Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tween Mobile and New Orleans. On the mainland, opposite Ship Island, are the towns of Biloxi, Mississippi City, and Pascagoula. On the west end of the island are a fort and a light-house. The fort was built by the United States in 1859, and was burned by the Confederates in June, 1861. The United States steamer Massachusetts found the island unoccupied at the end of June. On the 8th of July, the same steamer found a considerable force there, which had thrown up intrenchments, and had mounted several guns. An attempt to dislodge them failed, and they retained possession until September 16th, when, apprehending the approach of a large force, they abandoned the island, taking most of their guns. In the mean time they had rebuilt the fort and named it Fort Twiggs. The Massachusetts landed a force September 17th, which continued to hold it. They received re-enforcements, and strengthened the place, mounting several Dahlgren nineinch shell guns and rifled cannon. On the 19th of October, Commodore Hollins, commander of the Confederate steamer Florida, challenged the Massachusetts, and, after a combat of forty-five minutes, the rebel ship drew off in a sinking condition, with four of her crew killed. The Massachusetts was hit by a one-hundred-pound shot, doing much injury to the hull, but she had only one man wounded. On the 21st of November, the gunboat New London arrived in the sound, and in the course of a fortnight captured five Confederate vessels.

General Butler was authorized to enlist troops for this expedition in New England, and in doing so he came in collision with the Governor of Massachusetts, who objected to the raising of troops independent of his authority in the State, and to the appointment of field officers by General Butler. A sharp controversy sprang up on the subject, and the expedition was long delayed. Finally the first instalment, a part of the Middlesex brigade, consisting of the Massachusetts Twentysixth and Connecticut Ninth volunteers, with Captain Manning's battery of artillery, numbering in all one thousand nine hundred and eight men, arrived off Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on board the steam transport Constitution, on the 26th of November. In compliance with previous orders and commands, General J. W. Phelps relieved Colonel Jones, of the Massachusetts Twenty-sixth, in command, and the ship stood out to sea on the afternoon of the 27th.

They arrived at Ship Island December 3d. Having completed the landing of his troops, and before his commanding officer, General Butler, arrived, Phelps issued an address to the people of the Southwest, containing the following passages:

"We believe that every State that has been admitted as a slave State into the Union since the adoption of the Constitution, has been admitted in direct violation of that Constitution.

"The Church, by being endowed with political power, with its convents, its schools,

John W. Phelps was born in Vermont, in 1813, graduated at West Point in 1836, as second lieutenant of artillery, and became first lieutenant in 1838. He commanded his company in Mexi co with distinction at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, was made captain in 1830, and resigned in 1859. When the war broke out he was made colonel of the First Vermont volunteers,

and soon after brigadier-general of volunteers. He took part in the Ship Island expedition, and in the expedition against New Orleans, in the spring of 1862, but having become involved in a dispute with General Butler, with regard to the disposition to be made of the negroes who sought the protection of the United States flag, he resigned his commission July 31, 1862.

[graphic]
[ocr errors]

its immense landed wealth, its associations, secret and open, became the ruling power of the State, and thus occasioned a war of more strife and bloodshed, probably, than any other war which has desolated the earth.

"Slavery is still less susceptible of political character than was the Church. It is as fit at this moment for the lumber-room of the past as were, in 1793, the landed wealth, the exclusive privilege, &c., of the Catholic Church in France.

"It behooves us to consider, as a self-governing people, bred and reared and prac tised in the habits of self-government, whether we cannot, whether we ought not, revolutionize slavery out of existence, without the necessity of a conflict of arms like that of the French Revolution."

*

* “That it (free labor) is the right, the capital the inheritance, the hope of the poor man everywhere; that it is especially the right of five millions of our fellow-countrymen in the Slave States, as well as of the four millions of Africans there, and all our efforts, therefore, however small or great, whether directed against the interference of Governments from abroad, or against rebellious combinations at home, shall be for free labor."

This document was not circulated on the mainland to any considerable extent, and was promptly disavowed by General Butler, then in Massachusetts.

