Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/90

78 ing of May 13th which, no doubt, determined the movement of a large force against the Confederate position on James island. This was the abduction of the steamer Planter by a portion of the crew, who took the steamer out of the harbor and turned her over to the Federal fleet. The Planter was a swift, light-draught vessel, employed in transporting ordnance and stores to the forts and batteries of the harbor and the vicinity. She had a white captain, mate and engineer, and a crew of eight intelligent negroes. The day before her abduction she had been loaded at Southern wharf with heavy ordnance for the Middle Ground battery in the harbor, consisting of a banded rifle 42, an 8-inch columbiad, an 8-inch howitzer, and a 32-pounder. She carried for her own defense a 32-pounder and a 24-pounder howitzer. The captain, mate and engineer, contrary to written orders, were in the city, when four of the crew, under the leadership of one of their number, Jacob Small, fired up and boldly ran out of the harbor before daylight, the Planter being taken for a guard boat by the forts and allowed to pass. The crew were well-informed men and thoroughly acquainted with the situation around Charleston, and especially with the recent removal of the guns from the Georgetown defenses and from Cole’s island, at the mouth of Stono river.

All this information was, of course, carried to the Federal commanders. Great excitement followed in the city, and all the troops and posts were ordered to be ready for attack, especially by way of the land. The abandonment of Fort Palmetto at the mouth of the Stono left the way open to the Federal fleet to enter that river, and to General Hunter to land a large force on James island. Following the plan which he had adopted after the fall of Port Royal harbor, General Pemberton gave tip the defense of the sea islands and the harbor of Georgetown, and made the Charleston & Savannah railroad his main line south of Charleston, drawing in the