“We are now attempting an enterprise for which our force is entirely inadequate. The want of a proper commander is fearful. We shall try to prevent any disaster occurring. This is all I can say at present.”
On the 8th Wright’s division reached Legareville, and was occupied the next two days in crossing the river, and taking a position at Grimball’s, a mile and a half above General Stevens’s camp. Colonel Robert Williams went into camp with his 1st Massachusetts cavalry just below Wright. The 7th Connecticut, which came with the overland column, joined General Stevens’s division.
Wright’s delay was caused by the inadequacy of the water transportation, especially boats, furnished him. It was found an exceedingly slow and laborious operation to transfer troops, guns, and horses from shore to ship, and from ship to shore, in a few small boats. There were no wharves, and the landing-places were narrow and swampy. It was only by the greatest exertions, working his command night and day, that he was able to accomplish in a week the movement which Benham expected made in a day. Yet Benham, blind to the energetic and loyal character of Wright and the strenuous exertions of his troops on this march, never forgave that officer for the delay. Utterly unaccustomed to the command and handling of troops, and swollen with new-found authority, he ever deemed his loud and peremptory “Those are my orders, sir,” an equivalent to that painstaking attention to details and to means which Napoleon and Wellington and all great soldiers have found indispensable.
The army now assembled numbered about twelve thousand, and was organized in two divisions and an independent brigade, as follows:—
- First Division, Brigadier-General H.G. Wright.
- First Brigade, Colonel J.L. Chatfield.
- 6th Connecticut, Colonel J.L. Chatfield.
- 47th New York, Colonel P.C. Kane.
- 97th Pennsylvania, Colonel H.R. Guss.
- Second Brigade, Colonel Thomas Welsh.
- 45th Pennsylvania, Colonel Thomas Welsh.
- 76th Pennsylvania, Colonel J.M. Power.
- Battery E, 3d U.S. artillery, Captain John Hamilton.
- Second Division, Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens.
- First Brigade, Colonel William M. Fenton.
- 8th Michigan, Lieutenant-Colonel Frank Graves.
- 28th Massachusetts, Lieutenant-Colonel M. Moore.
- 7th Connecticut, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph R. Hawley.
- Second Brigade, Colonel Daniel Leasure.
- 79th Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel David Morrison.
- 100th Pennsylvania, Major David A. Lecky.
- 46th New York, Colonel Rudolph Rosa.
- 1st Connecticut Battery, Captain A.P. Rockwell.
- Independent Brigade, Colonel Robert Williams.
- 1st Massachusetts cavalry, Lieut.-Col. H.B. Sargent.
- 3d R.I. heavy artillery (infantry), Major E. Metcalf.
- 3d New Hampshire, Colonel J.H. Jackson.
- 1st New York engineers, Colonel E.W. Serrell.
All this time the enemy were concentrating and working like beavers on their new line of works across the island. In advance of the left of the line, at the narrowest neck of a peninsula formed by two inlets extending from Big Folly Creek, they had previously erected a strong work, known as Battery or Fort Lamar. It was a hundred yards long in front, and completely blocked the neck from shore to shore, so that it was impossible to turn or flank it. It had a wide and deep ditch, and a heavy parapet sixteen feet in height above the general level of the grounds and twenty-four feet above the bottom of the ditch, and extended back on both flanks along the inlets. It mounted eight heavy guns, viz., an 8-inch columbiad, two rifled 24-pounders, four 18-pounders, and a 15-inch mortar, and protected the whole left of their line with a flank fire. The front was well covered by abattis, except at the left angle, where a cart road ran along the left flank a hundred yards, then passing inside and to the rear.[17] In front of the fort the peninsula rapidly widened out. The ground was in old cotton-fields, open and level, except for the high ridges and deep furrows resulting from that crop. About five hundred yards in front of the fort a hedge and ditch extended across the peninsula, separating field from field; and five hundred yards farther another hedge-row and ditch separated the second field from the road already mentioned. Both sides of the neck were skirted with bushes along the banks of the inlets, a light fringe on the eastward or left, a thicker fringe, affording some cover, on the west side. The ground rose immediately behind the work, overlooking it, and was covered with a growth of pine timber, above which uprose a tall, skeleton signal tower. The peninsula was known as Secessionville Neck, from the landing-place of that name on its extremity.
Half a mile to the right of Battery Lamar, on the main line, was Battery Reed, mounting two 24-pounders, and commanding the ground in front of the former with a searching cross-fire.
There was also a floating battery, mounting two guns, moored in the inlet to the left rear of the fort.