CHAP. XIV. selves, and required also an increase of force to hold the captured places and guard communications. Before the needful reënforcements were accumulated the Goldsboro' expedition was unfortunately rendered impossible by an unexpected change in the tide of Union victories. Failure and disaster fell upon McClellan's army in Virginia to such a degree that Burnside, with all the troops he could bring with him, was recalled, early in July, from North Carolina to the James River. Nevertheless, the points already gained in Albemarle and Pamlico sounds were generally held, and through the remainder of the war their occupation contributed essentially, in various ways, to the further advance of the Union arms. April 11, 1862. Simultaneously with the successes in North Carolina, other important victories attended the military and naval operations along the Atlantic coast. The hold which had been gained at Port Royal, South Carolina, and the adjacent sea-islands was greatly extended and strengthened, notably in the siege and capture of Fort Pulaski, at the mouth of the Savannah River. Pulaski, like Macon, was one of the old Government forts built for coast protection, which during the secession period were first seized and occupied by State troops, and afterwards turned over to the control and use of the Confederate authorities. Fort Pulaski stood in a strong position on Cockspur Island, Georgia, commanding both channels of the Savannah River. It was a brick work with walls seven and a half feet thick and twenty-five feet high, with one tier of guns in casemate and one en barbette. The island it stood on was wholly a marsh, one mile 1862. long and half a mile wide. The neighboring CHAP. XIV. islands were also mere marshes. The possibility of reducing the fort began to be studied soon after Port Royal was captured, and the work formally commenced about the beginning of February. The ground to operate upon was described as "a soft unctuous mud, free of grit or sand, and incapaable of supporting a heavy weight. Even in the most elevated places the partially dry crust is but three or four inches in depth, the substratum being a semi-fluid mud, which is agitated like jelly by the falling of even small bodies upon it, like the jumping of men or ramming of earth. A pole or an oar can be forced into it with ease to the depth of twelve or fifteen feet. In most places the resistance diminishes with increase of penetration. Men walking over it are partially sustained by the roots of reeds and grass, and sink in only five or six inches. When this top support gives way they go down from two to two and a half feet, and in some 1865. W. R. places much farther." The problem was to transport the heavy material and guns about a mile, and establish batteries in such a locality, working without noise in the darkness of night. It was necessary first to construct a causeway, resting on fascines and brushwood in positions within range of the effective fire of the fort. "No one," says the report, "except an eye-witness, can form any but a faint conception of the herculean labor by which mortars of eight and a half tons weight and columbiads but a trifle lighter were moved in the dead of night over a narrow causeway bordered by swamps on either side, and liable at any moment to be overturned and buried in the mud beyond reach. . . Gillmore, Vol. VI., p. 151. 1862. CHAP. XIV. Two hundred and fifty men were barely sufficient to move a single piece on sling carts. The men were not allowed to speak above a whisper, and were guided by the notes of a whistle." Yet the task was pursued with such industry that on the 9th of April eleven batteries, comprising thirty-six guns, were ready to open fire at distances varying from 1650 to 3400 yards, and the fort was summoned to surrender at sunrise on the morning of April 10. A refusal having been received, the bombardment was begun, the fort making a vigorous reply. The surprising and hitherto unknown effectiveness of rifled guns and modern projectiles was quickly proved. By two o'clock of the second day's bombardment the fort was so far damaged by a large breach and the dismounting of eleven of its guns as to compel its surrender, which took place that afternoon, April 11, 1862. The armament of the fort was forty-eight guns; its garrison of 385 men were made prisoners. General Quincy A. Gillmore conducted the siege operations, General David Hunter being at that time in command of the Department of the South. Gillmore, Report, 1865, W. R. Oct. 20, Vol. VI., pp. 149, 155 159. It will be remembered that when Port Royal was captured in the previous autumn, it was the intention and expectation of the Government that the forces engaged in that enterprise should proceed at once in an attempt to repossess and occupy the whole Florida coast. For reasons heretofore mentioned, that project could not then be immediately carried out. The design, however, was not abandoned, and with the opening of the year 1862 preparations were made to renew the undertaking. Accordingly, an expedition sailed from |