While these expeditions were in progress another was organized, with as much secrecy as possible in respect to its destination, under General Burnside.* The preparations commenced early in September, and about eleven thousand troops concentrated at Annapolis in October, for drill and preparation. The great difficulties necessarily attendant upon combined expeditions caused such delays, that General Burnside was not ready for sea until January 12th, when the combined land and naval forces sailed from Fortress Monroe in one hundred and twenty vessels The destination was kept secret until the expedition appeared off Hatteras. It was then announced to be Roanoke Island, which, lying between Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and separated by Croatan Sound from the mainland, completely commands the navigation of the inland seas of North Carolina. Scarcely had the fleet departed, when it was overtaken by one of those violent storms common to the coast at that season, and suffered much damage. The steamer New York, with a quantity of arms and stores, was lost. The Pocahontas went ashore and was lost, with seventy-five

* Ambrose E. Burnside was born in Indiana, May 234, 1824; graduated at West Point in 1847; served in the Mexican war with credit, and afterwards on the Mexican frontier, where he was quartermaster of the boundary commission. In 1551 he travelled twelve hundred miles through the Indian country in seventeen days. He was subsequently stationed at Newport, but resigned his commission in 1853, to engage in the manufacture of a breech-loading ride of his own invention. He then entered the service of the

Illinois Central Railroad. Governor Sprague, on the outbreak of the war, made him colonel of a Rhode Island regiment, and he served as acting brigadier at Bull Run; On the 6th of August he was made brigadier-general of volunteers. A few months later, he took charge of the expedition to Roanoke Island, and after the occupation of that place, captured Newbern, Fort Macon, and other important points in North Carolina. After the disaster on the Peninsula in 1862, he was ordered North with the greater part of his army, and commanded the left wing at

the battle of Antietam. Soon afterwards be was placed in command of one of the three grand divisions of the Army of the Potomac; and, on November 7th, he succeeded General McClellan in command of the whole Army of the Potomac; fought the unsuccessful battle before Fredericksburg, December 13th, and was relieved of his command January 26th, 1863. On March 26th, he was appointed to command the Department of Ohio, and in the fall conducted the campaign in Eastern Tennessee, capturing Cumberland Gap, Knoxville, and other places. In November, he successfully held Knoxville against Longstreet's besieging army, and on December 14th was relieved by General Foster. In command of the Ninth Corps he participated in the campaign of 1864 against Richmond, but having been censured for the failure of the assault, after the explosion of the mine in front of Petersburg, he was relieved towards the close of the year by General Parke, and in May, 1865, resigned his commission.

horses; and several other vessels were wrecked, with more or less loss in stores and munitions. Much difficulty was encountered in passing over the bar at Hatteras Inlet into Pamlico Sound, in consequence of miscalculations in regard to draft of water, and it was not until February that this was effected. The enemy held Roanoke Island, with a force of three thousand men. The place was strongly intrenched, and was supposed capable of resisting any force that might be sent into the sound. On the 7th of February, the day after the surrender of Fort Henry to the gunboats of Flag-officer Foote, an attack was commenced. The gunboats, under Flag-officer Goldsborough, having cleared an entrance into Croatan Sound, and driven off the rebel fleet, consisting of seven gunboats, the Federal troops, under Generals Foster, Reno, and Parks, effected a landing at night, beyond the reach of the rebel guns, and advanced at daybreak on the 8th of February, through a dense swamp, upon the principal intrenchments, which extended across the only road leading through the island, and were protected on either flank by swamps and artificial obstructions of a formidable character. The main Federal column skirmished in front of these, until the rebel wings were simultaneously attacked by flanking parties, when with a determined rush it carried the works by storm. The enemy forthwith abandoned the place, and fled towards the upper end of the island, closely pursued. There were, however, no means of escape, and the whole force of nearly three thousand men surrendered at discretion. Among the killed on the side of the Confederates was Captain O. J. Wise, a son of Ex-Governor Henry A. Wise, who was shot while attempting to escape in a boat. H. A. Wise had been in command of the island, but had left it a few days before on account of illness. With this island fell the defences of the enemy in that region. On the 9th a portion of the fleet passed into Albemaire Sound and attacked the Confederate flotilla near Elizabeth City, capturing one and destroying four vessels. The troops, without encountering further resistance, took possession of Elizabeth, Edenton, and other towns, and the Union occupation of the Carolina sounds became well established. Thus almost simultaneously with the penetration of Kentucky and Tennessee, in the northwestern part of the proposed Confederacy, by the gunboats, the defences of North Carolina fell by the same means. The interior of that State and the rear of Norfolk were thus opened to the Union force.

