For Morris Island. 1 company artillery for enfilade battery. 2 regiments....... .2000 1 battalion cavalry... 400 2 light batteries..... 200 Sullivan's Island. 100 .... 2,600 For Mount Pleasant. 1 regiment artillery for works in progress 1,000 21,561 As the effective force, of all arms, on James Island amounted at that time to 2910, and that in the City of Charleston and on the main to 1279 (in all, 4189), it followed that, out of the whole number required-to wit, 21,561, as shown above-there was, on the 25th of October, in Generals Ripley's and Gist's opinion, a deficit of not less than 17,372 men, of all arms, for the proper defence of the First Military District, South Carolina; an alarming deficiency, but one which General Beauregard did not think exaggerated. CHAPTER XXVIII. General Beauregard Returns to Charleston. He informs the War Department of the Result of his Inspection of the Works around Savannah. — Dispositions Taken with Regard to Different Batteries; for the Completion of the Boom; for the Protection of River Obstructions; for Negro Labor upon Works around Charleston.-Letter to Governor Pickens.—Letter to Colonel Chestnut.-Letter to the Hon. W. P. Miles.-Promise of Secretary of War to send Guns to General Beauregard. - His Letter to General Cobb. - Instructions to Major Pope. - War Department withdraws the Order for Guns.-General Beauregard's Letter to General S. Cooper, Explaining Conduct of Major Childs.-Telegram from the Secretary of War. -General Beauregard Requests a Suspension of Decision.-Refusal of the Secretary of War.-Indignation of General Beauregard.-Governor Pickens Dissuades him from Demanding to be Relieved.-Ordnance Department Refuses to Pay for Banding of Guns.- Notice given of Probable Attack.-Canal Cut through the Wappoo.-General Beauregard's Minute Attention to all Details.-Instructions to General Cobb.-Enemy's Flect directed towards Cape Lookout.-General Beauregard's Letter to General Whiting. Enemy Retires to Newbern.-Information given of Probable Naval Attack upon Charleston. - General Beauregard Recalls his Troops from North Carolina. - President Davis Refuses to send 7-inch Guns to General Beauregard.-They are sent to Mobile. GENERAL BEAUREGARD, having accomplished the object of his visit to Savannah, on the 30th of October returned to Charleston, where he found Captain D. B. Harris waiting for him. His pleasure and relief were great indeed, for he knew that this trusted officer would now relieve him of the immediate supervision of the works to be remodelled and constructed in many portions of his extensive command. It cannot be expected that we shall pass in review and comment upon all the official orders emanating from General Beauregard's headquarters, nor that the reader should be made acquainted with every one of his acts from the time he assumed control of that Department until he left it in the spring of 1864. No more can be looked for than a careful summary, in chronological order, of all events of importance that occurred within his jurisdiction, showing the part he took in each, and giving such explanation as the occasion may call forth. 1. On November 1st he officially informed General Cooper of the result of his inspection of the defences of Savannah, and expressed his views and recommendations "more," he said, "as an Engineer officer than as the commanding general of the Department." The preceding chapter and its comprehensive Appendix have already sufficiently apprised the reader of what these views and recommendations were. 2. On November 3d he instructed Major Pope, Chief of Ordnance, to transfer an 18-pounder cannon from White Point Battery, where it was comparatively useless, to one at Church Flats, in the Second Military District, so as to enfilade the John's Island Bridge and Causeway, which were liable to be taken by a sudden coup de main. On the same day he called on Captain Ingraham, C. S. N., commanding the Naval Department in Charleston, to furnish him three hundred pieces of gunboat plating, to be used in completing the boom across the channel between the two main forts of the harbor. He also suggested that the three merchant ships lying off the wharves should be armed with quaker guns, and anchored near the boom, to deceive the enemy. 3. On November 4th he applied to Governor Pickens for the iron plating which protected the old floating battery used, in April, 1861, during the attack on Fort Sumter. He accepted the four regiments of reserves (infantry) offered him by the governor for the defence of the sea-coast of South Carolina. Two of these he immediately ordered to Pocotaligo, in the Third Military District, and the two others to Georgetown, in the Fourth District (a new one), now being organized, which was afterwards placed under the command of Brigadier-General Trapier. Governor Pickens answered in his usual earnest way, granting General Beauregard's request about the iron. He suggested a plan for the proper management of negroes, and the care to be bestowed upon them while working on the defences of the city and coast, and thought they could be organized into a corps of spadesmen and axemen, to be permanently attached to the army. * General Beauregard's Report to the War Department, to be found in the War Records Office, Washington, D. C. 4. On November 6th General Beauregard wrote an important. letter to Brigadier-General Gist, commanding James Island and the Main, acknowledging receipt of his communication of that date alluding to the good condition of the battery at Mayrant's, near