Headquarters Second Brigade, Expeditionary Corps,
S.S. Vanderbilt, November 7, 1861.
General Orders No. 5.
The brigadier-general commanding the second brigade trustfully appeals to each man of his command this day to strike a signal blow for his country. She has been stabbed by traitorous hands, and by her most favored sons. Show by your acts that the hero age has not passed away, and that patriotism still lives. Better to fall nobly in the forlorn hope in vindication of home and nationality than to live witnesses of the triumph of a sacrilegious cause. The Lord God of battles will direct us; to Him let us humbly appeal this day to vouchsafe to us his crowning mercy; and may those of us who survive, when the evening sun goes down, ascribe to Him, and not to ourselves, the glorious victory.
By order of Brigadier-General Stevens.
Hazard Stevens,
Capt. and Ass’t Adj’t-Gen.
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.