South Carolina volunteer infantry, in observation, under Lieut.-Col. Ellison Capers, with instructions to prevent barges or small boats entering the Stono, or landing detachments on either Cole s or Battery island.
How far Major-General Pemberton communicated his views respecting the immediate defense of Charleston to his subordinates or to Governor Pickens, is not known, but to General Lee he wrote, on May 21st, after the gunboats had entered the Stono and anchored off Battery island, that he favored the abandonment of Forts Sumter and Moultrie and the defense of Charleston from the city itself. This remarkable judgment was expressed to General Lee in an official letter dated at Charleston, May 21, 1862, addressed to Col. A. L. Long, military secretary. The following are extracts:
I don’t suppose there is any immediate intention of attacking Charleston. . . . Our land defenses on James island, however, are very strong. The battery constructed at Elliott s cut, on Stono river (not yet entirely completed), mounts only eight guns. I desire to make it twenty, but under present arrangements cannot effect it. [This battery, gradually strengthened, became a splendid fort, and as its history will show, did gallant service against repeated attacks. It was named Fort Pemberton, in honor of the major-general commanding.] I do not regard Charleston as strong. What under the old system of warfare was our strength, is now our great weakness. The many approaches by water and the recent proof of the practicability of their gunboats passing our batteries [Port Royal] have made the defense of this city a very difficult problem to solve. To obstruct 2,000 yards of channel (and this with relation to the forts, Sumter and Moultrie, is decided upon as the most feasible) looks almost like an impossibility. Every effort, however, is being made to accomplish it. I am decidedly of the opinion that the most effectual defense of the city of Charleston can and should be made from and around the city itself. I believe that when the enemy is prepared to assault the forts at the entrance of the harbor, he will do so with such force and with such appliances as will reduce it to a question of time only. Our great
