The Planter was stolen by her negro crew on the 13th of May, and two gunboats entered the Stono on the 20th following. The channel was open, the guns were all gone from the forts on Cole's and Battery islands, and the gunboats threw their 11-inch shells with perfect impunity on the right and left as they ran up the river. They anchored beyond Battery island, which would have effectually cut off the retreat of the battalion under Colonel Capers, if no other means of escape had been provided. By the energy and forethought of Col. C. H. Stevens, commanding the Twenty-fourth volunteers, an interior causeway had been thrown up, and bridges built, running from Cole's island to James island, right through the marsh and over the creeks, and by this causeway Colonel Capers retreated without the loss of a man, having burned the military barracks at Fort Palmetto and removed the small supply of stores. It was now evident that the Federals planned a lodgment on James island, for the number of their boats increased gradually in the river, and on the 2d of June, General Benham landed a part of his command at Battery island, under Brig.-Gen. I. I. Stevens. Here they were secure under the guns of the fleet in the Stono. By June 5th another division under Gen. H. G. Wright, having marched across Seabrook and John's island from North Edisto, had crossed the Stono from Legaréville to Grimball's on James island. These two divisions constituted the force of General Benham, that of Wright covering his left on the Stono, and that of Stevens his right, immediately in front of Secessionville. The gunboats in the Stono, firing by signals from the Federal camps and advance pickets, enfiladed their front and afforded effective support.
On the early morning of June 3d, the day after General Stevens had landed, the first affair of the James island campaign took place. The One Hundredth Pennsylvania regiment had been advanced as far as the causeway crossing the marsh at Rivers' place, where the Charleston Riflemen and the Beauregard light infantry, Lieutenant Lynch and Captain White commanding, were on outpost duty. On the causeway in their front, three seacoast 24-pounder howitzers, of Captain Chichester's battery, were bogged so badly in an attempt to take them across, the evening before, that they had been left in this position, and were now covered by the rifles of the Pennsylvanians.
Lieut.-Col. Ellison Capers, with four companies of the Twenty-fourth volunteers, was sent before day, on the 3d, to extricate the guns. He found Captain White and Lieutenant Lynch holding the Federal regiment in check, and, ordering them to join his command, at once made his dispositions for attack. A sharp conflict in the pines beyond the causeway drove the enemy back to the cover of a ditch and bank beyond, and this position being assaulted and carried, the Federals fell back across an old field and took shelter in a row of negro houses at Legaré's place. At this point of the engagement, Lieut.-Col. P. C. Gaillard, commanding the Charleston battalion, came up to the support of Colonel Capers. The following is his report to Colonel Capers of the affair which followed his arrival:
Learning on Tuesday morning, the 3d instant, that you were engaged with the enemy at Legaré's, and that they were in larger force than yourself, I assembled the five companies of my battalion (one, the Charleston Riflemen, being already with you) to reinforce you.... Soon after joining, you called upon me for three companies to join in a charge upon the buildings occupied by the enemy. The Irish Volunteers, Sumter Guards and Calhoun Guards were designated for that duty, and well did they respond.... I joined in the charge also, but seeing you up with them, I fell back (by your order) to take charge of the line in rear.
The three companies named above, with the Evans Guard of the Twenty-fourth volunteers, the Charleston Riflemen and Beauregard light infantry, were led in the charge on the houses by their gallant officers, Captain Gooding, Lieutenant Lynch, Captain Ryan, Captain White, Lieut. Ward Hopkins and Captain Miles, and stormed and silenced the Federals at the houses. Some of them surrendered, but most retreated to their supports in the direction of Battery island. The gunboats, in full view in the Stono, opened a fire on the Confederates, and the enemy's supports, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts and Eighth Michigan, coming rapidly up, a retreat was ordered, and with a Federal captain and 20 other prisoners, Colonel Capers fell back to the position held by Colonel Gaillard. The enemy did not advance further than Legaré's, and the affair was over. The adjutant of the Charleston battalion, Lieut. Henry Walker, was wounded at the houses and fell into the enemy's hands. In this affair 9 men of the Twenty-fourth and 8 of the Charleston battalion were wounded.
The engagement just described, and a reconnoissance in front of Grimball's on the 10th of June, gallantly made by the Forty-seventh Georgia regiment, fully developed the positions and force of the Federal army on James island. General Pemberton was active and efficient in strengthening the lines of defense and in concentrating troops on the island. By June 15th a force fully equal to that of the Federal army was encamped behind the batteries, and on the lines of defense from Fort Pemberton on the Stono, at Elliott's, cut, to Secessionville on the extreme east, under Brig.-Gens. N. G. Evans, W. D. Smith and S. R. Gist, the former in chief command. Col. Johnson Hagood, First volunteers, commanded the advance guard, composed of his own regiment, the Twenty-fourth, Col. C. H. Stevens; the Eutaw battalion, Lieut.-Col. C. H. Simonton, and the Fourth Louisiana battalion, Lieut.-Col. J. McEnery. This force was encamped outside the line of defense, and was charged with guarding the front of the Confederate line, except the immediate front of Secessionville, which was protected by its own outposts.
