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13. The Fingal, Tattnall, and Robert E. Lee
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13 The Fingal, Tattnall, and robert e. lee november–December 1861 The Georgia-carolina coast had been without a military commander since Beauregard ’s departure for virginia six months earlier. Du Pont’s threat brought the region back to the government’s attention. TheWar Department created the Military District of south carolina, Georgia, and east florida, and gave Major General robert e. lee the job of defending it against an invasion already in progress. on the day Port royal fell, lee arrived to assume command. he established his headquarters at coosawhatchie, a whistle stop on the charleston & savannah railroad, and began gathering the survivors of forts Beauregard and Walker. he saw that General Beauregard’s assessment had been right: there were not enough men and guns to defend all the south atlantic coast. hatteras and Port royal showed that the only sensible move, distressful though it may be, was to abandon most of the coast, leave the barrier islands and the smaller port cities to the enemy, and concentrate forces to save charleston and savannah.1 heavy guns that had been going into emplacements on Georgia’s coastal islands would have to be withdrawn to defend savannah. even Tybee island would have to be abandoned. it was a valuable position, but it couldn’t be defended. naval agent Bulloch wasn’t concerned with Port royal or the safety of savannah, but with the Fingal and his european contracts. he intended to take the Fingal back to england with a cargo of cotton and naval stores, load her once again with arms and ammunition, and send her back to the confederacy under someone else’s command while he—with a commission, Mallory promised—took the first of his cruisers to sea.2 When he met with Mallory he asked for a cadre of officers for his commerce raider—specifically, Midshipman edward Maffitt anderson of Tattnall’s flotilla, 94 / chapter 13 acting Midshipman irvine s. Bulloch (his half-brother), and acting lieutenant William c. Whittle Jr., both of the Nashville, then in england. he also reminded Mallory of his “partial promise” to appoint John low an acting master and assign him to Bulloch. With this nucleus of officers, he hoped soon to be plundering the yankees at sea like raphael semmes and John Kell were in the Sumter.3 Major anderson, while in richmond, arranged an interview with secretary Mallory to promote an importation plan he had dreamed up. he envisioned regular shipments of captain huse’s weaponry moving from england to Bermuda, and a fleet of southern steamers—a packet line—continuously ferrying armaments from Bermuda to the confederate coast, with the navy escorting them in. he pitched this plan to the secretary and recommended his old friend John Maffitt to command the convoy service. Maffitt knew the coast, anderson said, and he was energetic and innovative. he could organize, manage, and protect the entire venture. The secretary, said anderson, “met my suggestions with evident discourtesy, intimating to me that the navy Dept would regulate its own affairs,” and that there were other officers just as qualified as Maffitt—if it found any merit in the plan.4 he left Mallory’s office in a sour mood and sought solace with his old Falmouth messmate George W. randolph, President Davis’s current secretary of war. But randolph was as frustrated as anderson. The president was constantly meddling in his department, he complained, and he’d had about all he could take of Jefferson Davis. When anderson asked randolph to accompany him to see the president that night, the virginian fairly seethed.5 anderson went to see the president alone and briefed him on affairs in england. By the end of the evening he had had enough of richmond and politics and was eager to get home to savannah. While anderson and Bulloch were conferring with cabinet officers in richmond, a sixteen-year-old infantryman from alabama was sightseeing on the old battlefield at Manassas. Willie (William francis) Wilson, a doctor’s son from carrollton, alabama , had enlisted in May of 1861 in the Pickens county Guards. The company was mustered into the 11th alabama infantry and the boys were soon on their way to virginia. The odyssey took them to Mobile, then by steamer up the alabama river (“one of the prettiest in the south,” Wilson thought, with “high banks from 200 to 300 feet”) to Montgomery. he judged the exchange hotel “greatly inferior to the Battle house in Mobile,” but...