The campaign to take the pivotal city of Charleston began with an initial assault on the Tower Battery located in Secessionville, a village of Charleston located on James Island. It is still not known with certainty to this day if the name "Secessionville" arose as a result of the outbreak of the War Between the States, or if it referred to an earlier conflict in the 1850s regarding a revolt by planters in this village who wished to "secede" from the City of Charleston over tax grievances. Regardless, Charleston - the birthplace of secession - was considered the hotbed of rebellion; leveling this city en route to its surrender would be a very symbolic act of retribution by the Federal forces and a moral victory for the Union. The proximity of the Tower Battery, later to be renamed Fort Lamar after its commander Colonel Lamar, was an essential asset to gaining unfettered sightlines for Union artillery to begin shelling the stately homes of Charleston's peninsula.
Preparations for this siege campaign began in earnest in early 1862. The newly-assigned Confederate General Robert E. Lee, outmanned and outgunned by Union naval forces, decided to "adopt a strategy of inland defense in an attempt to lure the Northerners from their powerful naval guns". However, Lee was transfixed by his desire to protect Charleston and Savannah, as well. His engineers tirelessly toiled to fortify both cities with gun emplacements, reinforced batteries and earthworks, and recruited local townsmen in both cities to provide an additional militia force for defense.
Accordingly, Confederate Major General John Pemberton began dismantling and repositioning Confederate guns from areas in close proximity over to Charleston, following Lee's mandate. Pemberton "ordered 1st District Commander Colonel Arthur M. Manigault to dismantle the Georgetown, South Carolina batteries up the coast from Charleston and ship the guns and attendant troops to the latter." The South Carolina military liaison, Brigadier General States Rights Gist, worked concurrently "to smooth relations between the army and civilian leaders" following this bold repurposing of armaments and ordnance, as everyone from South Carolina Governor Pickens to the mayor of Charleston were incensed."
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| MAP OF CHARLESTON, JAMES ISLAND, AND HARBOR DEFENSES |
On the Federal side of the battle lines, General David Hunter was firmly in command. A "darling of the Radical Republicans, [Hunter] soon found himself in command of the Union forces that made up the Department of the South." "He and his chief subordinate, Henry Benham, were recent arrivals" to the South Carolina theater. Benham commanded 6,500 troops, comprised of units from the 8th Michigan, 3rd New Hampshire, 7th Connecticut, 28th Massachusetts, and 79th New York "Highlanders," all preparing for assault on the southern flank of the Confederate stronghold on James Island.
Confederate troops were busily making preparations to remove the bulk of emplacements on Cole Island and Battery Island, a group of barrier islands to the Southern and Eastern portions of James Island. "Clement Stevens took a week to dismantle the 17 guns on Coles and the two pieces on Battery Island. With the guns' transfer from Stono Inlet... three companies of artillerymen took up posts in the new works near Elliot's Cut." While all of this was taking place, four artillery pieces were loaded onto the Confederate transport vessel Planter, and were to be delivered to Fort Ripley in the center of Charleston Harbor. An industrious and clever African-American aboard the vessel and who served as the pilot, Robert Smalls, led "a crew of five black men" aboard ship. This would be a crucial point for what occurred next. Despite "general orders forbidding a ship's captain and crew from spending the night ashore, those in charge of the transport did exactly that, leaving Smalls and his comrades aboard by themselves." Not surprisingly, the cunning Smalls leveraged this opportunity to unhatch his scheme to make off with the transport vessel, its four guns and 200 lbs. of ammunition in its cargo holds.
Smalls led the transport out of its berth in the port's Southern Wharf at 3 a.m., below the watchful eye of Confederate guards ashore. "Smalls' plan had worked perfectly... suddenly, Smalls and his crew were free." The commandeered ship surrendered itself to the Union naval blockade, and the ship was subsequently dispatched to "Port Royal to report directly to Flag Officer Du Pont himself"(Brennan 26). Smalls later "revealed that Coles Island and its batteries, the long-standing protectors of Stono Inlet and Charleston's flank, had been abandoned." Thus with this crucial information the key to Charleston's backdoor was virtually handed to the Federals.
