Fort Sumter, First Manassas, Early Amphibious Operations

Fort Sumter

• When states seceded from the Union they generally took all Federal forts with them

• Fort Monroe, VA; Fort Pickens, FL; and Fort Sumter, SC were key exceptions

Fort Sumter

• South Carolina demanded that Fort Sumter surrender

• President James Buchanan refused the demand, but also did his best to avoid making a decision; instead leaving the problem for Lincoln to deal with when he took office on Mar 4

• Buchanan did make one attempt to resupply the fort with the Star of the West

Fort Sumter

• On Jan 9, South Carolinian shore batteries repulsed the Star of the West

• In March, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard assumed command of Confederate forces in Charleston– Ironically the Federal

commander at Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, had been Beauregard’s artillery instructor when Beauregard was a cadet at West Point

The Star of the West

Fort Sumter

• On Apr 11, Beauregard sent a delegation to Anderson demanding the fort surrender or Confederate forces would attack it

• Anderson refused and on April 12 at 4:30 a.m. the bombardment began

• Anderson surrendered on Apr 13 at 2:30 p.m.

Fort Sumter

• There is no longer any chance of settling the regional dispute without bloodshed

• Lincoln requested 75,000 three-month volunteers to suppress the rebellion

• This forced the border states to decide whether to secede or fight against their Southern brothers– Virginia, Arkansas, North

Carolina, and Tennessee all secede

– Virginia will now become the main battleground

First Manassas

• Rejecting Scott’s Anaconda Plan, Lincoln gave orders in late June 1861 that the forces assembling around Washington must advance against Richmond

• The commander, Brigadier General Irwin McDowell, objected that the men were not yet ready

• Lincoln replied, “You are green, it is true. But they are green also. You are all green alike.”

McDowell

• Graduated from West Point in 1838 and had served in the Mexican War but not commanded troops in combat

• Most of his career had been spent in various staff duties in the Adjutant General’s Office

• His promotion to brigadier general from major had come largely from his political connections to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase

Patterson

• A second nearby Union force was located northwest of Washington, near Harper’s Ferry

• Major General Robert Patterson commanded these 18,000 men

• Patterson was 70 years old and a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War

First Manassas

• On July 16, McDowell left Washington with about 35,000 men

• Twenty five miles to the southwest lay 25,000 Confederates commanded by Pierre Gustave Toutant de Beauregard

• Beauregard had deployed his men along Bull Run and held the railroad town of Manassas Junction and blocked the direct overland approach to Richmond

Beauregard

• Graduated from West Point in 1838 (same year as McDowell) and fought at Contreras, Churubusco, and Chapultepec in Mexico

• Had the shortest term of any superintendent of West Point, resigning after five days when his native Louisiana seceded from the Union

• His first assignment with the Confederacy had won him fame as the “Hero of Sumter”

Johnston

• Joseph Johnston commanded 12,000 additional Confederates at Winchester

• Johnston was to defend the Shenandoah Valley and support Beauregard if necessary

• Among Johnston’s brigade commanders was Thomas Jackson

• McDowell considered it imperative that Patterson hold Johnston’s army in the Shenandoah Valley while McDowell attacked Beauregard

First Manassas

• On July 16, McDowell began his advance but the movement was slow and tedious

• Beauregard was alerted of McDowell’s movements and requested reinforcements

• An independent infantry brigade commanded by Theophilus Holmes in Fredericksburg and six infantry companies of Wade Hampton’s Legion in Richmond began heading north

First Manassas

• McDowell’s lead division finally reached Centreville at 11:00 on July 18 and a brief clash with Confederates occurred

• At around noon, Johnston marched out of Winchester behind a screen from Jeb Stuart’s cavalry– Patterson was completely deceived.– An hour after Johnston departed, Patterson

telegraphed Washington, “I have succeeded, in accordance with the wishes of the General-in-Chief, in keeping General Johnston’s force at Winchester.”