Georgetown. The proposed battery at Frazer's Bluff, though most desirable, was, he feared, liable to be cut off and seized by the enemy. He desired the construction of a work for two or three 24-pounders, to command the North Santee, at a bluff near Ladson's, in the direction of Hame's Ferry. He also inquired about the condition of the battery of one 32-pounder, commanding the South Santee, and wished to know whether or not the stream could be so obstructed as to allow the removal of that gun to the battery at Ladson's. 5. On the 7th General Mercer was requested to confer with Commodore Tatnall, C. S. N., commanding the Naval Department in Savannahı, concerning the fitting out of a small gunboat (not ironclad) with heavy guns, to be placed in a cut near the river obstructions, where the ground was known to be low and soft. General Beauregard suggested the construction of an iron shield on board, arranged to protect the guns, and the throwing up of a levee around the gunboat further to secure its safety. He thought it would be a great saving, both of time and labor. 6. On the 8th of November he wrote the following letter to Governor Pickens: "Governor,-Your letter of the 5th inst. was received after I had given the orders for Cash's regiment to report to General Walker, who, being nearest to the enemy, will require one of the best colonels with him; but I will endeavor to leave him in the Georgetown District. "With regard to the labor furnished for the defences of the city, the planters have done nobly, but they must not stop three-fourths of the way. Should Charleston fall for want of proper works, they will be the largest sufferers in the end. Your idea of organizing negro laborers with the troops is one I have already recommended to the Government long ago. I think that one company of one hundred negroes, as pioneers, per two regiments of one thousand men each, would be a good proportion of laborers, and would leave the troops to attend to their legitimate duties of drill and guard, so that each brigade of the four regiments would have two hundred negro pioneers or laborers. Our Southern soldiers object most strenuously to work with spades and shovels. They will do it in very pressing emergencies, but, on ordinary occasions, do more grumbling than work. They prefer, decidedly, to fight. "I find so much difficulty in procuring mechanics and materials here for the construction of Captain Lee's marine torpedo-ram, that I will have to stop building it. Charleston cannot furnish all the labor and material required for the building of three rams at once; one or two of these must be stopped, to enable the other to be completed; otherwise all three will remain unfinished when the enemy will make his appearance here. I am free to confess that I believe our ordinary gunboats will effect but little against the enemy's new gigantic monitors, provided they can get here in safety from the North. We must attack them under water, where they are the most vulnerable, if we wish to destroy them, and the torpedo-ram is the only probable way of accomplishing that desirable end. Moreover, one of these can be furnished in at least half the time required for an ordinary-sized gunboat-ram. "With regard to your supposition that the enemy will not make a land attack on our coast before disposing of Lee's army, I believe they will do so as soon as the forces in Virginia shall have gone into winter-quarters, thus enabling them to send reinforcements South for a campaign; and, with their great facilities of transportation, they could get them here before we could Respectfully, your obdt. servt., "G. T. BEAUREGARD, Genl. Comdg." ours. 7. Two days after the foregoing letter was penned the following communication was sent to Colonel James Chestnut, Jr., at that time in command of the State Reserves of South Carolina: "HEADQUARTERS, DEPT. S. C., Ga., and Fla., CHARLESTON, S. C., Nov. 10th, 1862. "Colonel,-A few days ago I answered your telegram, informing you that I would be able to furnish an artillery officer to make the examination of the Santee River, referred to by you in your telegram, asking you to name when and where he should report, but thus far I have received no answer. Meanwhile I have read with satisfaction the excellent report of Mr. Niernsee relative to his reconnoissance of the Santee River, from Lownde's Ferry to Nowell's Point, and of the information obtained by him relative to the North and South Santee, from the point of junction to their mouths. My conclusion is, that Nowell's Point is the proper position to be fortified, and the river ought to be obstructed, not more than four hundred yards below the fort. This obstruction, I think, can be made of several rows of piles (should the bottom permit it), interlaced with a properly constructed abatis of trees-live-oaks, if possible. "As it is not probable that the enemy's ironclad boats will be able to ascend to that point of the river, the armament of the battery need not consist of heavier guns than 32-pounders, smooth-bore (three or four), and about two rifled 24-pounders. All of these guns to be separated by heavy traverses, or placed by twos in detached batteries. Rifle - pits should also be provided (not enfiladed from the river) for the infantry support to the batteries. The thickness of the parapets of the latter should be about twenty feet, and of the rifle-pits twelve or fifteen feet. The height of the crest of the batteries (which may be half sunk) should be about six feet above the front ground, |