Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

The South Atlantic Coast, 1863 –1865 77
wrote to Halleck on 25 November
that he would “move on the night
of the 28th, and . . . attack on the
next day.” 51
Foster assembled a striking
force of five white and six black
infantry regiments—among them
the 34th and 35th USCIs from
Florida—as well as other white
troops—a cavalry regiment and
sections of three artillery batteries.
Left to look after Charleston
Harbor and to man posts in the Sea
Islands and Florida were five white
and four black infantry regiments;
some white engineers and artillery;
and Battery G, 2d U.S. Colored
Artillery. Foster’s force, called the
Coast Division, amounted to five
thousand soldiers. An additional
body of five hundred sailors and
marines was termed the Naval Brigade.
52
The division boarded ships at
Hilton Head on 28 November. The
transports cast off at about 2:30
the next morning and headed for a
landing place on the south bank of
the Broad River. A dense fog soon
descended. Some vessels dropped
anchor to wait for daylight, others
ran aground, and still others
steered a mistaken course up the
James M. Trotter was one of the few black
men who rose above the enlisted ranks.
This photograph shows him as a second
lieutenant of the 55th Massachusetts.
nearby Chechesse River. It was 11:00 a.m. before the Naval Brigade began to go
ashore. A small steamer carrying building material for a solid surface on which to
land the artillery went up the wrong river and did not arrive until 2:00 p.m. Late that
afternoon, Foster turned command over to General Hatch and returned to department
headquarters at Hilton Head. 53
The Naval Brigade began moving inland, its men pulling their own artillery
support, eight twelve-pounder howitzers. “Unfortunately the maps and
guides proved equally worthless,” Hatch reported, and the naval force took a
wrong turn while following some retreating Confederates. The nearest town
was Grahamville, which Union troops had hoped to reach on the first day, but
51 OR, ser. 1, vol. 35, pt. 2, p. 328 (“a demonstration”); 44: 505, 525, 547 (“move on”).
52 OR, ser. 1, 44: 420–21, 591.
53 Ibid., pp. 420–21, 586–87.