Little of interest occurred at Fort Pickens until September 13th, when Lieutenant Russell, with five launches, containing each thirty men, pulled across from Santa Rosa Island to the navy-yard, two miles distant, and, with singular audacity and address, burned the schooner Judith, fitting out as a privateer or blockad-erunner, under the guns of the yard. At midnight on the 8th of October, about twelve hundred of the enemy, under command of General Anderson, landed on Santa Rosa Island and surprised the camp of the Sixth New York Zouaves, who were driven out in confusion. A party of regulars arriving from Fort Pickens, and the Zouaves partially rallying, the rebels were in turn driven. off, their departure being hastened by a heavy fire opened upon them at short range after they had embarked. The loss was not large on either side.

In November, the force on the island was thirteen hundred men, under Colonel Brown. The enemy's force was rated at eight thousand men, occupying the navy-yard, with four long Dahlgren thirty-twos; Fort McRea, with four columbiads and a number of heavy guns; and Fort Barrancas, with twenty-five Dahlgren thirty-twos. There were also fourteen batteries between these points, with one to four columbiads each. Colonel Brown determined to open upon them, and he invited Flag-officer McKean to co-operate. On the morning of November 22d, Colonel Brown began his fire. The enemy's batteries formed a segment of a circle, all nearly equidistant from Pickens. The steam frigates Niagara and Richmond drew in as near to Fort McRea as soundings would permit. The fire of Pickens was incessant until dark. By noon the guns of McRea were silenced, and several other batteries ceased firing before sundown. The next morning Fort Pickens opened again, but many of the enemy's guns were silent, and at noon the village of Warrington and the navy-yard took fire, when the cannonade was brought to an end. Fort Pickens lost one gun, and six men wounded. The report of Colonel Brown dwelt at length upon the efficiency of rifled guns, and particularly of Parrott guns.

The defences of the city of Galveston (Texas) were abandoned in the month of November, as not being available against the long range and heavy calibre of the blockading force. It is the most populous sea-port of Texas, and had in 1860 a population of eight thousand one hundred and seventy-seven. It is situated on an island at the mouth of Galveston Bay, about four hundred and fifty miles west by south of New Orleans, and two hundred and thirty miles southeast of Austin City. The island, which separates the bay from the Gulf of Mexico, is about thirty miles long from east to west, and about a mile and a half wide. The distance from the island across the bay by the railroad bridge to the mainland is about two miles. For the defence of the city, guns were placed during the year at the east end of the island, at Bolivar Point, and at Pelican Spit Island, commanding, the bay. Its commerce under the blockade ceased entirely. The cause of the South was ardently espoused by the inhabitants, and numbers entered the army. No important occurrence of a hostile nature, however, took place here until August 3d, when a few shots were fired from the blockading schooner Dart at the batteries on Galveston Island. This was intended as a sort of a reconnoissance. Again, on the 5th, the steamer North Carolina opened her fire upon the batteries, and threw some shells into the city. A large number of persons having collected on the sand-hills, a little eastward of the batteries, a shell fell among them, killing one man and wounding three others. This led to a protest by the foreign consuls resident in the city, addressed to Captain Alden, commanding the blockading squadron, against bombarding without notice given. He, in reply, disclaimed the intention, but stated that he had been fired upon by the batteries first. Nothing further of importance took place until November 20th, when, after consultation of the citizens, it was thought impossible to defend the town, all public and private property of a movable kind was sent to Houston, and a line of signals established which should cause the

« AnteriorContinuar »