Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

The South Atlantic Coast, 1863 –1865 75
attempt and with the help of the 157th New York of Davis’ brigade, at the cost of
11 men killed, 71 wounded, and 12 missing. “Had the advance been supported,”
Hatch wrote, “the enemy’s artillery would have been captured; as it was, both
artillery and infantry were driven from the field” by a regiment that had arrived
from the North only three months earlier. The attack had not been arranged well,
but the troops’ performance must have benefited from the weeks spent at General
Foster’s camp of instruction at Beaufort. 45
Two days later, the Confederates attacked early in the morning about 4:30 and
again about 6:00, but the federal troops stopped both assaults. Then, having decided
that Confederate batteries on the Stono River were too well positioned to storm,
Union commanders declared the operation a success and reembarked the two brigades.
Their demonstration on John’s Island alarmed the Confederates and caused
them to reinforce Charleston’s defenders, but federal troops had not come within
miles of their announced goal, the railroad. 46
The third part of Union operations during early July consisted of a landing
on the south end of James Island that was meant to draw Confederate defenders
away from a projected federal attack on Fort Johnson, which overlooked
Charleston Harbor at the island’s northeastern tip. The force responsible for
the southern landing was a brigade led by Col. Alfred S. Hartwell of the 55th
Massachusetts. After a series of orders and counterorders that kept the troops
up for two nights, the 55th Massachusetts, 103d New York, and 33d USCI
landed on James Island early on the morning of 2 July. Trying to get ashore,
men sank above their waists in mud. Soon after emerging from the thick woods
and underbrush that lined the shore, the advancing troops came under fire from
two Confederate cannon. This killed seven men in the lead regiment, the 103d
New York, and caused it either to “fall back a few yards and reform,” as its
commanding officer reported, or to become “panic-stricken,” as Sgt. James
M. Trotter of the 55th Massachusetts put it. The 55th came out of the woods
and moved through a marsh toward the Confederate guns. “This gave Johnny
a great advantage over us as we could only advance very slowly and the men
were continually sinking,” Trotter wrote. “We had now got beyond the jungle
[and] was within 200 yds of the battery when we made a desperate rush yelling
unearthly. Here the Rebels broke . . . and by the time we had gained the parapet
were far down the road leading to Secessionville. . . . We had been out two days
and nights wading through the mud and water and were too tired to pursue.”
Meanwhile, the 1,000-man landing force at Fort Johnson missed the tide by an
hour, grounded its boats, and lost 5 officers and 132 enlisted men captured by
the Confederates. Like the troops on John’s Island, Hartwell’s brigade stayed
put until Generals Foster and Hatch, after conferring with Admiral Dahlgren
on 8 July, decided that the Confederate defenses were too formidable to assault
with the force at their command. Union troops evacuated the inshore islands by
45 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, pp. 85 (quotations), 264; Whitaker to My dear Wife, 12 Jul 1864;
Dyer, Compendium, p. 834.
46 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 1, p. 85.