#26th usct

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"The small number of artillerists now in the department": The artillery of the Department of the South, Spring 1864

"The small number of artillerists now in the department": The arty in Dept of the South, Spring 1864 #CharlestonSeige150

Major-General John G. Foster assumed command of the Department of the South on May 26, 1864.  Foster served at Charleston (specifically Fort Moultrie) before the war, had been second in command at Fort Sumter when the war started, but spent much of the next two years in North Carolina.  Foster was familiar with Charleston… and with making do with small garrison forces along the coast.

Among the…

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Defending Port Royal Sound: Garrisons at Hilton Head, Beaufort, Fort Pulaski, and St. Helena Island

Defending Port Royal Sound: Garrisons at Hilton Head, Beaufort, Fort Pulaski, and St. Helena Island

As Major-General Quincy Gillmore departed the Department of the South in late April 1864, he left behind an assessment of the garrisons along the coast addressed to Brigadier-General John Hatch, his replacement.  In that assessment, Gillmore included a paragraph describing the needs to defend the vital anchorage at Port Royal Sound:

The district around Port Royal Harbor, including Port Royal…

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Wainwright’s Diary, March 10, 1864, Part II: USCT, General Grant, and consolidation

Picking up on the later portions of Colonel Charles S. Wainwright’s lengthy diary entry for March 10, 1864, the subject turned to the US Colored Troops.  Though these troops were not at that time assigned to the Army of the Potomac, Wainwright did have observations based on newspaper reports:

My copy of the Herald the last week has been like a daily edition of Punch to me.  Each number has had…

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