First Manassas

• Johnston’s men boarded trains at Piedmont Station (now Delaplane), a stop on the Manassas Gap Railroad, and departed for Manassas Junction

• They reached the Bull Run positions on the afternoon of July 21, representing the importance railroads would play in troop movements throughout the war

First Manassas

• McDowell’s plan was to feint toward Blackburn’s Ford and the Stone Bridge while his main force marched around the Confederate left flank

First Manassas

• McDowell’s army began leaving their camps at about 2:30 a. m. on July 21– Again the march was beset with delays

• At 6:00, Federals and Confederates were skirmishing at the Stone Bridge

• Johnston became concerned with this activity and began reinforcing the Confederates at the Stone Bridge while Beauregard stuck to his original plan of attacking the Federal left

First Manassas

• The Confederates were unable to hold the Stone Bridge and began a disorderly retreat to Henry Hill

• It appeared that a Federal victory was at hand Ruins of the Stone Bridge

First Manassas

• At about noon, Jackson’s 2,600-man brigade arrived on Henry Hill

• There he met his fellow brigade commander Bernard Bee who excitedly told Jackson the Federals were driving the Confederates back

• Jackson calmly began to establish a position on the southeast slope of the ridgeline about 400 yards from the Henry House Ruins of the Henry House

First Manassas

• Bee at some point reportedly said, “There stands Jackson like a Stonewall. Rally around the Virginians!”– This is the origin of “Stonewall”

Jackson

• At about 1:00, Federals began attacking Henry Hill

• Rather than launching large scale, coordinated assaults, McDowell committed his forces piecemeal, frittering away his numerical advantage

First Manassas

• The Confederates were able to defend against these piecemeal attacks while their own reinforcements were steadily arriving

• McDowell’s army began to disintegrate– Thousands, in small

groups or as individuals, began leaving the battlefield

– McDowell tried to rally the army without success and eventually resorted to ordering a withdrawal

First Manassas

• A few Confederate units attempted to pursue, but the victorious Confederates were almost as disorganized as the defeated Federals

• Nonetheless the Union retreat quickly became a rout and hundreds of civilian spectators who had come out from Washington to watch the battle were caught up in the chaos

• McDowell ultimately fell back to Washington

First Manassas: Results

• Showed the difficulties in controlling large bodies of troops– Neither commander was able to deploy his forces

effectively• Only 18,000 men from each side were actually engaged

• Showed that the war would not be won in one decisive battle– Problems with culmination hindered Confederate

pursuit– Lincoln began call for three year rather than 90 day

enlistments– North called up an additional 500,000 volunteers;

South 400,000

First Manassas: Results

• Showed that the armies were untrained– McClellan replaced

McDowell and began an intense campaign to organize, train, and equip the army

First Manassas: Reasons for Federal Defeat

• McDowell spent most of his energy maneuvering nearby regiments and brigades rather than controlling and coordinating the movements of his army as a whole

• Patterson failed to hold Johnston in the Shenandoah Valley

• Federals were repeatedly slow in marching and moving

First Manassas: Reasons for Confederate Victory

• Confederate use of rail provided timely reinforcements

Victory Rode the Rails: Jackson at Piedmont Station, July 19, 1861

by Mort Kunstler

Amphibious Operations

The Blockade

• In Apr 1861, Lincoln declared a blockade of Southern ports– The Confederacy had 189 harbor

and river openings and 3,549 miles of shoreline so this was easier said than done

– Clearly some focus was needed

• In June 1861, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells created a Navy Board and charged it to study the conduct of the blockade and to devise ways to improve its efficiency

The Navy Board Members

• Captain Samuel Du Pont, a professional Navy officer, was the head of the Board

• Professor A. D. Bache, superintendent of the Coast Survey, provided specialized knowledge of the Confederate coast

• Major John Barnard, an Army engineer, provided liaison between the Board and the Army

• Commander Charles Davis served as the Board’s secretary

Army-Navy Cooperation

• The Board was tasked to make “a thorough investigation of the coast and harbors, their access and defenses.”

