Confidential
Wabash Outside
Port Royal Bar
28 Feby. 62
My Dear Sir
My ammunition arrived just on time as I was detained by bad
weather. Our operations of the last month have caused the enemy to concentrate
everything round Savannah, and according to two deserters he has abandoned
Brunswick! and withdrawn the guns from the forts at St. Simons. All this I will
see to—but my object in writing is to say that all approaches on Savannah will
have to be probably by Ossabaw Sound and that the Ericsson would be of immense
service in knocking over the fort on Greene island. She could then proceed on
to the Gulf. This fort is so situated as to make it very formidable on low
marshy ground. I think the soldiers will want it taken.
Our feints here have been most successful—but there is seen
for some reason a determination to defend Savannah—the river is obstructed,
torpedoes and infernal machines in great numbers and masked batteries above
Jackson. According to deserters they have sixty thousand men in and
outside—this seems absurd, but not more absurd than the last report there are
70,000 in and round Charleston.
The Fingal is purchased and Tattnall fitting her for his
flagship, with 9 guns.
In haste Yrs
Most truly
S. F. DUPONT
G. V. Fox
Ass. Sec Navy.
SOURCE: Robert Means Thompson & Richard Wainwright,
Editors, Publications of the Naval Historical Society, Volume 9: Confidential
Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1861-1865,
Volume 1, p. 108-9
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