LIFE IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY

Arthur P. Ford, 1905

pages 8-9

      About May 1st the company was ordered to Battery Island at the mouth of the Stono River, where  with another company, the "Gist Guards," Capt. Chichester, we were put under the command of Major C. K.  Huger, and placed in charge of four 24-pounder smooth-bore guns in the battery commanding the river, our  own four howitzers being parked in the rear. Cole's Island, next below, and at the immediate entrance of  the river, was garrisoned by Lucas' battalion of Regulars, and the Twenty-fourth Regiment South Carolina  Volunteers, Col. C. H. Stevens. An examination of a map of this locality will show that Cole's Island was  the key to Charleston; and this question has given rise to considerable acrimonious discussion. But  whatever the merits of the case may have been, the facts are, that under the strange fear of the Federal  gunboats that obtained on the South Carolina coast at that period, it was believed that our positions on  Cole's and Battery Islands could not be held against an attack from the gunboats, which then were off the  mouth of the river; and the islands were evacuated. On the 18th the Federals sent a couple of small boats  into the mouth of the river to reconnoiter, but they were soon driven back by our pickets. On the next  day, and day after, all the guns were removed from both islands to Fort Pemberton, higher up the Stono  River--a very strong earth fort that had been built in preparation for this move. A day or two after,  while our men were still on Battery Island, but Cole's Island having been deserted, several Federal  gunboats entered the river, shelling the woods and empty batteries as they advanced. On their approach we  set fire to the barracks and then withdrew across the causeway to James Island. We had to make haste across this causeway, because it was within easy range of the enemy, who soon began to rake it with  shells.