The Hartford Press relates how the opening of the artificial channel known as “Wall’s cut,” by means of which our gun-boats were enabled to pass into Savannah river, between Fort Pulaski and Savannah, was accomplished. The Press receives the fact from a participant:
Wall’s Cut, one of the inland passages to Savannah, was obstructed by the rebels when our forces took Port Royal, by the sinking of a brig and driving three rows of piles across the passage. The delicacy of the operation of removing the obstructions can be imagined when we state that the place was so far within the enemy’s lines that they left it entirely unguarded, thinking that our troops would have neither the temerity to approach the channel, nor the ingenuity to remove the obstructions.
But they did not know the Yankee daring and skill. Some time before the middle of January, the three companies of the Connecticut 7th that were left on Hilton Head were sent down to the lower end of Daufuskie Island to act as guard to a party of engineers who were to attempt to open Wall’s Cut. From the house, which formed the headquarters of the party, Savannah was plainly visible, at a distance of eight miles across the marshes and bayous. The line of the river could also be traced, and the men seen on the decks of the black little steamers which plied between savannah and Fort Pulaski, the portholes of which could be counted.
During the daytime the party kept concealed. At night strong guards of soldiers were placed at favorable pints of observation, and the engineers, with muffled oars and hammers, silently worked till daybreak. This was continued five successive nights before the work was accomplished. But the piles were all removed and the old sunken hulks moved into a position which renders the passage of the gunboats easy. So unsuspicious were the enemy all this time, that our pickets captured two innocent duck shooters, who supposed they were safely rowing in rebel waters. It is one of the cleverest achievements of the war.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 13, 1862, p. 2
Wall’s Cut, one of the inland passages to Savannah, was obstructed by the rebels when our forces took Port Royal, by the sinking of a brig and driving three rows of piles across the passage. The delicacy of the operation of removing the obstructions can be imagined when we state that the place was so far within the enemy’s lines that they left it entirely unguarded, thinking that our troops would have neither the temerity to approach the channel, nor the ingenuity to remove the obstructions.
But they did not know the Yankee daring and skill. Some time before the middle of January, the three companies of the Connecticut 7th that were left on Hilton Head were sent down to the lower end of Daufuskie Island to act as guard to a party of engineers who were to attempt to open Wall’s Cut. From the house, which formed the headquarters of the party, Savannah was plainly visible, at a distance of eight miles across the marshes and bayous. The line of the river could also be traced, and the men seen on the decks of the black little steamers which plied between savannah and Fort Pulaski, the portholes of which could be counted.
During the daytime the party kept concealed. At night strong guards of soldiers were placed at favorable pints of observation, and the engineers, with muffled oars and hammers, silently worked till daybreak. This was continued five successive nights before the work was accomplished. But the piles were all removed and the old sunken hulks moved into a position which renders the passage of the gunboats easy. So unsuspicious were the enemy all this time, that our pickets captured two innocent duck shooters, who supposed they were safely rowing in rebel waters. It is one of the cleverest achievements of the war.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, February 13, 1862, p. 2
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