Robert Smalls & the Planter-- Part 7: The Plan

Robert Smalls put his plan onto action on May 12, 1862.  That afternoon, the Planter had returned from two weeks of setting up artillery on James Island.   Smalls correctly predicted that the officers would be tired and leave the ship that evening.

As the officers went ashore from the ship's berth at the Southern Wharf, the crew banked the fires in the Planter's boiler and remained aboard.  Smalls' plan was to depart quietly in the pre-dawn hours and pick up the crew's families at the North Atlantic Wharf on the Cooper River.

Their departure  was tricky:  leaving the city just before dawn would put them near the forts at first light, but Smalls knew that of they were moving in the harbor in the darkness they would come under suspicion.  They had one piece of luck:  Smalls had learned that then guard boat, usually outside the harbor entrance, was under repaor and would not be on station that evening.

--Old B-Runner

S.C. Preserves Part of Fort Johnson Site-- Part 3: Before and After the War

By 1829, the Fort Johnson property had become a depot for the construction of Fort Sumter.  In 1860, engineers were scrambling to finish Fort Sumter as war clouds gathered.  On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union.

On December 26, 1861, Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. First Artillery ordered the families and troops at Fort Moultrie to shift  from Sullivan's Island to Fort Johnson, but the schooner carrying them stopped just short of the point, anchoring in the harbor.

When S.C. Governor Francis W. Pickens, learned that the forts, except Sumter, were essentially unoccupied, he ordered them seized.  General Pierre G.T. Beauregard decided a mortar to be fired from Fort Johnson would serve as a signal  for all batteries tom open fire on Sumter.

At the time, there were two batteries at Fort Johnson, one on the beach and one on the hill.

During the war, Fort Johnson and at Union-held Battery Gregg on Morris Island often exchanged artillery fire.  On July 3, 1864, Union troops attempted an amphibious landing at Fort Johnson, but failed.

In early 1865, with General Sherman's Army marching through the state, Confederates evacuated Fort Johnson and the rest of the massive Charleston defenses on February 17.

Troops with the 54th Massachusetts, a black regiment famous for he attack on Fort Wagner in Charleston Harbor and the 52nd Pennsylvania, a white regiment, rowed form Morris Island to Fort Johnson, taking control of 26 abandoned cannons.

--Old B-Runner

S.C. Preserves Fort Johnson Site in Charleston Harbor-- Part 2

The Medical University of South Carolina(MUSC) board of trustees has agreed to sell its Fort Johnson holdings at the northeastern tip of Windmill Point on James Island to the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust, which will place a conservation easement on the property to prevent  any commercial or residential development, then donate the land to the DNR.

State Senator  Chip Campsen was instrumental in securing both the Fort Johnson and May Forest properties.  (May Forest from the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy).  In the spring of 2021, he got fellow legislators to make an offer on the convent tract and the state purchased the 23 acres for $23.25 million.

At that time, they started looking at the adjacent Fort Johnson plot which had 1.58 acres.  They bought it for a huge price, $3.5 million.

The sprawling yaupon (an evergreen shrub in case you're wondering like me) will be thinned out or cleared and  eventually trails will be built with picnic tables, signage and water access.

Good News.  --Old B-Runner

S.C. Preserves Part of Fort Johnson Site in Charleston Harbor-- Part 1

From the February 22, 2022, Charleston (SC) Post and Courier "SC Battleground Preservation Trust secures a piece of Fort Johnson on James Island" by Adam Parker.

Going back to April 1861, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, and the first shot was fired from shore at Union-held Fort Sumter in the middle of the harbor, sparking the long smoldering Civil War.  Most folks think those shots were fired from Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island.  But they weren't.

They were fired from Confederate Fort Johnson on James Island.

In the early morning of April 12, 1861, Col. James Chesnut  Jr. (yes, diarist Mary Chesnut's husband) ordered Captain George S. James to fire a signal shot over Fort Sumter.  Lt. Henry S.  Farley, commander of the  beach battery at Fort Johnson prepared the mortar and then fired it exactly at 4:30 am.

The shell arched in the air and exploded directly over Fort Sumter.  A second shot was soon fired by Lt. W.H. Gibbes and the war was on.

Fort Johnson is no more, at least the fortifications aren't.  Since 1970, the S.C. Department of Natural resources has been the primary  resident of Windmill Point.  The College of Charleston maintains its Grice Marine Laboratory there.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Fisheries Division is housed in a building on the point.  The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has its May Lab for environmental  microbiology research, and has owned a large structure in the northwestern corner of the site that has been unused for many years.

--Old B-Runner

Johns Island, S.C., in the Civil War: Another Battle There Called Battle of Bloody Bridge-- Part 3

From Wikipedia

The Battle of Bloody Bridge, also known as Burden's Causeway, tool place on Johns Island in July 1864.  The site of the battle is located off today's River Road, just north of the Charleston Executive Airport.

On July 2, 1864, Brigadier General John Hatch's federal troops landed at the Legareville section of Johns Island.  He wanted to cross Johns island, then cross the Stono River and then lay siege on James Island.

Union troops met with Confederates where the creek turns into swamp.  Around 2,000 South Carolina troops held off a U.S. force numbering around 8,000.

After three days of action, the Federals left the island.

--Old B-Runner

USS Marblehead-- Part 3: Action in the Stono River and Bombardment of Charleston Defenses

The Marblehead survived its battle with the horse cavalry artillery and was then transferred to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.  Primarily she patrolled the coast looking for blockade runners, but in early February 1863, she reconnoitered the Wilmington River  with the monitor USS Passaic trying to locate the ironclad CSS Atlanta (ex-blockade-runner Fingal).

Later in the month, on the 23rd, she took possession of  the prize Glide and her cargo of cotton which had been captured by  the Coast Guard schooners Caswell and Arago at the entrance to Tybee Creek in Georgia.  The Glide had been in route to Nassau.

During her coastal patrols, the Marblehead on occasion engaged in operations on the Stono River, South Carolina,  in support of Union forces on James Island by Charleston.  On 16 July 1863, during an assault by Confederate forces on that position, she came under fire by Confederate artillery at Grimball's Landing.

Forced further downriver, she still provided fire support and prevented Confederate reinforcements from reaching  the main body of their attack force.

Afterwards, the Marblehead joined with the rest of the Union fleet outside of Charleston Harbor in bombarding the forts there before  heading north for repairs.

--Old B-Runner

June 2-3, 1862: Naval Support of James Island Landings

JUNE 2-3, 1862:  The USS Unadilla, Lt. Collins, USS Pembina, E.B. Hale, Ellen and Henry Andrew provided close gunfire support for Army landings and operations on James Island, South Carolina (by Charleston).

--Old B-Runner

Naval Happenings 150 Years Ago: July 16th, 1863-- Action at Charleston, Confederate Flying Batteries

JULY 16TH

USS Pawnee and Marblehead provide covering fire during Confederate attack on Union positions on James Ilsand, SC.  The Pawnee is struck 40 times.  The Union position was commanded by Union General Alfred H. Terry, later the Union commander in the second Battle of Fort Fisher.  He reported that the ships greatly helped in his defense.

Porter wrote Farragut that the Confederates planned to operate flying batteries up and down the Mississippi to attack shipping.  "We shall be kept busy chasing them up."

The merchant steamer Imperial arrived in New Orleans from St. Louis which she left on July 8th without incident.  The Mississippi River was indeed open again for the Union.

Expedition from the USS Port Royal captured cotton ready to be run through the blockade at Appalachicola, Florida.

CSS Georgia captured the ship Prince of Wales in the mid-South Atlantic.

Old B-Runner