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Report of Flag-Officer Du Pont, U. S. Navy, transmitting report.
FLAGSHIP WABASH,
Port Royal Harbor, S. C., May 31, 1862.
FLAGSHIP WABASH,
Port Royal Harbor, S. C., May 31, 1862.
SIR: I have the honor to inform the Department that the gunboats have possession of Stono.
From information derived chiefly from the contraband pilot, Robert Smalls, I had reason to believe that the rebels had abandoned their batteries? and accordingly directed Commander Marchand, the senior officer off Charleston, to make a reconnoissance to ascertain the truth of the report. This was done on the 19th instant, and the information proving correct, I ordered the gunboats on the next day (being myself off Charleston in the Keystone State) to cross the bar.
The Unadilla, Pembina, and Ottawa, under Commander Marchand, assisted materially by C. O. Boutelle, esq., assistant on the Coast Survey, succeeded in entering Stono, and proceeded up the river above the Old Fort opposite Legareville. On their approach, the barracks were fired and deserted by the enemy.
Six prisoners were captured by Messrs. Boyd and Bradford, two officers of the surveying steamer Bibb, with a boat s crew of five seamen. The prisoners were a picket guard at the magazine of the Old Fort, and belong to the Twenty-fourth South Carolina Regiment.
On the 28th instant the Huron crossed the bar, and on the day following the Pawnee.
Enclosed is a copy of an interesting report from Commander Drayton, in which he says: “We are in as complete possession of the river as of Port Royal, and can land and protect the army whenever it wishes.”
There are no batteries of the enemy on the Stono below Wappoo Cut, where, however, the rebels have a battery of smoothbore guns, with a rifled cannon of long range, exceeding that of any in the squadron.
This important base of operations, the Stono, has thus been secured for further operations by the army against Charleston, of which General Hunter proposes to take advantage.
I have at his disposal for the transportation of troops the steamers Alabama, Bienville, Henry Andrew, and Hale, and the Planter and the tugs Pettit and Mercury are to-night employed on the same duty.
The army are very deficient in vessels for transportation.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
S. F. DU PONT,
Flag-Officer, Comdg. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Hon. GIDEON WELLES,
Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
Navy O.R.– Series I–Volume 13 [S# 13]
South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
From May 14, 1862, To April 7, 1863. pp. 102-154
Letter from an unidentified Union soldier during the Siege of Vicksburg
Opposite Vicksburg
May 28 1863,
The battle of Vicksburg still progresses with no decisive results. Yesterday the gunboats made another desperate effort to silence the formidable batteries on the bluffs above and below the city. Our gunboat and 8-10 mortar boats made the attack from above and 5 gunboats from below. I was at the lower end and had a splendid view of the city and lower batteries. The attack was made about 8 oclock. Between 9 and 10 the gunboat attacking the upper batteries was sunk with 150 men on board, I have not heard how many of the crew were saved. About 10 oclock the lower gunboats withdrew and drifted down the river out of range, for what reason I have not learned. It is difficult for the gunboats to do much for this reason. The bluffs are so high that the rebels can shoot down on the decks of the boats and right through men while if they struck the sides of the boat they would glance off and do no damage. At the same time, the guns on the boats can not be elevated sufficiently to do much damage to the rebel works. Vicksburg must be taken by the land forces and I am confident we shall do it. We are gradually going ground on them. About 100 men from our division were taken prisoners last night while out on picket. They were paroled and sent over the river this morning by the rebels. One or two deserters came over who report the rebels are down to quarter rations already. My firm trust in god and hope of soon seeing my loved ones at home cheers me up. Do not cease to hope.
Source: Nate Sanders online auction
Joseph C. Felton of the 2nd Vermont Infantry
Dated 28 May 1862, letter reads in part: ‘
‘we are now about 8 miles From Richmond & six miles from the enemes lines near the centre of our lines? heavy cannonading was herd all day yesterday about Richmond? think from circumstances it is favorable to us? Received news since I sat down to write that our men have taken a thousand prisoners as the Result of yesterdays engagement? News came from the Chaplain of the Sixth Regiment. Suppose it to be true coming from a divine. I have learned to take little stock in camp stories. You do not know [how] anxious I am to see you and my dear children and sit down to the table with you who are so dear to me. I fail to know how you get along without the government pay. It is said we shall sign the pay roll next month and then you will have it in June. Hope it true? What I draw here I shall send nearly all home?”
