Battle of Port Royal

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Battle Port Royal
Part of the American Civil War

View of the battle from the Confederate heights by Rossiter Johnson
Date November 3 – November 7, 1861
Location Port Royal Sound, South Carolina
Result Union victory
Combatants
United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America
Commanders
Samuel F. du Pont Thomas F. Drayton
Strength
74 (Vessels), 12,653 (Troops) 36 (Cannon)
Casualties
31 (8 killed, 23 wounded) 66 (11 killed, 48 wounded, 7 missing)

The Battle of Port Royal was one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War, in which a United States Navy fleet and United States Army expeditionary force captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, on November 7, 1861.

Early in the war, the U.S. Navy had the responsibility of blockading the Southern coastline, but found this task difficult when forced to rely on fueling and resupply ports in the North for its coal-fired steamships. The Navy needed a deepwater harbor on the Southern coast if it was to be expected to maintain a year-round blockade of busy ports such as Wilmington, Charleston, and Savannah. Port Royal Sound was probably the finest natural harbor on the Southern coast and was ideally suited for the role.

An expedition to capture Port Royal Sound was organized in great secrecy. Flag Officer Samuel F. du Pont led the expedition of 74 wooden vessels, including transports for a land force of 12,000 men in three brigades, the Port Royal Expeditionary Force, commanded by Brigadier General Thomas W. Sherman. It was the largest fleet the United States had amassed up to that time. The fleet sailed under sealed orders on October 29, 1861, from Hampton Roads, taking great pains to conceal its destination. However, Confederate intelligence somehow learned the secret. Three days later, on November 1, the defenders of Port Royal received a specific telegram: "The enemy's expedition is intended for Port Royal."

On that same day the fleet ran into a gale off Cape Hatteras, approaching hurricane strength. Two ships went down and the crew of a third had to heave her guns into the sea to keep from foundering. By the next morning, the fleet had been completely scattered. Flag Officer du Pont noted from his flagship, USS Wabash, that almost no other masts of the fleet could be seen.

The fleet began arriving off the entrance to the Sound on November 3. The battle commenced when they entered the Sound at 9:30 a.m., November 7. Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton, the Confederate commander at Port Royal, wrote that there was "not a ripple upon the broad expanse of water to disturb the accuracy of fire from the decks of that magnificent armada."

Port Royal Sound was defended by Fort Beauregard to the north, on Bay Point on Eddings Island, with 13 guns, and by Fort Walker on Hilton Head to the south, mounting 23 guns (although only 16 were operational in the battle). The forts were less than 3 miles apart across the Broad River, strongly built, and manned by gunners who had been alerted for over a week of the impending attack. The Confederates also had a flotilla under Commodore Josiah Tattnall of three tugboats, mounting one gun each, and a converted river steamer.

Flag Officer du Pont divided his fleet into a main squadron of nine of the heaviest frigates and sloops in line, and a flanking squadron of five gunboats. The plan was to enter the Sound in parallel columns, the lighter squadron to starboard, and pass midway between the forts, receiving and returning the fire of both. Two miles beyond the entrance, the main force was to swing around to the south and come back west moving slowly past Fort Walker, maintaining the heaviest possible fire from their 123 guns, then around to the north and head back east, slowing again as they passed Fort Beauregard. The flanking squadron was to peel off and engage the Confederate flotilla or whatever targets of opportunity they came across while the main force had both forts under fire, widening the elliptical attack so is to bring its guns in closer on every turn.

At the first turn of the Union fleet inside the Sound, Tattnall brought his four gunboats down the sound and let go several broadsides at the Wabash when she was within range. When fire was promptly returned, he retreated in the face of 14 gunboats to his immediate front and took up shelter in Skull Creek, 3 miles northwest of Fort Walker.

As the fleet began its run to the east, it began to bombard the northern end of Fort Walker. The Confederate return fire was generally ineffective. The ships on their elliptical course were undergoing constant changes in speed, range, and deflection, making them hard to hit. Also, many of the shells would not fit the guns, the powder was inferior, and some of the guns were disabled by severe recoil. (Due to shortages of ammunition, the Confederate gunners had not had the luxury of target practice before the attack.) The fort had been designed to defend against an attack coming in from the ocean, not from inside the sound. Now it was receiving approximately 24 rounds per minute. The flanking squadron added its fire. On the second pass of the ellipse they came within 600 yards of Fort Beauregard, which by this time had only three guns left in working order. While rounding to the south to begin the third ellipse, du Pont received a message that Fort Walker had been abandoned. At 2:20 p.m. a naval landing party raised the Union flag over the ramparts and the Army transports delivered troops by nightfall to occupy the works. On Bay Point across the way, Fort Beauregard lowered its flag at sunset and the Army occupied it early the next morning. It had been a relatively easy victory. The Union casualties were 8 men killed and 23 wounded during the four hours of firing. The Confederates suffered 11 killed, 48 wounded, and 7 missing.

Within the next three days the Union force moved up the rivers and inlets and occupied the colonial towns of both Beaufort and Port Royal. The day after the capture of Port Royal, General Robert E. Lee arrived in Savannah as the newly appointed commander of the South Atlantic coastal defenses. He regarded this assignment as "another forlorn hope expedition—worse than West Virginia" (where his Confederate military career had gotten off to a slow start with a lackluster campaign),

The Union now had a defensible deepwater port some 50 miles from Charleston, the birthplace of secession. It would use the port for its intended purpose, resupplying the blockading fleet, but also as a jumping off point for land operations in South Carolina during the war.

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