Later that May, Gen. States Rights Gist - the overall commander of James Island - "pulled most of Colonel Stevens' 24th South Carolina off Coles Island and relocated them nearer Secessionville." By May 20th, the Union Navy began a constant reconnaissance of James Island, including sending probes up the Stono River. Having ascertained closely-guarded personnel and ordnance deployment information from Robert Smalls, what should have been a clear-cut attack plan by Federal forces under Henry Benham became contentious. A confluence of miscommunication and posturing, including several disagreements with Admiral Du Pont, exacerbated this. "In an obvious effort to squelch Benham, [Du Pont] directed his correspondence to Major General Hunter and spared no one in his sharp denunciation of Benham's ways and means." This was but the first misstep that derailed plans for a quick and easy defeat of the "cradle of secession."
Moving in to lay siege on Charleston by flanking it from the Southeast via James Island would have not only served to likely shorten the war, but additionally the takeover of Charleston Harbor would have abnegated any chances of Confederate blockade runners re-supplying the secessionists with very needed materiel, supplies and ordnance from Europe. As it would stand, this did not turn out to be the case. General Beauregard had "stated that James Island was the key to Charleston, and the Union forces realized this." As preparations were being made for the Union assault on James Island, faulty intelligence led them to believe that the Confederacy had an overstrength group in excess of 12,000 soldiers available for the Island's defense. This was patently untrue. "Realizing that the main attack [by the Federals] might be directed against the breastwork at Secessionville, General Pemberton C.S.A. instructed Brig. Gen. W.D. Smith to hold at 'any cost' the woods west of Secessionville."
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| THE BATTLE OF SECESSIONVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA |
At 3 A.M., June 16th, the Union forces made their attack on the Tower Battery at Secessionville, situated on a peninsula barely 125 yards wide. Surrounded by marsh on three sides, this was difficult terrain and depending upon the tidal marsh, very difficult to traverse without a readily-accessible causeway. Leading the charge for the Union forces were the elite Eighth Michigan and the Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders. On their first infantry charge, Confederate Colonel Lamar fired grape shot from a Columbiad directly into the center of the Union column, decimating the center of the leading charge of the Eighth Michigan, who were the regimental front. "Confederate troops rushed to the aid" of Col. Lamar, led by the "Pee Dee Battaltion... [and the] Charleston Battalion, led by Lt. Col. P.C. Gaillard." As Union forces advanced on them, hand-to-hand and bayonet fighting occurred heavily.
Concurrently, the "Third New Hampshire and some of the troops of the Third Rhode Island of the First Division had marched down the other peninsula, which is separated only by a small creek from the peninsula on which the battery was located." Meanwhile, the "situation on the parapet was precarious." A battalion of Louisianan troops crossed a footbridge and began to fend off the Third New Hampshire who were firing upon the rear of the Confederate artillerymen inside the earthworks. "A two-gun battery of 24-pounders was placed in front of E.M. Clark's house, later known as Battery Reed, for the purpose of enfilading an enemy attack on the breastwork at Secessionville a mile away." The U.S. Navy gunboats positioned on the Stono River were then called upon to provide more covering fire for the Union troops who were being repulsed after their first two assaults on the battery. "The gunboats Ellen and E.B. Hale, both light-draft boats," were called upon to shell from their position over a mile away. Unfortunately, without accurate spotting and the large distance between the boats and the Secessionville peninsula, the shells were said to strike "as often around Federals as Rebels".
Once the Union retreat was called, 685 men were counted as casualties from the striking force of 6,600. Because the Union forces were "not committed simultaneously, [the battle] evolved into three waves of troops," leaving brief lulls between the volleys of attack.
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| JAMES ISLAND DEFENSES |
After sailing, rowing, and wading up the Stono River, these troops were encamped on the western shores of James Island, South Carolina, awaiting their orders to attack the "Tower Battery," as Fort Lamar was then known. This large Confederate defense site, replete with a 110-foot lookout tower, numerous artillery pieces and an enfilade position -- coupled with marsh to the North, and marsh, mud and a river to the South -- provided a very difficult fort to defeat. Moreover, with the arrival of high tide this defensive position was almost peninsular in its geography; thus the Union soldiers would have tremendous difficulty in flanking it from any direction. The Federal surveyors and engineers also did themselves a great disservice; by not properly surveiling the surrounding marshland of James Island, US forces from the 3rd New Hampshire who may have possibly altered the outcome of this decisive battle became mired in more than head-deep pluff mud and marsh grass as they tried to come to the aid of their Federal comrades-in-arms from Michigan who were being decimated by the Confederate artillery.
JAMES ALFRED MOLNAR
Graduate School of Arts & Science Wake Forest University
http://www.CharlestonBattlefields.com
http://www.CharlestonGraveyards.com
molnja7@wfu.edu
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