Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/95

Rh gunboats threw their 11-inch shells with perfect impunity on the right and left as they ran tip the river. They anchored beyond Battery island, which would have effectually cut off the retreat of the battalion under Colonel Capers, if no other means of escape had been provided. By the energy and forethought of Col. C. H. Stevens, commanding the Twenty-fourth volunteers, an interior causeway had been thrown up, and bridges built, running from Cole’s island to James island, right through the marsh and over the creeks, and by this causeway Colonel Capers retreated without the loss of a man, having burned the military barracks at Fort Palmetto and removed the small supply of stores. It was now evident that the Federals planned a lodgment on James island, for the number of their boats increased gradually in the river, and on the 2d of June, General Benham landed a part of his command at Battery island, under Brig.-Gen. I. I. Stevens. Here they were secure under the guns of the fleet in the Stono. By June 5th another division under Gen. H. G. Wright, having marched across Seabrook and John’s island from North Edisto, had crossed the Stono from Legaréville to Grimball’s on James island. These two divisions constituted the force of General Benham, that of Wright covering his left on the Stono, and that of Stevens his right, immediately in front of Secessionville. The gunboats in the Stono, firing by signals from the Federal camps and advance pickets, enfiladed their front and afforded effective support.

On the early morning of June 3d, the day after General Stevens had landed, the first affair of the James island campaign took place. The One Hundredth Pennsylvania regiment had been advanced as far as the causeway crossing the marsh at Rivers place, where the Charleston Riflemen and the Beauregard light infantry, Lieutenant Lynch and Captain White commanding, were on outpost duty. On the causeway in their front, three seacoast 24-pounder howitzers, of Captain Chichester’s