• It became obvious that the Navy would need ports of refuge for its own use, especially in the stormy South Atlantic– Even in good weather, the blockade was weakened every time a

ship had to return to Hampton Roads, Virginia, the nearest Federal base, for food, fuel, and ammunition

• The solution was for the Army and Navy to cooperate in seizing and maintaining a number of critical harbors to facilitate the Navy’s blockading operation

Hatteras Inlet• The first such location was

Hatteras Inlet, NC– This harbor’s seizure would

become the first joint operation of the war

• Hatteras Inlet was a break in the barrier islands off the NC coast that provided access to Pamlico Sound

• The shallows provided anchorage for Confederate raiders and blockade runners and Confederate ships used the protection of the barrier islands to stage attacks on the Federal blockaders

Hatteras Inlet

• To defend Hatteras Inlet the Confederates had built Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark– Both were still under construction

• The Federals assembled an attacking squadron of seven warships with 158 guns, four transports, and a steam tug all under the command of Flag Officer Silas Stringham

• The transports contained nearly 900 troops commanded by Major General Benjamin Butler

Silas Stringham

Hatteras Inlet

• The Federals left Hampton Roads on August 26 and arrived off Hatteras on the 28th

• That morning the Federals landed some 300 men north of the Confederate forts but the Army would play an inconsequential role in the attack

• It would be almost a completely naval affair

Hatteras Inlet

• Stringham took advantage of his superior ordnance and began shelling Fort Clark while remaining outside the range of the Confederate guns

• The Confederates abandoned Fort Clark and withdrew to Fort Hatteras– The Federals took

possession of the vacated Fort Clark

BOMBARDMENT OF FORTS HATTTERAS AND CLARK BY THE UNITED STATES FLEET, UNDER FLAG-OFFICER STRINGHAM, U.S.N.

Hatteras Inlet

• The next morning Stringham began shelling Fort Hatteras– Steam power had made it possible for

ships to fire while moving without being dependent on winds and currents

– Stringham took advantage of this ability to run past the fort, firing as he went, and then come around again on a different course, making it hard for the Confederate gunners to get their range

Hatteras Inlet

• Previously coastal forts had been considered superior to ships– One gun on land was considered equal to four on the

water

• Stringham showed that with steam power and improved ordnance this was no longer the case

• This was bad news for the Confederacy which had inherited a coastal defense system based on the assumption of the superiority of the fort

Hatteras Inlet• Fort Hatteras never stood a chance

and at about noon the Confederates surrendered and Federal troops and three of the ships remained in the area to occupy the forts while the rest of the Federal force returned to Fort Monroe

• Some think the Federals should have then used Hatteras Inlet as a base from which to invade NC but Lincoln opposed this idea arguing that invasions should come from inland armies

• Even without pursuing this bigger possibility, Hatteras Inlet set the pattern for future Federal Army-Navy operations against the Confederate coast

VIEW OF FORT HATTERAS JUST BEFORE THE SURRENDER

Port Royal Sound

• Buoyed by its success at Hatteras Island, the Navy Board planned an operation to seize Ship Island, Mississippi– In Sept 1861, the Federals occupied it before

the Confederates were prepared to fire a shot in its defense

• The Navy Board then began planning a bigger operation against Port Royal Sound, SC

Port Royal Sound

• Port Royal was the finest natural harbor on the Confederate coast and would give the Federals the large, deep-water harbor it would need to maintain a year-round blockade

• Controlling it would give the Federals access to a series of inland waterways from which to blockade the coast from just below Charleston to the Saint James River in Florida without having the risk the uncertainties of the Atlantic

Port Royal Sound

• This would be the Navy Board’s biggest effort to date– Assigned Board President

Samuel Du Pont to lead the expedition

– Assembled the largest fleet in American history to date

• 74 vessels and a land force of 12,000 men

Port Royal Sound

• On Oct 20, Du Pont left Hampton Roads and were quickly spotted by the Confederates

• In addition to this loss of surprise, bad weather disrupted Du Pont’s movement

• Nonetheless, on Nov 7 at 8:00 a.m., DuPont attacked

Port Royal Sound

• The Confederates defended from two forts, Walker and Beauregard, which were less than three miles apart– Brigadier General Thomas

Drayton commanded 3,000 men

• However, the forts’ guns were so inferior that Du Pont’s ships could move between them and stay out of range of both

Fort Beauregard

Port Royal Sound

• Du Pont used steam power to move his ships in an elliptical pattern to keep the two forts under continuous fire

• The Federal squadron advanced on the Fort Beauregard side and then turned left and returned on the Fort Walker side

