out in the harbor of Pensacola as a privateer, with intent to slip out some dark night, prepared to cruise against our commerce, planned an expedition to destroy her. During the night of Sept. 13th, four boats, carrying 100 men, commanded by Lieut. Russell, put off from Com. Mervine's flag-ship Colorado, approaching the schooner at 3 A. M., of the 14th. The privateer's crew, duly warned, opened a fire of musketry as the boats neared her; but were speedily driven from her deck by our boarders, and she set on fire and burned to the water's edge, when she sunk. Her gun, a 10-inch columbiad, was spiked, and sunk with her. All was the work of a quarter of an hour, during which our side had 3 killed and 12 wounded. As the Judah lay directly off the Navy Yard, where a thousand Rebels were quartered, this was one of the most daring and well-executed achievements of the year. Finally, during the intensely dark night of Oct. 9th, a Confederate force crossed silently from Pensacola to Santa Rosa Island, with intent to surprise and destroy the camp of the 6th New York (Wilson's Zouaves), some two miles distant from Fort Pickens. The attack was well planned and well made. The surprise seems to have been complete. The Zouaves were instantly driven from their camp, which was thoroughly destroyed; but the darkness, which had favored the surprise, invested every step beyond the camp with unknown perils; and, when day broke, the Rebels had no choice but to retreat as swiftly as possible to their boats, eight miles distant. Of course, they were followed, and harassed, and fired upon after they had reëmbarked; and it was claimed, on our side, that their loss exceeded 300; but, as they left but 21 dead on the island, and | 30 prisoners, the claim is simply absurd. Our loss was 60, and theirs probably a little more. But several thousand Rebels were kept at Pensacola throughout the campaign by less than 1,000 on our side; and, when they finally decamped, they had no choice but to surrender the Naval Floating Dock and Railway, with much other public property, to the flames, to prevent their easy recovery to the Union. The blockade of the mouths of the Mississippi, naturally difficult, because of their number and distances, was successfully evaded on the 1st of July by the steam privateer Sumter, Capt. Raphael Semmes, who, darting swiftly from point to point throughout those portions of the West India waters known to be most thickly studded with our merchantmen, made some twelve or fifteen captures in hardly so many days, and then ran into the friendly British port of Nassau, where he was promptly supplied with everything necessary to a vigorous prosecution of his devastating career. Having continued it some time longer with great success, he finally ran into the British harbor of Gibraltar, where the Federal gunboat Tuscarora soon found him and his vessel, and, anchoring in the Spanish port of Algesiras, just opposite, where no law would compel her to remain twentyfour hours after the Sumter had departed, she held the privateer fast until relieved by the Kearsarge, by which the blockade was persistently maintained until the Confederate officers abandoned their vessel-pro HOLLINS'S RAID-DU PONT'S EXPEDITION. 603 Commander Hollins, formerly of our Navy, and more notorious than famous for his bombardment of Greytown, Nicaragua, had drawn rather liberally on his imagination in the above. His prize was a deserted coal-boat; he had not sunk the Preble; and his 'peppering' was done at a prudent distance, and with little or no effect. But he had burst upon our squadron blockading the mouths of the Mississippi, at 3.45 A. M. of that day, with a flotilla composed of his ram Manassas, three firerafts, and five armed steamers. The ram struck our flag steamship Rich fessing to sell her and betook themselves to Liverpool, where a faster and better steamer, the Alabama, had meantime been constructed, and fitted out for their service. So the Nashville, which ran out of Charleston during the Summer, and, in due time, appeared in British waters, after burning (Nov. 19th) the Harvey Birch merchantman within sight of the English coast, ran into Southampton, where lay the Tuscarora; which, if permitted to pursue, would have made short work of her soon after she left, but was compelled to remain twenty-four hours to insure her escape. This detention is author-mond, Capt. Pope, staving in her side ized by the law of nations, though it has not always been respected by Great Britain: Witness her capture of the Essex and Essex Junior in the harbor of Valparaiso, and her destruction of the Gen. Armstrong privateer in the port of Fayal, during the war of 1812. But the concession of such belligerent rights and immunities to a power which has neither recognized national existence nor maritime strength will yet be regretted by Great Britain, as