Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/28

18 removed to Roanoke island, which the Confederates were now fortifying to protect the approaches to Norfolk.

On the 29th of October, 1861, a formidable force con- sisting of sixteen United States steam frigates and gun-boats, under Flag-Officer Dupont, and 12,000 soldiers, under Gen. Thomas W. Sherman, sailed from Hampton Roads for Port Royal, S. C. Commodore Tattnall, who had moved to its vicinity through the sounds from Savannah with his squadron of river boats consisting of the Savannah (flagship), Capt. J. N. Maffit, with Capt. R. L. Page as fleet-captain; the Resolute, Lieut J. Pembroke Jones; the Sampson, Lieut. J. Kennard, and the Lady Davis, Lieut. John Rutledge—exchanged shots with the United States vessels upon their arrival off the forts, with slight results. The forts were captured on the 7th of November after a feeble resistance, and Tatnall's vessels were very useful in removing the soldiers to Savannah. They could not, of course, pretend to cope with the enemy's fleet. The brunt of the attack of Dupont's fleet was sustained by Fort Walker, on Hilton Head. The garrison of Fort Beauregard, at Bay Point, retired as soon as it appeared that Fort Walker was taken. Hilton Head and Port Royal, like Hatteras inlet, remained in possession of the enemy until the close of the war. After the fall of Hatteras the enemy made no attempt to take possession of Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, though two or three gunboats would have been sufficient for the purpose.

The Confederate States vessels under Commodore Lynch—consisting of the Seabird, Capt. Patrick McCarrick (flagship); the Curlew, Commander T. T. Hunter; the Ellis, Commander James W. Cooke ; the Appomattox, Lieut. C. C. Simms; the Beaufort, Lieut. Wm. H. Parker; the Raleigh, Lieut. J. W. Alexander; the Fanny (captured by Commodore Lynch, October i, 1861), Lieutenant Tayloe, and the Forrest, Lieut. J. L. Hoole—moved about these waters from Roanoke island to New Bern on