1 Bucks County Intelligencer, Troops Sail For South August 30, 1961 Page B-SEVEN Col. 1-2 1
Troops
Sail For South
It
was night at Camp Lacey. The
tiny, twinkling lights that festooned Doylestown Borough
under the cover of dark
seemed hardly credible to Davis. “They
are too far away to seem real,” he thought
aloud, “just as the battles are too
far away to seem real.” In
retrospect, the battles were grossly unreal now. They were as palable as the fog that shrouded the land and the
moon- light that splashed on Camp Lacey’s environs. Like
a Shuttlecock, Davis thought, the 104th Regiment
was bandied about from
battlefield to port. Many
times, the destination was unknown. We left Gloucester in the early part of January,
1863.” Davis recalled, “and landed
in Beaufort, North
Carolina. All the other regiments of the
brigade had preceded us, with the
ex- ception of the 56th, which
ar- rived later. “We
only stayed there a little while.” January
29, 1863: The
104th and 11th Regiments were assigned to the same
ves- sel, the steamer
Cahawba. They were designed to form part
of an expeditionary force that sailed south. Before
the troops were put on |
board, the ship was supplied
with thirty thousand
rations, fif- teen thousand gallons of
water and cola for twenty days. The
Cahawba was the flagship of the 30-vessel
expedition. The troops sailed south—but
their or- ders were sealed. “As
far as practicable, the same daily routine was
observed on ship board as in camp,”
Da- vis said, “The calls, by
bugle or drum, were sounded at stated
hours from reveille to
tattoo.” The
Steamers followed in the wake of its flagship. Each one carried at the mast-head a
sig- nal lamp that she might be
dis- tinguished in the darkness. “This
watery avenue of vari- ous lights followed us
through the night,” noted Davis, a
pret- ty sight. “But
we were vague as to our destination. It could have been termed a beautiful
nightmare.” The
course was parallel with the coast and only 26 miles
off shore. In
the morning, there were only five or six steamers of
the whole fleet in sight. The rest were left far behind in the
night. When
off the mouth of Cape Fear River, on which Wilming- ton is situated, the secret instructions wre opened. Destination
was Hilton Head, on Port Royal Bay, South
Caro- lina — ultimate destination
was Charleston. “We
knew we’d meet a com- bined attack, by land and
sea, when we reached that city,”
Da- vis observed. “The annouce- ment created considerable
ex- citement among the men. “They
appeared anxious to have a hand in capturing the
city where the rebellion
first broke out. “They knew that Charleston would be a hard not to
crack.” While
the vessels lay in the harbor off Beaufort, General
Naglee issued an order for
the formation of a battalion of sharpshooters. The
men who volunteered were ready for Charleston. Please
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Courtesy of the Spruance Library of the Bucks County Historical Society, 84 South Pine Street, Doylestown, Pa. 18901, (215)345-0210