affording an unfortunate and damaging precedent. In October-the communications between our blockading forces in the Gulf and the loyal States being fitful and tedious-the North was startled by the following bulletin, which appeared as a telegram from New Orleans to the Richmond papers: “Fort Jackson, Oct. 12, 1861. "Last night, I attacked the blockaders. with my little fleet. I succeeded, after a very short struggle, in driving them all aground on the Southwest Pass bar, except the Preble, which I sunk. "I captured a prize from them; and, after they were fast in sand, I peppered them well. "There were no casualties on our side. It was a complete success. HOLLINS." below the water-line, and, for the moment, threatening her destruction. Our squadron, consisting of the Richmond, Preble, Vincennes, and Water Witch, instantly slipped their cables, and ran down the South-west Pass, very much as they would have done had all on board been considerably frightened. Commander Robert Handy, of the Vincennes, ran his vessel aground in the flight, and deserted her, with all his men; setting a slowmatch to destroy her, which happily failed. His vessel was recovered unharmed. The fire-rafts were entirely avoided; the Rebel steamboats not venturing within range of the Richmond's guns; while Hollins's haste to telegraph his victory seems to have cost him all its legitimate fruits. Beyond the destruction of the fire-ships, the losses on either side were of no account. On the 29th of October, another and far stronger naval and military expedition set forth from Hampton capes of Vir: Roads, and, clearing the ginia, moved majestically southward. Gen. T. W. Sherman commanded the | vember 3d and 4th; and, after proper land forces, consisting of thirteen vol- soundings and reconnoissances, which unteer regiments, forming three brig- developed the existence of a new fort ades, and numbering not less than on either side of the entrance, the 10,000 men; while the fleet-com- Commodore brought his most effecmanded by Com. Samuel F. Du Pont tive vessels into action at 9 a. M., on -embraced the steam-frigate Wa- Thursday, November 7th, taking the bash, 14 gunboats, 22 first-class and 12 lead in his flag-ship, the Wabashsmaller steamers, with 26 sailing ves- the gunboats to follow at intervals sels. After a stormy passage, in which in due order. Thus the fighting porseveral transports were disabled, and tion of the feet steamed slowly up four absolutely lost, Com. Du Pont, the bay by the arts, receiving and in his flag-ship, came to off Port returning the fire of the batteries Royal, S. C., during the night of No- | on Bay Point as they passed up, and EXPLANATION.-Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, in the back-ground, are the positions of the smaller Federal gunboats. was lovely; the spectacle magnificent; the fight spirited, but most unequal. Despite the general presumption that batteries, well manned and exchanging like compliments with the stronger fort on Hilton Head as they came down. Thus no vessel remained stationary under fire; so that the enemy were at no time ena-served, are superior to ships when not bled to gain, by experiment and ob- iron-clad, the terrible rain of shot and servation, a perfect aim. The day shell upon the gunners in the Rebel CAPTURE OF HILTON HEAD-THE SLAVES. forts soon proved beyond human endurance. The smaller gunboats at length took positions whence their fire was most annoying, yet could not be effectively returned; while the Bienville, on her second promenade, steamed close in to the main Rebel fort, and fired her great guns with such effect as almost to silence the enemy. The Wabash, on her third round, came within six hundred yards of the fort, firing as calmly and heavily as at the outset. The battle had thus raged nearly five hours, with fearful carnage and devastation on the part of the Rebels and very little loss on ours, when the overmatched Confederates, finding themselves slaughtered to no purpose, suddenly and unanimously took to flight; their commander, Gen. T. F. Drayton,2 making as good time as the best of them. The Rebel forts were fully manned by 1,700 South Carolinians, with a field battery of 500 more stationed not far distant. The negroes, save those who had been driven off by their masters, or shot while attempting to evade them, had stubbornly remained on the isles; and there was genuine pathos in the prompt appearance of scores of them, rushing down to the water-side, with their scanty stock of valuables tied up in a handkerchief, and begging to be taken on board our ships. The idea that our occupation might be permanent seems not to have occurred to them; they only thought of escaping 3 605 at all hazards from their life-long, bitter bondage. Had this blow been followed up as it might have been, Charleston, or Savannah, or both, could have been