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.

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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


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