Battle of Port Royal

• 1. Introduction

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  The Battle of Port Royal opened with a single gun in Fort Walker firing on a fleet of warships at 09:26 on the 7th of November, 1861. The shell exploded harmlessly just beyond the muzzle. Within hours, that fort would be abandoned and a Union flag would fly over its walls. What made this fight remarkable was not just the speed of its outcome, but how it was decided: not by infantry on a beach, but by ships moving in circles, firing as they went. Port Royal Sound, tucked between Savannah and Charleston on the South Carolina coast, was guarded by two forts on opposite shores. How a Union fleet neutralized both of them in a single afternoon, and what that meant for the entire southern coastline, is the story this documentary will trace.

• 2. Why Port Royal Mattered

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  In the earliest months of the war, the U.S. Navy faced a serious practical problem. Blockading the entire Confederate coastline required coal-fired steamships, and those ships had to travel all the way back to northern ports to refuel. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles appointed a commission to address this. At the head of that commission sat Captain Samuel Francis Du Pont. The commission's second report, dated July 13, pointed to three specific harbors on the South Carolina coast as candidates for seizure: Bull's Bay north of Charleston, and St. Helena Sound and Port Royal Sound to the south. Port Royal was rated the best harbor of the three. The commission was cautious, however, believing it would be strongly defended. Their hesitation would prove to be overstated.

• 3. Building the Defenses

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  Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, fresh off the opening bombardment of Fort Sumter, had real doubts about Port Royal. He believed the two forts on either side of the sound would be too far apart to support each other. South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens overruled him, and Beauregard drew up plans before being called away to Virginia. The job of actually building those forts fell to Major Francis D. Lee of the South Carolina Army Engineers, a man who had designed churches in Charleston before the war. Work began in July 1861 but moved slowly. Slave labor was requisitioned from local farms and plantations; the owners were reluctant to provide it. Construction was still unfinished when the attack came. The guns Beauregard had wanted were not available, so the water battery of Fort Walker was reconfigured: seven large columbiads were swapped for twelve smaller guns plus a single large one. To fit them all in, the traverses were removed. That decision left the battery dangerously exposed to enfilade fire, a weakness the Union fleet would exploit directly.

• 4. The Fleet and Its Secrets

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  Du Pont assembled 77 vessels for the expedition, the largest fleet ever to sail under the American flag to that point. Soldiers and their transports gathered at Annapolis, Maryland; sailors and warships at New York. The two forces joined at Hampton Roads. Du Pont guarded the destination carefully, giving each ship captain a sealed envelope to be opened only at sea. Captain Francis S. Haggerty of the Vandalia received a typical message: "Port Royal, S. C., is the port of destination for yourself and the ships of your convoy." But the secrecy was already moot. Two days before the main fleet departed, the New York Times ran a front-page article titled "The Great Naval Expedition," laying out the full order of battle down to regimental level. Charleston newspapers reprinted it word for word on the 1st of November. Du Pont and others talked of treason and leaks, but the reporter had simply talked to soldiers and sailors in port; no one had thought to keep the men away from the public in a region where civilian loyalties were divided. Acting Confederate Secretary of War Judah P. Benjamin telegraphed South Carolina authorities on November 1 that the enemy's expedition was bound for Port Royal.

• 5. Storm, Delay, and Improvisation

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  As the fleet passed into South Carolina waters on the 1st of November, gale-force winds scattered it. Gunboat Isaac Smith had to jettison most of her guns just to stay afloat. Three ships carrying food and ammunition were sunk or driven ashore: Union, Peerless, and Osceola. Transport Governor, carrying 300 Marines, went down; seven men were drowned or otherwise lost in the rescue. When the scattered ships began arriving at the entrance to Port Royal Sound on November 3, the storm had stripped the army of its landing boats and much of its ammunition. Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman told Du Pont the army could not participate. The assault, if it happened at all, would have to be a naval fight alone. On November 5, Commander Charles Henry Davis, Du Pont's fleet captain, proposed the solution: keep the ships moving in a continuous elliptical path while bombarding the forts. The same tactic had worked at the Battle of Hatteras Inlet. Du Pont adopted it. His plan called for the main body to enter at mid-channel, pass both forts, turn left, attack Fort Walker again, and keep repeating the circuit until one side gave way.

• 6. The Battle Itself

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  Nine armed ships formed the main column on the morning of November 7, with flagship Wabash at the head. Vandalia, a sailing vessel with no engines, was towed into battle by Isaac Smith, the same ship that had thrown her guns into the sea days before. The flanking column of five lighter gunboats moved to screen the fleet from Confederate Flag Officer Josiah Tattnall III and his four small gunboats, each carrying only two guns. The Confederate flotilla made a brief appearance and then retreated up a nearby creek. Inside Fort Walker, the situation deteriorated quickly. The third ship in the main line, Mohican under Commander Sylvanus W. Godon, spotted that the water battery was exposed to enfilade and broke formation to exploit it. Others followed. The plan dissolved, but the result was better than the plan: most of the fleet took up enfilading positions that the stripped traverses could not protect against. About 12:30, Brigadier General Thomas F. Drayton left Fort Walker to find reserves, handing command to Colonel William C. Heyward. When Drayton returned at 14:00, the men were already walking out. They had nearly run out of powder. Commander John Rodgers led a boat crew ashore under a flag of truce and found the fort empty. He raised the Union flag. The entire surviving Confederate force was allowed to escape to the mainland without pursuit. Fort Beauregard, commanded by Colonel Robert Gill Mills Dunovant, had not been hit as hard, but when he heard the cheering from the Union fleet, Dunovant understood what it meant. He ordered his troops to abandon their positions quietly, leaving stores intact so as not to attract attention. A probing attack by the gunboat Seneca confirmed the fort was empty. The Union flag was raised there the following morning.

• 7. Aftermath and Longer Consequences

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  Combined casualties on both sides totaled fewer than 100. The Southern forts suffered 11 killed, 47 wounded, and 4 missing. The Union fleet lost 8 killed and 23 wounded, not counting those lost when the Governor sank in the storm. The Union quickly moved to consolidate, occupying Beaufort and pushing north to St. Helena Sound, advancing toward the southern approaches of Charleston. That siege of Charleston, which continued until nearly the end of the war, can be traced back to what happened at Port Royal Sound on November 7. Robert E. Lee, placed in command of the region just two days before the battle, chose not to contest the Union gunboats along the coastline. He pulled his forces inland, defending only vital interior positions, and managed to protect the railroad connecting Savannah and Charleston. He carried that strategy with him when he was recalled to Richmond and given command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Du Pont was honored widely for his role. When the U.S. Navy created the rank of rear admiral in July 1862, Du Pont became the second person promoted to it, after David G. Farragut. He held command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and built up Port Royal Sound as a major base for coaling, provisioning, and repair. His career ultimately stalled, undone by the failed fleet attack on Charleston on the 7th of April, 1863. Commander Percival Drayton, who arrived late to the battle aboard a Union ship and helped enfilade Fort Walker, was the brother of Confederate General Thomas F. Drayton, who had commanded the Confederate forces ashore. Poet John Greenleaf Whittier described the battle and its freeing of enslaved people in his poem "At Port Royal."