ST. HELENA PARISH. 



659 



had a court house, a United States land office, 

 two newspaper offices, several churches, and a 

 hank, and had a city charter. On the 5th Au- 

 gust, 1861, Gen. Lyon, commanding a body of 

 about 4,000 troops of the Federal forces, arrived 

 at Springfield, and on the 8th a skirmish oc- 

 curred between a part of his force and the 

 Confederates at Dug Spring, a short distance 

 from the city. On the 10th a battle was fought 

 at David's and Wilson's creeks, the first nine, 

 the second fifteen miles from the city, in which 

 Gen. Lyon's force, in three columns, command- 

 ed by General SiegeL, Major (since General) 

 Sturgis, and himself, attacked a Confederate 

 force of nearly five times its own numbers, and 

 after a desperate battle of six hours remained 

 in possession of the Confederate camp, but with 

 the loss of Gen. Lyon and 223 others killed, 

 721 wounded, and 291 taken prisoners. The 

 Confederate loss was never published in detail, 

 but was known to be considerably greater than 

 this. After the battle, General Siegel, taking 

 the chief command, fell back to Springfield, 

 and the next day made a masterly retreat to 

 Rolla, where he received reinforcements. On 

 the llth the Confederate general Rains entered 

 and occupied the city with four regiments of 

 cavalry. On the 25th October Major Charles 

 Zagonyi, commander of Gen. Fremont's body 

 guard, with 160 mounted troops of that gnard, 

 made a most brilliant attack upon the Confed- 

 erate forces stationed near the city, over two 

 thousand in number, and who, having been in- 

 formed of his coming, were drawn up in order 

 of battle to receive him. He charged with his 

 little band up a steep hill in the face of a most 

 murderous fire, and after a short action, drove 

 them into, through, arid out of the town, with 

 a loss of fifty killed, wounded, and missing. 

 The Confederate loss was 60 killed and a large 

 number wounded. On the 28th October a 

 skirmish occurred in the town, in which sev- 

 eral Confederates were taken prisoners. On 

 November 3 Major-General David Hunter, who 

 had been appointed to supersede Gen. Fremont 

 in the command of the Federal army in the 

 Department of the West, arrived with his staff 

 at Springfield, and on the 9th abandoned it and 

 moved towards Rolla with his army. On the 

 27th Gen. Price, of the Confederate army, re- 



L occupied it, and it was held by the Confederates 

 till February, 1862. 



ST. HELENA PARISH, S. C. This dis- 

 trict, which has been the field of such impor- 

 tant movements during the war, is situated on 

 the coast of South Carolina, between 32 05' 

 and 32 20' X. latitude. St. Helena Parish 

 proper lies between the Combahee and Savan- 

 nah rivers, and extends on the latter to the line 

 of 32 55', about 80 miles by the course of the 

 river from its mouth ; but the tract now in- 

 cluded, under the name of Port Royal district, 

 extends on the coast from a point above the 



ITSdisto River, and about 20 miles below Charles- 

 :on, to St. Augustine, Florida, with a varying 

 Breadth of from five to twenty -miles inland. 



This is the region in which the great bulk of 

 the Sea Island cotton is produced. Along the 

 whole distance the coast is lined with a series 

 of islands forming the deltas of the Edisto, 

 Ashepo, Combahee, Broad, Coosawhatchie, Sa- 

 vannah, Ogeechee, Camanchee, Altamaha, and 

 Santilla rivers, and their interlocking branches. 

 In most instances these rivers, at their several 

 points of debouchure, have sand bars partially 

 closing the entrance, and admitting only vessels 

 of light draft, and these by tortuous channels, 

 to the deeper waters inside. Only two en- 

 trances of considerable depth occur on this part 

 of the South Carolina coast, viz. : St. Helena 

 and Port Royal sounds, or entrances. Of these 

 the latter is by far the best, and is, indeed, one 

 of the finest harbors on the Atlantic coast of 

 the Southern States. The Broad River here 

 forms an estuary varying in width from 2i to 

 5 miles, and, interlacing with the Combahee 

 and Port Royal rivers, encloses within naviga- 

 ble channels more than twenty islands of con- 

 siderable size, of which the principal are Hil- 

 ton's Head. St. Helena, Phillips, Hunting. Port 

 Royal, Pinckney, and Parry islands. 



At the entrance of Port Royal harbor there 

 is, at flood tide, sufficient depth of water for 

 vessels drawing 23 feet to pass, and, once in- 

 side, the sheltered bay is sufficiently capacious 

 for a navy to ride in safety. The larger of the 

 forts captured by Com. Dupont on the 7th of 

 November, was called Fort Walker, and was 

 situated on Hilton Head Island, on the south 

 side of the entrance, while the other, Fort 

 Beanregard. was on Phillips Island, on the 

 north side of the entrance, 2j miles distant, 

 and a small earthwork was about a half mile 

 distant on the same island, commanding the 

 approach from the northeast. (See EXPEDI- 

 TIONS.) 



The importance of Port Royal entrance as a 

 harbor has long been known. In 1562 a body 

 of French Protestants, under the direction of 

 Admiral Coligni, and commanded by John Re- 

 bault, of Dieppe, explored the harbor, erected 

 a fort on the site of Beaufort, and commenced 

 a settlement. It did not prosper, however, and 

 after two or three years was entirely aban- 

 doned. Nearly a cenWry later the first British 

 settlement was made here by Lord Cardross, a 

 Scotch nobleman. They settled on Port Royal 

 Island, but their numbers did not rapidy in- 

 crease. In 1670 William Sayle was sent out as 

 governor of this settlement. In 1700 the pres- 

 ent town of Beaufort was founded. Notwith- 

 standing the excellence of its harbor, the fertil- 

 ity of its soil, and the comparative salubrity of 

 the climate, great efforts had been made to turn 

 commerce aside from Port Royal and to con- 

 centrate it at the much poorer harbor of 

 Charleston. Port Royal and St. Helena islands 

 became the favorite summer residences of 

 wealthy merchants and planters, whose win- 

 ters were spent in Charleston, and the luxuri- 

 ous dwellings of Beaufort and its vicinity were 

 abundantly supplied with all the appliances of 



