harbor at risk of going aground, or set sail boldly on a
bright moonlight night, when the blockaders would naturally relax their
vigilance a little. Occasionally some dare-devil would crowd on all
steam and dash openly through the sentinel fleet, trusting to speed to
escape being hit or captured. When hard pressed, the blockade-runner
would beach his craft, set it afire, and take to the woods. At the close
of the war thirty wrecks of blockade-runners were rotting on the sands
near Charleston Harbor.

In connection with the blockade a number of naval expeditions were sent
against various points along the coast. In October, 1861, a fleet under
Flag-Officer Dupont, consisting of a steam frigate, a dozen or more
gunboats, with numerous transports and coaling-schooners, and carrying
12,000 troops under General T. W. Sherman, set sail from Hampton Roads
for Port Royal, S. C. After a stormy passage the fleet anchored off the
harbor on November 4th. On opposite sides of the entrance, two and a
half miles apart, stood Forts Walker and Beauregard--strong earthworks,
mounting one 23 the other 20 guns, and garrisoned by 1,700 men. The 7th
dawned bright and clear, the sea smooth as glass. About nine o'clock the
bombardment began. The fleet steamed slowly round and round in an
ellipse between the forts, each vessel as it came within range pouring
in its fire, then passing on and waiting its turn to fire again. The
cannonade was concentrated upon Fort Walker. The moving ships offered a
poor mark to the fort, while the aim of the fleet was very accurate,
covering the gunners with sand and dismounting the guns. After four
hours' action Fort Walker was evacuated, and soon Fort Beauregard also
in consequence.

[Illustration: Map.]
Map of Hampton Roads.

Port Royal was the finest harbor on the coast, and was of great value to
the navy all through the war as a repair and supply station. Dupont sent
out expeditions, and by the end of the year had possession of a large
part of the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. In the following spring
expeditions from Port Royal regained Fernandina and St. Augustine on the
Florida coast. In April Fort Pulaski, a strong brick work at the mouth
of the Savannah River, was reduced by eleven batteries planted on a
neighboring island, its surrender completing the blockade of Savannah.

[1862]

Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, on the coast of North Carolina, swarmed
with blockade-runners. Rivers, canal