with the Michiganders, and threw out four companies of the latter upon the battery to develop the enemy’s force. He left the reserve regiments as they stood when halted, being already considerably to the right and in advance of the newly formed line.

The Michigan skirmishers had scarcely disappeared within the bushes which masked the battery, when a rolling volley of musketry rattled among the trees, and out they came, falling back. At the same time a large regiment of the enemy appeared from behind a point of the woods which partially screened its advance, bearing directly down upon the 50th Pennsylvania. Colonel Christ was directed to meet and not to await the attack. At the command his regiment deliberately fixed bayonets and moved forward, presenting a long and imposing line. The charging rebel regiment first ceased its shouts and yells, then fired a scattering and ineffective volley, and broke and fled to the cover of the woods so precipitantly that the 50th had scarcely time to fire a round after them. General Stevens now threw one wing of the 50th upon the flank of the enemy’s position, and Colonel Perry’s regiment upon the other flank. But the hostile battery ceased its fire, and the troops, on reaching its position, found the enemy gone, with every sign of a precipitate retreat.

Meantime the Highlanders’ skirmishers, never halting, had reached the fort, and entered it simultaneously with the force under Colonel Leasure which crossed at the ferry. A single gun, a 12-pounder, was found in the work; the others had been removed by the enemy. The troops were recalled, the wounded cared for, and the march was resumed to the ferry without further opposition. Colonel Leasure and Captain Elliott were found at the fort, and reported the complete success of the movements intrusted to them. Two gunboats—the Seneca, Captain Daniel Ammen, and Ellen, Captain Budd—entered Whale Branch as prearranged, and opened fire on the battery opposite Seabrook. Captain Elliott immediately crossed over with his party, found the battery ready for guns, but none there, and, after destroying the work, returned to Seabrook. Thence hastening to the ferry, he joined Colonel Leasure, and crossed at that point just as the skirmishers from the main column appeared.

The troops bivouacked that night at the ferry, with pickets well out, and two naval howitzers, under Lieutenant J.H. Upshur, in position commanding the main road, while at short intervals the gunboats fired big 11-inch shells as far into rebeldom as heavy charges could throw them. It was afterwards reported by the refugee negroes that one of these “rotten shot,” as they termed the bursting shells, fell at Garden’s Corners, four miles away.

During the night the ferry was completely restored. The captured gun and wagons, with the wounded, crossed early in the morning. The captured work was leveled, and at nine A.M. the troops commenced crossing, using both the ferryboat and flats. By noon the entire force of three thousand men was over. The enemy remained quiet back in the woods. The troops marched into Beaufort that afternoon in fine spirits, and with confidence in themselves heightened by the brush with the enemy and the success of the expedition. Both officers and men had shown themselves steady, prompt, and ready to march, manœuvre, and fight, and it was not their fault if the enemy would not give them a harder tussle. Excepting the Highlanders, all were green troops, never having even seen an enemy before, except as distant witnesses of the naval bombardment of Hilton Head. The 47th and 48th New York embarked on their transport at Beaufort, and returned to Hilton Head the next morning.

The enemy’s forces in the action, as reported by him, comprised the 14th and four companies of the 12th South Carolina, a section of Leake’s Virginia battery, and a detachment of cavalry, forty-two in number, who are commended as participating with their double-barreled shotguns and navy revolvers. Colonel James Jones, of the 14th, commanded. Besides these troops General Pemberton hurried forward from Pocotaligo a large part of a Tennessee brigade, under General Donelson, which met the retreating troops after the action was over.

The Union losses consisted of three men of the 8th Michigan killed, and one officer, Major Watson, and eight men of the same regiment, three men of the 48th New York, and two of the 50th Pennsylvania, wounded,—in all, seventeen.

The enemy acknowledged, in official reports, the loss of an officer and seven men killed, and an officer and twenty-three men wounded,—in all, thirty-two.

General Stevens warmly commended the conduct of his troops and the services of his staff, Captain Hazard Stevens, assistant adjutant-general; Lieutenants William T. Lusk and Benjamin R. Lyons, aides; Andrew J. Holbrook, volunteer aide; Henry S. Tafft and William S. Cogswell, signal officers; and Captain Charles A. Fuller, quartermaster.

This action was almost the first Union success achieved by the army since the disaster of Bull Run, and the thanks of the government were extended in general orders to General Stevens and his command for their victory, styled the battle of Port Royal Ferry.

CHAPTER LI
BEAUFORT.—CAMPAIGN PLANNED AGAINST CHARLESTON

After the action of Port Royal Ferry, General Stevens continued to hold Beaufort and the neighboring islands for five months, without the occurrence of any military event of importance, chiefly occupied in thoroughly drilling and disciplining his troops. Lieutenant Abraham Cottrell, of the 8th Michigan, was added to the staff as aide. A battalion of the 1st Massachusetts cavalry, under Lieutenant-Colonel H.B. Sargent, was added to his command; also another section of Battery E of the 3d artillery, Captain A.P. Rockwell’s Connecticut light battery, and a company of Serrell’s New York engineers, under Captain Alfred F. Sears, with a pontoon bridge equipment. His attention, moreover, was largely taken up with other matters, not military, but growing out of the peculiar conditions there. He caused the public library, which has already been mentioned, with several fine private libraries added to it, to be put in order, restored to the shelves and catalogued, and thrown open for the use of the troops. Corporal Joseph Matthews, Joseph Hall, and George Lispenard, of Company E of the Highlanders, were busy at this work for several months. He intended that the library, thus preserved, should be cared for and kept in the town where it belonged, and restored to the inhabitants when they resumed their allegiance and returned to their homes. But one day the treasury agent, Colonel William H. Reynolds, presented himself, and demanded the books as captured rebel property, to be sold for the benefit of the government,—a demand which General Stevens indignantly and peremptorily rejected. A month later the agent again appeared with a formal demand from the Secretary of the Treasury for the library, indorsed by General Sherman with an order to give them up. Even then General Stevens suspended the order, and wrote a strong protest to General Sherman, setting forth the vandal character of the proposed action, and urging him to represent the matter in its true light to the government, and secure the revocation of the order. But General Sherman was unwilling to take such a responsibility, and there was no alternative but to give up the books.

General Stevens disapproved the action of the government in sending such treasury agents into the field, with independent authority to gather up cotton and other property, as meddling with military operations, encroaching on the authority of military commanders, and opening the door for dishonest or over-zealous agents to plunder private property. Such work, he declared, should be done by the army through the quartermaster’s department, and the captured property then turned over to the Treasury Department.

Apprehensive that the numerous negroes within his lines might become vagrant and burdensome unless brought under control and made self-supporting, General Sherman issued an elaborate order, providing for teaching them the elementary branches, and inducing them to plant crops. The latter requirement General Stevens heartily approved, but he seriously doubted the propriety of the former, and wrote General Sherman, pointing out that to educate the blacks and raise hopes of freedom in their breast would make their condition doubly hard in case, on the suppression of the rebellion, they had to return to their masters, and that the order, manifestly looking to freeing the slaves, might alienate the support of the border States from the Union cause. This view now seems reactionary, but it should be borne in mind that the great mass of Union soldiers sprang to arms, not to free the slaves, but to preserve the Union. Lincoln himself guided his course by the same view of not alienating the border States, withholding his emancipation proclamation until the progress of public opinion made it expedient. Writes General Sherman in reply:—