52 



ARMY OPERATIONS. 



authority of the United States, you had deemed it 

 more proper to send in an unarmed boat to inform the 

 citizens of your determination, than to occupy the town 

 at once by force of arms ; that you were desirous to 

 calm all apprehensions of harsh treatment, and that 

 you should carefully respect the persons and property 

 of all citizens who submitted to the authority of the 

 United States ; that you had a single purpose to restore 

 the state of affairs which existed before the rebellion. 



I informed the municipal authorities that so long as 

 they respected the authority of the Government we 

 serve, and acted in good faith, municipal affairs would 

 be left in their own hands, so far as might be consistent 

 with the exigencies of the times. The mayor and 

 council informed me that the place had been evacuated 

 the preceding night by two companies of Florida 

 troops, and that they gladly received the assurances I 

 gave them, and placed the city in my hands. 



I recommended them to hoist the flag of the Union 

 at once, and in prompt accordance with the advice, by 

 order of the mayor, the national ensign was displayed 

 from the flag staff of the fort. The mayor proposed to 

 turn over to me the five cannon mounted at the fort, 

 which are in good condition and not spiked, and also 

 the few munitions of war left by the retreating enemy. 

 I desired him to take charge of them for the present, 

 to make careful inventories and establish a patrol and 

 guard, informing him that he would be held respon- 

 sible for the place until our force should enter the nar- 

 bor. 



I called on the clergymen of the city, requesting 

 them to re-assure the people, and to confide in our 

 kind intentions toward them. About 1,500 people re- 

 main in St. Augustine, about one-fifth of the inhabi- 

 tants having fled. I believe there are many citizens 

 who are earnestly attached to the Union, a large num- 

 ber who are silently opposed to it, and a still larger 

 number who care very little about the matter. There 

 is much violent and pestilent feeling among the 

 women ; they have a theatrical desire to figure as 

 heroines! Their minds have doubtless been filled 

 with the falsehoods so industriously circulated in re- 

 gard to the lust and hatred of pur troops. 



On the night before our arrival a party of women 

 assembled in front of the barracks and cut down the 

 flag staff, in order that it might not be used to support 

 the old flag. The men seemed anxious to conciliate 

 in every way. There is a great scarcity of provisions 

 in the place. There seems to be no money, except the 

 wretched paper currency of the rebellion, and much 

 poverty exists. 



In the water battery at the fort are three fine army 

 32-pounders and two 8-inch sea coast howitzers, with 

 shot and some powder. Several good guns were taken 

 away some months ago. The garrison of the place 

 left from St. Augustine at midnight on the 18th, for 

 Smyrna, where are said to be about 800 troops, a bat- 

 tery, the steamer Carolina, and a considerable quantity 

 of arms and ammunition. 



The fort at this place is the second one of 

 the old forts in Florida of which possession had 

 then been recovered. The other is Fort Clinch 

 at Fernandina. St. Augustine is farther south 

 than Jacksonville and situated on the north 

 shore of Matanzas Sound about two miles from 

 the sea, from which it is separated by the island 

 of Anastasia. The population exceeds two 

 thousand. 



The next object of Com. Dupont was to visit 

 Musquito Inlet, fifty miles farther south. It 

 had been reported to him that the inlet was 

 resorted, to by vessels of light draft for the 

 introduction of arms transhipped from English 

 vessels and steamers at the English colony of 

 Nassau. Accordingly the Penguin, Lieut. T. 

 A. Budd, and the Henry, Andrew S. "W. Mather, 



master, were sent in advance and ordered to 

 cross the bar and establish an inside blockade 

 and guard from incendiarism the live oak tim- 

 ber on the Government lands. On their ar- 

 rival they started with four or five light boats 

 and forty- three men and moved southward into 

 Mosquito lagoon, but when returning, they 

 were unexpectedly fired on, upon landing, and 

 the commanding officers and three men were 

 killed, and several wounded, and two taken 

 prisoners. 



By these operations along the Florida coast 

 some small steamers and other vessels were 

 captured, and the blockade was rendered more 

 effective by the actual occupation of the prin- 

 cipal ports. The country appeared to be unde- 

 fended and entirely unprepared to make any 

 resistance against the overwhelming Union 

 force. Many fortified positions were found, 

 but the soldiers were not seen. The white 

 population in Florida in 1860 was 77,778, and 

 during the previous year the State sent about 

 ten thousand men to the Confederate army. 

 Her military strength was thus reduced to a 

 feeble condition. Whatever progress was made 

 in restoring the Union was defeated by the 

 sudden evacuation of Jacksonville and the 

 abandonment of many Union citizens there. It 

 taught the people of the State that so long as 

 the Confederate Government existed in se- 

 curity, it might at any time return and demand 

 their allegiance. 



Commodore Dupont now returned to Port 

 Royal, leaving a small force at all the points 

 taken. On his arrival on the 27th of March, 

 he learned that the formidable Confederate 

 batteries on Skidaway and Green islands had 

 been abandoned, by which complete control 

 was obtained of Warsaw and Ossibaw sounds 

 and the mouths of Vernon and Wilmington 

 rivers, which form a part of the approaches 

 from the south to Savannah. 



Toward Charleston the only movement of 

 importance which had been made by Gen. 

 Sherman was the occupation of Edisto Island 

 by the 47th New York. This took place on 

 the llth of February. This island is about 

 twelve miles long and nine broad, and is about 

 ten miles from the mainland, twenty miles 

 from the Charleston and Savannah railroad, 

 and forty miles from Charleston. The island 

 was found to be entirely deserted except by 

 the negroes. Considerable cotton was gathered, 

 although the greater portion of that produced 

 had been burned. 



On the 31st of March Maj.-Gen. David 

 Hunter assumed the command of the depart- 

 ment of the South, consisting of the States of 

 South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Thus 

 Gen. Sherman was relieved of the command 

 and assigned to another post. In a proclama- 

 tion issued on the same day, Gen. Hunter an- 

 nounced the division of his department into 

 three districts as follows : 



1. The first, to be called the Northern District, will 

 comprise the States of South Carolina, Georgia, and 



