THE UNION TUG “PLATO" (WITH TORPEOO RAKE AT THE BOW) IN THE STONO RIVER, NEAR CHARLESTON. FROM A WAR-TIME SKETCH.
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MINOR OPERATIONS OP THE SOUTH ATLANTIC SQUADRON UNDER DU PONT.
B TIRING tlie six months immediately followingthe battle of Port Royal [see Yol. I., p. G71]Du Pont was principally engaged in reconnoiteringand gaining possession of the network of interior’Waterways which extends along the coast of SouthCarolina, Georgia, and Florida , from Bull’s Bay tofernandina. Detachments of vessels under Com-mander Drayton visited the inlets to the northward,including St. Helena Sound and the North andSouth Edisto, while other detachments, under Com-manders John and C. R. P. Rodgers, examined theSoutherly waters, especially those about TybeeDoads and Wassaw and Ossabaw sounds. Nearlyall the fortifications in these waters, with the excep-tion of Port Pulaski on the Savannah River , werefound abandoned. The coast blockade was thusPartially converted into an occupation. In Marchan expedition on a large scale proceeded farthers °uth, to attack Fernandina and the neighboringPosts; but before it reached the spot the greater part°f the troops garrisoned there had been withdrawn,hnder an order of February 23d, issued by GeneralE. Lee , at that time in command of the district,"he expedition therefore met with little opposition,and occupied all important points in the neighbor-hood of Cumberland Sound andtlie St. Mary’s River,deluding Fernandina and Fort Clinch, St. Mary’s,and Cumberland Island. Subsidiary expeditions^ere sent out from this new base, and St. Augus-Dne and Jacksonville to the south, and Brunswickand St. Simon’s Island to the north, also came intofhe possession of the Union forces.
The remainder of the year 18G2, after the fallof Fort Pulaski [see Yol.II., p. 1],was passed hy DuPout’s squadron in maintaining the blockade and instrengthening the extended line of maritime occu-pation, which now reached from Georgetown , in‘ °uth Carolina, to Mosquito Inlet, in Florida .
mall encounters were frequent, and importantCa ptures of blockade-runners were made from time
to time, but nothing occurred in the nature of a sus-tained offensive movement. A boat reeonnois-sance in April from the Penguin and Henry Andrew,at Mosquito Inlet, resulted in the capture of theparty and the death of Budd and Mather, the com-manding officers of the two ships. A small flotillaoccupied the St. John’s River, and was constantlyengaged in conflicts with guerrillas on the banks ofthe stream and its tributaries. In one of these en-counters Lieutenant John G. Sproston, of the Sen-eca, an officer of high reputation for gallantry, waskilled. The yacht America , the famous winner ofthe Queen’s Cup, was found sunk in one of theneighboring creeks and was recovered. In theNorth and South Edisto Lieutenant Rliind wasactively occupied, and on April 29tli, in the E. B.Hale, he captured and destroyed a battery. Onthe 13th of May the Confederate army steamerPlanter was brought out of Charleston Harbor, inbroad daylight, hy the colored pilot Robert Smalls ,and delivered to the blockading squadron. A weeklater, the Albatross and Norwich, under CommanderPrentiss, steamed up to Georgetown, S. C. , and,finding the works deserted, passed along the citywharves. No attack was made on the vessels; hutPrentiss did not land, as ho had no force of troopsto hold the city. Toward the end of the samemonth Commander Drayton, in consequence ofinformation given by the pilot Smalls , ascended theStono River with a force of gun-boats, occasionallyengaging the enemy.
In September, 1862, the Confederates in Florida attempted to regain possession of the St. John’sRiver, and for this purpose constructed a fort atSt. John’s Bluff, arming it with heavy rifles. Com-mander Steedman, of the Paul Jones, then in com-mand in the St. John’s, supported by a force oftroops under General John M. BrannanJ attackedand captured the battery on the 5tli of October. Theexpedition then made a demonstration two hundred
r Later a division commander in tlic Army ot tlie Cumberland, to which he was transferred
iu April, 1863.— Editors.
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