Fremont in Missouri: Port Royal Island and Bull's Run

Late in the same month (October, 1861), another more formidable land and naval armament left Hampton Roads for a destination unknown to all but the chief commander. It was composed of fifty war-ships and transports commanded by Admiral S. F. Dupont, and fifteen thousand land troops under General T. W. Sherman. Dupont's flag-ship, the Wabash, led the way out to sea, and each ship sailed under sealed orders to be opened in case of the dispersion of the fleet. A terrible tempest smote them off Cape Hatteras, and very soon only one vessel could be seen from the deck of the flag-ship. The sealed orders were opened, by which each commander was directed to rendezvous at Port Royal entrance, on the coast of South Carolina. There all but four transports, which were lost, were gathered around the Wabash on the evening of the 4th of November. Fortunately no human life perished with the transports lost.

The entrance to Port Royal Sound is between Hilton Head and Phillip's Island, and was guarded by a battery on each, erected by the Confederates. Within the Sound was a small flotilla of armed vessels commanded by the veteran Commodore Tatnall, late of the United States navy, who had espoused the Confederate cause. On the morning of the 7th of November, Dupont's ships attacked the guarding forts, the guns of which were soon silenced, when the fleet moved into the Sound and drove Tattnall's vessels into shallow water. The National forces took possession of Port Royal Island and the neighboring ones, and found them deserted by the planters and their families. Most of the slaves remained. They had refused to follow their masters, who tried to frighten them by horrible stories about the people of the North--the "Yankees"--who, they told them, were coming to steal and sell the negroes in Cuba, or to kill them and bury them in the sand. The colored people did not believe these tales; and when the National ships approached, and the masters and mistresses of the slave fled in terror, these simple people--men, women and children--stood in groups on the sea-shore, with little bundles of clothing in their hands, desiring to go on board.

The last efforts of the Confederates to defend the Sea Islands below Charleston, where the most valuable cotton was raised, was made at Port Royal Ferry, between Port Royal Island and the main, on the 1st of January, 1862. After a severe conflict the Confederates were defeated and dispersed. Dupont, in the meantime, had taken possession of Big Tybee Island, near Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River; and before the close of 1861, the National authority was supreme over the coast islands from Warsaw Sound to the mouth of the North Edisto River. A fleet of twenty old wooden ships, chiefly whalers, heavily laden with rough blocks of granite, which had been sent from New England to be sunk in the four channels of the entrance to Charleston harbor, and so assist in the blockade services, arrived at their destination at about this time. It was when this "stone fleet" approached, that a fire which laid a large portion of Charleston in ashes (an event already mentioned), was raging. Quicksands swallowed the "stone fleet," and its services were of very little account.

We have seen that General McClellan was called from Western Virginia to take charge of the army of the Potomac, as the forces around Washington were called after the battle of Bull's Run. He assumed command on the 27th of July. He brought to the service youth, a spotless moral character, robust health, a sound theoretic military education with some practical experience, untiring industry, the prestige of recent success in the field, and the unlimited confidence of the loyal people. He found at his disposal about fifty thousand infantry, less than one thousand cavalry, six hundred and fifty artillerymen, and thirty pieces of cannon. He was very popular, and was called a "Young Napoleon;" and when on the 1st of November, 1861, General Scott resigned his place as General-in-Chief of the armies, McClellan was appointed to fill that office. The act was hailed as a promise of a speedy termination of the conflict, for he had said that the war should be "short, sharp, and decisive." He thoroughly reorganized the army which had been shattered by the terrible blow of Bull's Run; and it was believed that Richmond, which had become the Confederate capital, would be in the possession of the National troops before the close of September.