Secessionville is situated on a peninsula cut from the east side of the island by an arm of Lighthouse creek, a bold tidewater stream which empties into the harbor of Charleston, east of Fort Johnson. At the point of the peninsula of Secessionville where the battery was erected, the peninsula is narrowest, probably not more than half regimental front, and on either side of it run the tidewaters of Lighthouse creek and Big Folly creek, bordered by impracticable marshes. The banks of the peninsula in front and in rear of the battery were fringed by a thick growth of myrtle bushes. Col. T. G. Lamar was in command of the fort at Secessionville (afterward called Fort Lamar, in his honor) and its infantry supports. The garrison consisted of Companies I and B of Lamar's regiment of South Carolina artillery, Capts. G. D. Keitt and Samuel J. Reid; and the infantry support was composed of two battalions of infantry, the Charleston battalion, Lieut.-Col. P. C. Gaillard, and the Pee Dee battalion, Lieut.-Col. A. D. Smith. The battery mounted an 8-inch columbiad, two 24-pounder rifles, several 18-pounders, and a mortar. A gunboat battery on the east bank, anchored in Big Folly creek, and commanded by Capt. F. N. Bonneau, would have been an effective ally, had not its guns just been moved on shore to be added to those of the fort.
In the early morning of June 16th, the Secessionville picket was on duty at Rivers' place, a mile in front of the fort, and the Twenty-fourth, with six companies of the First South Carolina and one of the Forty-seventh Georgia, was covering the front of the east lines, under command of Col. C. H. Stevens. In the fort a gun detachment was awake and on the watch, but the remainder of the garrison was fast asleep.
At 1 o'clock a. m., Gen. N. G. Evans had started 100 picked men from Colonel Goodlett's Twenty-second regiment, under Capt. Joshua Jamison, as a fatigue party, to go over the bridge to Fort Lamar and assist in mounting Captain Bonneau's guns in the fort. These men reached the fort about daylight. Just at dawn the Secessionville picket was surprised and several of them captured. The main picket force ran in and gave the first notice to Lamar of the enemy's rapid advance on his position. The garrison was aroused and at the guns and on the flanks just in time to meet the gallant assault of the Eighth Michigan, Seventh Connecticut, Seventy-ninth New York, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, One Hundredth Pennsylvania and Forty-sixth New York, with Rockwell's and Strahan's light batteries and a company of engineers. The six regiments were moved forward in two lines, both under the immediate direction of Gen. I. I. Stevens, and each commanded by its senior colonel. As they advanced the peninsula narrowed, and when within short range of the works, the left regiment of the front line, the Seventh Connecticut, was crowded into the marsh. Just at this juncture Lamar fired the 8-inch columbiad charged with canister, and in rapid succession the 24's and 18's, and the mortar opened. The whole line wavered and was broken in some confusion. Urged on by their officers, the Connecticut, Michigan and New York regiments pressed forward, the latter two in larger numbers gaining ground. Groups of men and officers of these two regiments gained the ditch and both flanks of the work, and some of them mounted the work. They were met by the galling fire of the infantry of Gaillard and Smith, and were either killed or captured. Meanwhile the 100 men under Jamison, sent to mount Bonneau's guns, arrived and promptly took their places on the parapet, adding their rifles to the fire of the Charleston and Pee Dee battalions.
A number of the assaulting force, moving along the marsh under cover of the myrtle bushes, gained a lodgment on the right flank and in rear of the work, and were doing serious execution by their fire, hid as they were, and shielded by the bank of the peninsula. But they were soon dislodged by the rifles of the Fourth Louisiana battalion, sent by Colonel Hagood to reinforce the garrison as soon as he learned that the fort was being attacked. The Louisianians coming up at a run were promptly put into position by their gallant commander, Colonel McEnery, and drove the Federals from the myrtles into the marsh or out into the field. Two 24-pounders, in battery on the west flank of the fort and west of the creek and marsh, had been silent up to this moment. Colonel Hagood, who had moved promptly down the Battery Island road to check any advance by that way, and protect the right front of the fort, noting the silence of the flank battery, dispatched Lieutenant-Colonel Capers to open the fire of these guns. Finding a small detachment of Lamar's artillery at the guns, under Lieutenant Kitching, a prompt and gallant response to the order to open fire was made, and under the direction of Colonel Capers solid shot and shell were delivered along the line of the myrtles, and into the regiments vainly endeavoring to form on the field in front of the work. The sun was now fully up and Lamar's victory was achieved, though both sides continued to fire until the Federal regiments had withdrawn from range.