The 2nd Vermont Infantry saw action at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor. Joseph C. Felton mustered into service on 12 April 1862. He re-enlisted 18 April 1864 and was killed 8 June 1864 at Cold Harbor, Virginia.
Letter from an unidentified Union soldier during the Siege of VicksburgOpposite Vicksburg
May 28 1863,
The battle of Vicksburg still progresses with no decisive results. Yesterday the gunboats made another desperate effort to silence the formidable batteries on the bluffs above and below the city. Our gunboat and 8-10 mortar boats made the attack from above and 5 gunboats from below. I was at the lower end�and had a splendid view of the city and lower batteries. The attack was made about 8 oclock. Between 9 and 10 the gunboat attacking the upper batteries was sunk with 150 men on board, I have not heard how many of the crew were saved. About 10 oclock the lower gunboats withdrew and drifted down the river out of range, for what reason I have not learned. It is difficult for the gunboats to do much for this reason. The bluffs are so high that the rebels can shoot down on the decks of the boats and right through men while if they struck the sides of the boat they would glance off and do no damage. At the same time, the guns on the boats can not be elevated sufficiently to do much damage to the rebel works. Vicksburg must be taken by the land forces and I am confident we shall do it. We are gradually going ground on them�About 100 men from our division were taken prisoners last night while out on picket. They were paroled and sent over the river this morning by the rebels. One or two deserters came over who report the rebels are down to quarter rations already. My firm trust in god and hope of soon seeing my loved ones at home cheers me up. Do not cease to hope.
Source: Nate Sanders online auction
A visit to Charleston would not be complete without at least one cruise of the harbor.
Civil War Gazette recommends a dinner cruise aboard one of the SpiritLine boats. They offer trips to Ft. Sumter and a relaxing dinner cruise aboard the Spirit of Carolina.
You don’t have to dress up. Reservations are recommended. The views are awesome. The music on board is also very nice.
To learn more, visit their web site.
Pursuing Confederate forces from Missouri into Tennessee, on May 26, 1862, Taylor wrote:
“Tha are a fighting a little every day but haven’t braught on an genral ingagement yet. We will be marched out to the line to day or tomorrow. I expect thare will be Bloody times before this fight is over…”
The land, he later added, was devastated. From Corinth, Miss., in June, he described the desolation:
“you can see a grate many houses here that you can see no body but a few blacks. Sometimes you see white wimon and children but no men an ast them whare their men are som will tel you that their men has volunteered in the rebel armey an som will say that their men was prest in the rebel armey.”
Taylor died that autumn at the Battle of Perryville.
“One cannot describe his feelings during the first night under a tent – the beginning of his real soldier life. There was so much to look forward to, so much to look back upon! Thoughts of separation from home and loved ones, never, perhaps, to be seen again, occupied the mind. All the hopes and ambitions of the young soldier were crowding through the brain, and ending in the one dearest wish to go speedily to the front.”
James I. Robertson, Jr., Soldiers Blue and Gray: p. 47.
“The first thing in the morning is drill, then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill. Between drills, we drill and sometimes stop to eat a little and have roll call.”- A Northern soldier
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 48.
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 48.
“Faith in God became the single greatest institution in the maintenance of morale in the armies. To the devout soldier, religion was the connecting link between camp life and home. As he prayed and sang hymns of praise, his thoughts could not help but wander to his home church wherein he felt a mother, a father, a wife, or a child might be uinted with him in asking for his speedy return.”
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 172
A surgeon in the 124th Indiana, William King’s Civil War service was at its most intense during the Atlanta Campaign, when his regiment was almost continuously engaged.
May 21, 1864:
“Two weeks ago the great fight commenced and we have been in line of battle or on the march guarding trains ever since… We have driven the rebels from their fortifications and have been all this week following them up and fighting them as we go. They will probably make a stand twenty miles from here and give us another battle. The boys have marched hard… We are encamped in the most beautiful country but is desolated by an immense army. The most of the people have gone and left their splendid homes to be ransacked by soldiers. The little village of Cassville near which we are encamped is a beautiful town but the houses are torn down, fences destroyed, and everything laid waste. I have seen enough of war to make me ardently hope for a final close to it.”
