SC Historical Society: southcarolinahistoricalsociety.org Wire -- The Battle of Secessionville

Battle of Secessionville
By Karen Stokes and Michael Coker

Right: Right:Augustine "Gus" Smythe, as he appeared later in life.After the Battle of Secessionville he served as a member of the Confederate Signal Corp.

"We have been in our first fight & have met the Yankees at last & thank God, we are not only safe but we have driven back the enemy with great slaughter". Confederate solider Augustine Smythe wrote on June 17th, 1862. Just the day before Smythe and the rest of his company were engaged in a fierce fight for possession of a unfinished earthen fort out in the Secessionville region of James Island, South Carolina. Had this fort fallen during the three hour Union assult, the entire course of the Civil War could have been altered.

Many in the North believed South Carolina, especially Charleston, was responsible for causing the War. Northern regiments were raised with the rallying cry " Remember Fort Sumter! " As a port city and as a symbol of the Confederacy, Charleston had importance to both sides.

By 1862, the Union navy had captured the Port Royal area and occupied Hilton Head less than a hundred miles away. From this base, a fleet of ships blockaded Charleston waters, disrupting the flow of goods into and out of the city. Charleston harbor however was ringed with a series of formidble fortifications, such as Ft. Sumter, which stalled any further Union advance.

The Union high command believed there was another way to take Charleston. If they were to strike successfully across James Island, then the back door to the so-called " cradle of secession" would be open. During the American Revolution, the British army had marched across a similiar route to successfully capture Charleston back in 1780. The Confederates knew this was a possibilty and constructed a line of defensive works across James Island.

Left:The Battle of Secessionville is reenacted annually today

Union General Henry Benham, against the orders of his superiors, decided to prematurely test the line of Confederate defenses. Benham threw several thousand soldiers against a position on James Island, in the area known as Secessionville. Ironically enough, Secessionville's name had nothing to do with the Souhern States secession; it refers to an earlier event in which a group of younger planters "seceded" from an area occupied by their elders. The focus of the attack would be near a fortification called The Tower Battery. The Union gave it this name because of the wooden observation tower nearby, while Confederates would come to dub the M-shaped earthenwork Fort Lamar in honor of its commander Colonel T.G. Lamar.

Fort Lamar was thinly manned and incomplete. The short-staffed crews had labored around the clock to get the fort into fighting condition. Most of those inside Fort Lamar had been asleep only a short while when the attack came. Reinforcements were desperately needed, and Augustine Smythe was part of a group sent to aid the vastly outnumbered Confederates at Fort Lamar.

Smythe describes his company's rush to meet the Federal attack. " We fell quickly in line, hurried by the sight of the shell bursting round Secessionville. We marched at quick for some time, but as we neared the battle ground, we could stand it no longer...giving a shout, rushed on at double-quick. We turned off thro the road...then thro another field in which the shells were falling." Once through this dangerous gauntlet and on the field they were wisely given the order to lie down. " Scarcely were the words uttered...than volley after volley of bullets flew around us, cutting off the branches in front of us. " Smythe comments on the behavior of himself and his comrades; " It was a trying moment, for none of us knew but that the next bullet would finish us, yet the men behaved with great coolness, fixing their bayonets and getting ready for the charge. "

Even with the additions of Smythe's company the Federals would mantain superior numbers. Despite this advantage they were unable to take the fort in the roughly three hours of fighting that followed. They had numerous difficulties maneuvering in the surrounding marsh, and coordinating attacks, while the Confederates stubbornly stood their ground, and received reinforcements at critical points. Casualty counts vary from report to report, but all of them point to a stunning Union defeat. One estimate lists close to 700 killed, wounded, and missing for the Union, and only 200 for the Confederates.

Smythe was assigned to a squad to gather up arms and look after the wounded following the fighting. He gives this vivid account of the battle's costly aftermath; " I was sent & such a scene I wish never again to witness. Many were in the water, dead, in a small creek between them & Secessionville, one poor fellow wounded in his back and throat lay in the water close to the bank, but unable to get out while the tide was up to his shoulders and continually rising. " Smythe pulled this man to safety and comforted him as best as he could. After gazing upon the area where Fort Lamar's artillery fired into the Union ranks Smythe remarks " On the other side of the marsh...the slaughter...was immensely greater. " Casualties from this battle would be found along James Island for a time afterwards. Smythe tells how " One poor fellow who had evidently been wounded, had crawled to the edge of the bushes & taken off his clothes...laid them by his side, then folded his hands across his breast & died. Poor fellow, had he been attended to & had food, he might have lived. He must have heard horrible stories of having his clothes torn off him after death & wished not to have his body disturbed.---Awful! "

Above:The Battle Of Secessionville June 16th, 1862.

Secessionville would never again be the scene of a major battle, but would maintain its role as part of the James Island defenses until it's defenders were evacuated in Feburary 1865 to escape the path of General Sherman's army marching from Georgia into South Carolina.

This victory resulted in the court marshal of General Benham, and the withdrawal of Union forces off James Island. Had Secessionville been taken, the Union forces could have then advanced into Charleston. The capture of this city in 1862 might have had far-reaching consquences in the future campaigns waged by North and South, even possibly altering the whole course of the Civil War.

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Last modified:04/24/03 CLN.

URL: http://www.southcarolinahistoricalsociety.org/wire/2002_Jan/Rebel.html