• With each pass Du Pont widened the course to bring his guns closer to the target

• The changes in speed, range, and deflection made it difficult for the Confederates to range the fleet

Port Royal Sound

• The Confederates had a small flotilla of three tugs and a converted river steamer, but Du Pont easily bottled them up inside of Skull Creek

• The Federals soon took possession of Forts Walker and Beauregard

• Within three days, Federals had moved up rivers and inlets and occupied the towns of Beaufort and Port Royal

Port Royal Sound

• Port Royal was again a Navy dominated affair• Once the Army did land, it did little to press the

advantage by moving far inland• Port Royal did show the Confederates how

vulnerable their coastline was and convinced Lee that it could not be defended everywhere– Led Lee to strengthen key locations at Fort Pulaski,

GA and Charleston, obstruct waterways that might be used by Federal ships, and assemble the scattered Confederate forces to the most probable points of Federal attack

Roanoke Island

• Roanoke Island is twelve miles long by three miles wide and lies off the eastern tip of a low-lying marshy peninsula that divides the Albemarle Sound and the Pamlico Sound on the North Carolina Coast

• By capturing Hatteras Inlet, the Federals had gained control of Pamlico Sound

• Gaining control of Roanoke Island would give them control of Albemarle Sound as well– This would expose Norfolk

to an attack from the rear

Roanoke Island

• Confederate defenses of Roanoke Island were plagued by command inefficiencies, meager forces, and a lack of cooperation between the Army and Navy

• On the other hand, the Federals had become serious about amphibious operations– Brigadier General Ambrose Burnside raised a 15,000

man “coastal” division of seafaring men from the northeast

– He was joined by Rear Admiral Louis Goldsborough who commanded over 80 vessels

Roanoke Island

• The Burnside Expedition left Annapolis, MD on Jan 9, 1862, rendezvoused with supply ships and gunboats at Hampton Roads and cleared Hampton Roads on Jan 11

• There were several delays because of bad weather and faulty intelligence about the depth of the channel, but Burnside overcame these and was ready to attack by Feb 7

Roanoke Island

• Burnside and Goldsborough quickly neutralized the pitiful Confederate “Mosquito Fleet” and began landing three brigades at Ashby’s Harbor– Each had its own

supporting gunboats and Navy launches

– Unlike the previous operations, Roanoke Island would be a joint Army-Navy affair and a true amphibious operation

Roanoke Island

• Burnside’s amphibious techniques were revolutionary and were precursors for amphibious operations in the 20th Century– Troop ladders to move

men from larger vessels to the landing craft

– Steamers to tow landing craft closer to shore

– Coordinating and controlling naval gunfire to prevent fratricide

Roanoke Island

• Most importantly, Burnside and Goldsborough established unity of effort in an era when there was little meaningful joint doctrine

• Roanoke Island fell quickly and gave the Federals the opportunity to expand the coastal war by moving inland and effecting not just Confederate naval operations, but their railroad logistics as well

New Bern

• New Bern was NC’s second largest port and the site of an important railroad– From New Bern, the Atlantic & North Carolina

Railroad ran to a vital junction at Goldsboro– From there it intersected with the Wilmington

& Weldon Railroad which carried supplies north to places like Richmond

• With the fall of Roanoke Island, Confederate forces bolstered New Bern’s defenses

New Bern

• Confederate forces included the Mosquito Fleet from Roanoke Island, Fort Thompson with its 13 heavy guns, and 4,500 inexperienced soldiers under Brigadier General Lawrence Branch

• Branch’s defense had a 150 yard gap in its center where a railroad tracks intersected it

New Bern

• On Mar 11, Burnside began his movement toward New Bern with 11,000 and 13 warships

• He attacked on Mar 14• One of Burnside’s

regiments stumbled into the gap in the Confederate line and soon the Confederates were in full retreat

New Bern

• About a month after New Bern, Burnside captured Fort Macon which guarded the water approaches to the ports of Beaufort and Morehead City, the terminus of the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad

• Burnside was on a roll and was preparing to move on Goldsboro when in late June he was ordered to move to Virginia and reinforce McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign

Next

• Peninsula Campaign and the Shenandoah Valley