Early on the second day, especial attention was directed to the breach. Every gun that could be brought to bear upon the pancoupe was trained that way, and directly the aperture began to show the effects. In an hour it became large enough for two men to enter abreast, and the nearest embrasure on its left was also considerably enlarged. Meanwhile, all the other effects of the day before were enhanced; shots struck all over the two exposed faces of the fort; the mortar batteries on the shore of Cockspur Island were silenced, and several of the casemate guns were struck through the embrasures. The battery put up by General Viele, on Long Island, opened fire that morning, and received repeated replies, rendering good service by the destruction it occasioned. The gunboat Norwich, laying on the right of the fort, also became engaged—the distance, however, was too great for her to render any special assistance,—still she got an occasional answer from the garrison. On this day clouds of red dust were seen to rise more frequently from the fort, indicating that the brickwork of which it is constructed was breaking up, and after a while, the great breach became so large that the propriety of a storming party was discussed. The lower part of the aperture was partly filled by the debris that fell from above; the arch of the casemate was laid bare, while evidently shaken, a gun in barbette, immediately over the breach, was tottering and ready to tumble below. The breach by its side was also momentarily becoming wider, and just as General Benham was questioning whether a messenger should not be sent to demand a surrender, before risking so great a loss of human life as must be incurred in an assault, the rebel flag on old Pulaski was lowered half way, and a final shot fired from a casemate in the fort. As the flag was not completely hauled down, the Unionists were for a moment uncertain of its import, but all firing was ordered to cease. In a minute more the white flag was raised, and with cheer after cheer all along the batteries on Tybee, came down the stars and bars. It was on the 11th of April, a year to a day from the time when the stars and stripes were first dishonored by Americans at Fort Sumter.
General Hunter was aboard the McClellan with his aides, watching the engagement. Generals Gillmore and Benham were active, and rode rapidly out to Goat’s Point. On arriving at this place, General Gillmore, with his aid, Mr. Badeau, and Colonel Rust, entered a boat and put off for the fort. The passage was rough, the channel unknown, and the skiff got aground, and was nearly upset; but at last, soaked and dripping, the party landed on Cockspur Island.
They were met near the landing-place by Captain Sims, of the Georgia Volunteers, who conducted them to the fort. Colonel Olmstead, the commandant, stood at the entrance, and received them courteously. He invited General Gillmore into his own quarters, for a private interview. The terms of capitulation were arranged, and General Gillmore was then conducted over the fort by the Colonel, and took his leave, accompanied by Colonel Rust. General Hunter, in the mean time, had sent messengers to the fort. Colonel Olmstead showed them around the works, and conducted them to the interior, when the swords were delivered. This took place in the Colonel’s headquarters, all standing. Major Halpine represented General Hunter. As soon as this ceremony was over, the American flag was raised, and the stars and stripes floated again on the walls of Fort Pulaski. In giving up his sword, Colonel Olmstead said, “I yield my sword, but I trust I have not disgraced it.”
The arms of the privates had been previously stacked on the parade, and the men marched to quarters. Both officers and men were allowed to remain all night in their usual quarters. The interior of the fort presented a sorry picture. Blindages had been put up extending on all the rampart, and a part rendered bomb-proof; but shot and shell had burst through many of the sides—knocked in walls, broken down stairways, entered casemates, upset guns, and piled up masses of rubbish and debris all around. Seven guns on the parapet were dismounted; nearly every traverse had been struck and partly torn to pieces; all the passageways were obstructed by piles of stones and fallen timber; the magazine had been struck, and part of its outer casing of brick torn away, while at the breach, the havoc was, of course, greatest of all. The breach was entirely practicable; the ditch, sixty feet across, was more than half filled up by the fragments that had fallen, and half a dozen men abreast could have entered the aperture. The Colonel declared, however, that he should have held out until nightfall, had the magazine not been struck. This, of course, settled his fate, and rendered any prolonged resistance a useless risk of human life. Forty thousand pounds of powder, seven thousand shot and shell, and forty-seven guns were captured. The prisoners were three hundred and sixty in number, and belonged to the Georgia Volunteers, the Oglethorpe Light Infantry, and to a German regiment. The Colonel excited the sympathies of his captors by a bearing at once soldierly and subdued. The officers invited the Unionists to their quarters, where several took supper, and some even slept with the rebels whom they had been fighting a few hours before. There was no apparent bitterness on either side; no desire to introduce personal animosities.
This long and severely contested siege resulted in the loss of only two lives, while the number of wounded was very small. This fact is remarkable, in view of the immense amount of shot and shell exchanged during the bombardment.
On Sunday, the 13th, the men were divided into two parties—the officers and about two-thirds of the men forming the first, who were placed on the Ben de Ford—the remainder on the Honduras, and taken to Bay Point. Here they were transferred to the McClellan and Star of the South, to be sent to Fort Columbus, in the harbor of New York.
BATTLE OF SOUTH MILLS, CAMDEN, N. C.
April 20, 1862.
A short but severely contested engagement took place on the 20th of April, between the command of General J. L. Reno, and a body of rebels posted in a strong position to intercept the supposed advance of the Federal troops on Norfolk. General Burnside directed General Reno to make a demonstration on that city, and the latter, taking with him from Newbern the Twenty-first Massachusetts and Fifty-first Pennsylvania, proceeded to Roanoke, where he was joined by detachments of the Eighty-ninth New York and Sixth New Hampshire. With these forces he started for Elizabeth City, and commenced disembarking at midnight, on the 19th, at a point about three miles below the city, on the east side.
By three A. M. Colonel Hawkins’ brigade, consisting of the Ninth and Eighty-ninth New York, and Sixth New Hampshire, were landed and ready to move. Colonel Hawkins proceeded with his brigade toward South Mills. General Reno remained to bring up the other two regiments, which had been delayed by the grounding of their vessels at the mouth of the river. They came up at daylight, and were landed by seven A. M. General Reno marched directly toward South Mills, and about twelve miles out met Colonel Hawkins, with his brigade, who, either by the treachery or incompetency of his guide, had been led some miles out of his way. As his men were very much jaded by the long march, they were ordered to follow the Second brigade, about four miles further, to within a mile and a half of South Mills.