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9. Port Royal
- The University of Alabama Press
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9 Port royal august–september to november 1861 Washington, D.c., July 1861 While the south celebrated its first victories at Big Bethel and Manassas and basked in the glow of independence, hard men in the north planned retribution. and the u.s. navy was building its strength. frigates and sloops of war hurried home from foreign stations, and construction and purchasing added scores of new vessels. northern shipyards turned out new warships in quick time. Gunboats mounting big Dahlgren shell guns and long-range rifles were built and turned over to the navy within ninety days of the ink drying on their contracts. on the Mississippi an entire flotilla of ironclads was being built. and in the northeast, the selection of steamers available for conversion to warships was large. But captain samuel f. Du Pont, inspecting some of these ships in the process of conversion, was moved to despair. “But alas!” he cried, “it is like altering a vest into a shirt to convert a trading steamer into a man-of-war. except that there is a vessel and a steam-engine, all else is inadaptable.”1 Treasury secretary salmon P. chase, concerned with the confederacy’s potential as competition for the united states’ carrying trade, appointed a Blockade Board (also known as the strategy Board) to plan and oversee the blockade of the confederate coast. a key member was alexander D. Balche, whose u.s. coast survey had spent decades mapping the shoreline, harbors, and rivers of the east coast. it was Balche, in fact, who had suggested this Blockade Board. captain Du Pont was its chairman.2 a problem the board had to address was the limited coal supply available to Port royal / 69 blockaders and the hundreds of miles that would separate them from a coaling station . ships on blockade had to keep up steam at all times; there would be no time to stoke fires and raise steam once a smuggler was sighted, so coal usage would be voracious. and the sea was hard on ships: repair was a frequent necessity. What the union navy needed was a coal yard and repair station right on the confederate coast. The board must select a port or inlet on the south atlantic coast and devise a plan to capture it. The board studied Balche’s coast surveys and recommended capturing fernandina , florida, a settlement on amelia island north of Jacksonville. it also suggested three other sites with good potential—Bull’s Bay, north of charleston; st. helena sound; and Port royal sound, the latter two between charleston and savannah. Port royal was thought too ambitious a project. rumors said two hundred guns defended it. fernandina looked better. The War Department appointed Brigadier General Thomas W. sherman to command the military expedition that would assault the confederate coast. captain Du Pont was the assumed choice to command the naval expedition that would support him. in september that became official. once he had the assignment, Du Pont began to feel the pressure. Planning the operation had been interesting. everything worked to perfection in theoretical discussions around the conference table. But now a real expedition, with all the accidents and crises of warfare, loomed before him. and the responsibility—and risk—began to seem overwhelming. Du Pont was no longer so sure of success, or of his desire to take part. he told his wife he would have declined the command and stayed in Washington but for the fact that after the war those who had served afloat would win promotions, and those who had not, would not. at least the capture of these southern points was to be a combined army/navy affair, with the navy providing support while the army stormed ashore and made the capture. someone else—sherman—was ultimately responsible and would take the blame if the mission failed.3 Du Pont’s invasion fleet had a nucleus of purpose-built warships, like the 44gun frigate Wabash, the 21-gun sloop Vandalia, and new ninety-day gunboats like the Seneca and Pembina. and most of the converted commercial craft he thought so little of were not coastal steamers and tugs like Tattnall’s Savannah and Lady Davis, but big, powerful seagoing vessels.4 By the time the Bermuda steamed into savannah, the confederates knew a major expedition was gathering, and knew it was aimed at the south atlantic coast. richmond’s best information suggested the target was Brunswick, Georgia, south of savannah. But Port royal and...