Charleston County, June 16, 1862

By Stephen R. Wise

By the spring of 1862 Federal forces operating out of Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, had seized nearly all of their major objectives, yet the greatest prize—Charleston—eluded their grasp. The city was home to a government arsenal, industrial plants, a railroad hub, and the Confederacy’s most active port. By 1862 powerful fortifications guarded the harbor, but the city’s vulnerable land side was guarded by isolated batteries at the mouth of the Stono River on Cole’s Island and by a rambling defense line across James Island.

On May 14 the Federals learned from Robert Smalls that CS Major General John C. Pemberton’s forces had abandoned Cole’s Island. Smalls, the pilot for the Confederate steamer Planter, had sailed the ship with his fellow slave crewmen out of Charleston harbor and turned it over to the Union navy while the white officers were ashore. Within a week US Flag Officer Captain Samuel Francis Du Pont’s warships entered the Stono River and secured landing sites on James Island.

On June 2 the department commander, US Major General David Hunter, landed a 10,000-man strike force under US Brigadier General Henry W. Benham on James Island. US Brigadier General Horatio G. Wright’s division and US Colonel Robert Williams’s brigade of US Brigadier General Isaac Stevens’s division encamped at the landing place, Thomas Grimball’s plantation. The remainder of Stevens’s division took up positions to the south on Sol Legare and Battery Islands. Hunter concluded that the Confederates were too strong and postponed any attack. He applied for reinforcements and left James Island on June 12 after ordering Benham not to advance on Charleston without reinforcements or specific instructions.

Pemberton’s 6,500 men on James Island were commanded by CS Brigadier General Nathan G. Evans, who concentrated 4,400 men along the island’s southern defense line. Southwest of this line near the summer village of Secessionville stood an uncompleted and unnamed earthen battery that faced the Stono River and stretched across a narrow peninsula bordered by tidal creeks. Commanded by CS Colonel Thomas Lamar, the work mounted four seacoast and siege guns and was garrisoned by 100 artillerymen and 500 infantrymen.

Northwest of Secessionville, CS Colonel Johnson Hagood’s 2,500 men skirmished with the Federals at Grimball’s while Lamar’s artillery dueled with gunboats and a three-gun siege battery located on Sol Legare Island. This activity had little effect except to convince Benham that he had to capture the Secessionville battery to maintain his position.

At about 4:00 a.m. on June 16, under indirect covering fire from US gunboats, Benham launched a dawn assault with 3,500 men in Stevens’s two brigades against Secessionville while the 3,100 men of Wright’s division and Williams’s brigade provided support. Stevens’s lead brigade overran Confederate pickets three quarters of a mile from Secessionville and soon came under fire from Lamar’s garrison. Undaunted, the Federals continued up the peninsula through a hedgerow and into a cotton field. Four hundred yards from the battery they passed a second hedgerow. Under covering fire from a section of field guns, elements of the 8th Michigan swept into the battery’s ditch and up its wall. The 79th New York joined the Michigan regiment, and both briefly clung to the parapet before being forced back. Using the hedgerows for cover, Stevens reformed his units and prepared to launch a second assault once Wright’s division began its advance.

Shortly after 5:00 a.m. Williams moved his brigade along the southern edge of the marsh that separated Secessionville from the rest of James Island to a position that enfiladed the battery. Federal rifle fire crashed into the battery, cutting down its defenders and wounding Lamar.

Before Stevens could renew his attack, Confederate reinforcements reached the field. The 4th Louisiana Battalion arrived at Secessionville opposite Williams’s brigade and began exchanging volleys with the Federals across the marsh while units of Hagood’s command attacked Williams’s brigade from the rear. At the same time Confederate siege guns opened on the Union soldiers. Caught between three fires, Williams pulled his men back, forcing Stevens to cancel his second assault. Benham then ordered a general withdrawal, and by 10:00 a.m. the battle was over.

For the Federals the engagement had been a fiasco. Of the 4,500 men engaged, there were 683 casualties. The Confederates suffered 204 casualties of about 3,100 men engaged.

Hunter recalled Benham for disobeying orders and had him arrested and sent north for trial. With no prospect of reinforcements, Hunter evacuated James Island the first week of July. The Confederates completed the battery at Secessionville and named it Fort Lamar. Later Federal operations were primarily directed against Charleston’s harbor defenses, which held until the city was evacuated on February 17, 1865.

Estimated Casualties: 683 US, 204 CS