Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 01.djvu/115

 in the execution of his plans, while Generals Evans, Drayton and Mercer assisted him at other points. The Ordnance Department, under the direction of its energetic chief, Colonel Gorgas, filled with wonderful promptitude the various demands made upon it. This greatly facilitated the completion of the defences.

The Federal troops on Beaufort island were inactive during the months of December, January and February, and the fleet was in the offing, blockading Charleston and Savannah. About the first of March the Federal gunboats entered the Savannah river by way of the channel leading from Hilton Head. The small Confederate fleet was too weak to engage them, so they retained undisputed possession of the river. They then established batteries to intercept the communication between Fort Pulaski and the city of Savannah. This fort commands the entrance to the Savannah river, twelve miles below the city.

A few days after getting possession of the river the Federals landed a force, under General Gilmore, on the opposite side of the fort. General Gilmore, having completed his batteries, opened fire about the first of April. Having no hope of succor, Fort Pulaski, after striking a blow for honor, surrendered with about five hundred men.

General Lee received an order about the middle of March assigning him to duty in Richmond, in obedience to which he soon after repaired to that place. The works that he had so skilfully planned were now near completion. In three months he had established a line of defence from Wingaw bay, on the northeast coast of South Carolina, to the mouth of Saint Mary's river in Georgia―a distance of more than two hundred miles. This line not only served for a present defence, but offered an impenetrable barrier to the combined Federal forces operating on the coast, until they were carried by General Sherman in his unopposed march through Georgia and South Carolina, near the close of the war.

That the importance of these works may be properly understood, it will be necessary to know what they accomplished. In the first place, they protected the most important agricultural section of the Confederacy from the incursions of the enemy, and covered the most important line of communication between the Mississippi and the Potomac. Besides these material advantages, it produced great moral effect in giving the inhabitants of the Southern States a feeling of security and confidence.

We perceive in this campaign of General Lee in Georgia and South Carolina results achieved by a single genius equal to those which could have been accomplished by an incalculable force.