This Site:
Civil War
Civil War Overview
Civil War 1861
Civil War 1862
Civil War 1863
Civil War 1864
Civil War 1865
Civil War Battles
Confederate Generals
Union Generals
Confederate History
Robert E. Lee
Civil War Medicine
Lincoln Assassination
Slavery
Site Search
Civil War Links
Civil War Art
Revolutionary War
Mexican War
Republic of Texas
Indians
Winslow Homer
Thomas Nast
Mathew Brady
Western Art
Civil War Gifts
Robert E. Lee Portrait
|
FORTS HATTERAS
AND CLARK.
WE continue this week our series
of illustrations of the brilliant achievement of Coln.
Stringham and General
Butler at
Hatteras Inlet. On page 598 we give a couple of pictures of
THE
INTERIOR OF FORTS HATTERAS AND CLARK, from drawings made on the afternoon of
Thursday, 29th, by Mr. Kaufmann ; and on
page 597 we give
AN EXTERIOR VIEW OF
FORT HATTERAS, and illustrate the GALLANT ACHIEVEMENT OF LIEUTENANT FISKE, who
swam through the breakers at the risk of his life to deliver General Butler's
orders to the forces.
Of the forts themselves the
correspondent of the Tribune wrote:
Forts Hatteras and Clark were
posts of great importance to the rebels, the former being by far the strongest
and most extensive work, and correspondingly the most important of the two.
Their construction was commenced
about three months since by the State of North Carolina, and were planned with a
good deal of engineering skill, and were built at great expense of labor and
money. Fort Hatteras covers an area of between one and two acres, and, like Fort
Clark, was laid out by Colonel William Beaverhouse Thompson, of Virginia. It is
an earth-work, mounting ten barbette guns, 32-pounders, live bearing toward the
sea. It was designed to mount eight and ten inch Columbiads, but they do not
seem to have arrived.
In the fort was a bomb proof,
which proved, however, not to have been proof against our bombs; for a shell
struck the top of the work, penetrated through the forepart of sand covering,
and entered the apartment below, next to the magazine, with only a board
partition intervening. It did not explode, however. Had it done so, the loss of
life would have been terrible, as more than three hundred men had been forced
and were closely packed in the subterranean chamber at the time. The shell
filled the chamber or vault with dust and smoke, and the men supposing the
magazine was on fire, a terrible panic ensued. The men ran out, and nothing that
the officers could do, even their threats to bayonet and shoot them, could
restrain the men within the fort. Shortly after another shell exploded on the
bomb-proof, and it becoming evident that so accurate had become the range and
firing of the fleet, the magazine would soon be exploded, and the white flag was
hastily run up.
When I entered the fort, a
considerable length of time before
General Butler arrived, the interior was a
complete wreck, and the wonder was that hundreds were not killed. They said that
for the last half hour our shells, almost without exception, fell and exploded
inside the fort. Two of the guns were disabled. The
tents and shanties were a
wreck, and there was scarcely room for the wounded.
The Herald correspondent thus
speaks of Mr. Fiske's exploit, and of its consequences: After the smaller fort
had been silenced a boat was sent ashore with Mr. Fiske, aid to General Butler,
who swam through the breakers to convey to Colonel Weber's command the orders of
the General and information of the intended movements of the fleet. Upon
entering the redoubt called Fort Clark, he seized upon the books and papers
found there; among them are official documents and the letter books of the
commanding officers. Mr. Fiske strapped this package upon his shoulders and swam
out again to the only boat that was left sea-worthy, and carried them to the
General, who was thus informed of what was going on at the moment of the
appearance of the fleet off the inlet. When the meeting was held on the
Minnesota to arrange terms of capitulation, the rebel officers were utterly
astonished at the accurate information of the General, and inquired anxiously
how he knew what they were doing the day before, and who was the person among
them to whom signals had been made from the fleet. The General simply replied
that he possessed means of accurate information.
Hatteras Inlet is thus described
in the Herald: A geographical sketch of the spot where our naval forces have
been so triumphant can not fail to prove interesting to our readers. Situated
about twelve miles from Cape Hatteras lighthouse is the inlet in question. It is
known to the mariner by a low sand island, which was formerly a round hammock,
covered with trees on the eastern side of the entrance. The breakers seldom
extend entirely across the entrance to the cove or harbor, but at nearly all
times make on each side, and between them lies the channel. The bar should be
approached from the northward and eastward, and vessels should keep in four or
five fathoms of water along the breakers until up with the opening. The least
water on the bar is fourteen feet mean low water, and the rise and fall of the
tide but two feet. Once inside the inlet the mariner finds good anchorage in a
hard sand bottom, except a few sticky spots at the head of the channel. The
anchorage affords protection from all winds except those from the southward and
westward.
As an entrance to Pamlico,
Albemarle, and Currituck Sounds, the possession of Hatteras Inlet is of vast
importance to the cause of the Union. With Ocracoke and Hatteras Inlets closed,
North Carolina may be said to be completely shut in from the ocean. Privateers
can no longer be sent to sea through the Dismal Swamp Canal and Albemarle Sound
to annoy our commerce.
INTERIOR OF THE TENT OF A PRIVATE IN
THE CAMERON CAVALRY.—[SKETCHED By G. W. ANDREWS.]
The Prize "Arthur Middleton."
|