easily and promptly captured. The Confederate defeat was so unexpected, so crushing, and the terror inspired by our gunboats so general and profound, that nothing could have withstood the progress of our arms. But Gen. Sherman had not been instructed to press his advantages, nor had he been provided with the light-draft steamers, row-boats, and other facilities, really needed for the improvement of his signal victory. He did not even occupy Beaufort until December 6th, nor Tybee Island, commanding the approach to Savannah, until December 20th; on which day, a number of old hulks of vessels were sunk in the main ship channel leading up to Charleston between Morris and Sullivan's islands as others were, a few days afterward, in the passage known as Maffit's channel-with intent to impede the midnight flitting of blockaderunners. These obstructions were denounced in Europe as barbarous, but proved simply inefficient. Meantime, the slaveholders of all the remaining Sea Islands stripped them of slaves and domestic animals, burned their cotton, and other crops which they were unable to remove, and fled to Charleston and the interior. Not a slaveholder on all that boat for Savannah, and where any one of our idle armed vessels might easily have intercepted and captured them all. All their works on Hilton Head and the adjacent islands, with about 40 guns, most of them new and large, were utterly abandoned; and, when our forces took possession, soon after, of Beaufort, they found but one white person remaining, and he drunk. coast remained himself, or left his family to live once more, under the flag of the Union. Gen. Sherman issued a pleading, beseeching proclamation to induce them to do so; but none who could read would receive a copy of it, and it fell a dead letter. Soon, the negroes who remained on the islands under our control were set to work at preparing the cotton for market; and, though assured by the master caste that, if they fell into the hands of the Yankees, they would certainly be sent to Cuba and sold, they could not be made to believe that any worse fortune than they had hitherto experienced was in store for them; and their number was steadily augmented by emigrants from the mainland; especially after schools began to be established among them. The steamship Theodora ran out of Charleston harbor during the night of Oct. 12th, conveying James M. Mason, of Va., Confederate Envoy to Great Britain, and John Slidell, of La., likewise accredited to France. The Theodora duly reached Cardenas, Cuba; whence her official passengers repaired to Havana, and, on the 7th of November, left that port, in the British mail steamer Trent, for St. Thomas, on their way to England. The U. S. steamship San Jacinto, Capt. Wilkes, had left Havana on the 2d, and was watching for them in the Bahama Channel, 240 miles from Havana, when, at 11:40 A. M., of the 8th, he sighted the Trent; and, after a civil request to heave to had been declined by her, a shell was fired across her bow, which brought her to Lieut. Fairfax, with a boat's crew, immediately boarded her in reason. quest of the Embassadors; when Messrs. Mason and Slidell, with their Secretaries, Eustis and McFarland, were compelled to change their vessel and their destination. Their families were left undisturbed, and no effort made to obtain their papers. But the Embassadors and their Secretaries were brought to the United States, and confined, by order of the Government, in Fort Warren, near Boston. Secretary Welles, in his Annual Report of naval proceedings for the year ending Dec. 2d, 1861, thus fully and frankly adopted and justified the capture: "The prompt and decisive action of Capt. Wilkes on this occasion merited and received the emphatic approval of the Department; and, if a too generous forbearance was exhibited by him in not capturing the vessels which had these Rebel enemies on board, it may, in view of the special circumstances, and of its patriotic motives, be excused; but it must by no means be permitted to constiof any case of similar infraction of neutral tute a precedent hereafter for the treatment obligations by foreign vessels engaged in commerce or the carrying-trade.” By a decided majority of the publicists of the United States, as well as by the great mass of our people, this seizure was deemed abundantly justified by the doctrines and practices of Great Britain, but especially by her long continued and never disavowed habit of impressing seamen from our merchant vessels, on the assumption that they were natives of Great Britain, and therefore liable at all times and indefeasibly to be remanded into her service, wherever found. In the able and carefully prepared manifesto" whereby George IV., then Prince Regent, explained and justified the conduct of his Government touching the matters in con "Dated Westminster Jan. 9th, 1813. |