Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/126

 120 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Cole's Island, near the mouth of the Stono river, and there joined the regiment. The trip from Fort Johnson was made by steamer, and was a very pleasant one. We embarked early one morning, passed up the bay through Wappoo Cut and into Stono, down that river to a point near its mouth, and up a creek which separates Folly from Cole's Island. After landing, we were assigned our position in the regimental camp next to the St. Matthews Rifles, a company from Orangeburg district and one of the best in the regiment. My friend, Olin M. Dantzler, was then First Lieutenant of that company. His agreeable companionship and that of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas J. Glover, are among my most pleasant recollections of Cole's Island. The Confederacy had no braver or more patriotic soldiers lhan were these two officers, both of whom laid down their lives, in the later years of the war, for the cause they loved so much.

Colonel Johnson Hagood was in command of all the troops on the island. His command consisted of his own regiment and a bat- talion of regulars, under the command of Major J. J. Lucas. Lieu- tenant Thomas J. Glover, assisted by Major O'Cain, commanded the First regiment. There were several heavy batteries of artillery on the island. One was near the lower end and, with one in an old circular work, said to have been built by the Spaniards, about midway of the first island, commanded the Stono river. There was a line of breastworks that ran lengthwise across the island, and was about a couple of hundred yards from the river. I never could understand why these breastworks were not located as near the water as they could have been built. They were constructed by officers of the Engineer Corps, and perhaps it would not be in good taste for a line officer, as I was at that time, to criticise them. Perhaps these officers had been taught a system different from that which I studied at the military academy.

I heard the remark jocularly made, that " the design was to let the Yankees land so we could ' bag ' all we did not kill."

These breastworks were flanked by a battery of very heavy guns on the creek which separates the island which we were on from the small pine-covered island next, above. The breastworks were not parallel to the beach, but receded as they ran up the island, and these heavy guns were several hundred yards from the river, up which, from the ocean, the enemy's ships were expected to come. I never heard who was responsible for the engineering. I am satisfied that Colonel Hagood was not, because, like myself, he had a leaning to- wards the system taught us at the Citadel, and had never learnt the