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minutes after two in the afternoon, Commander John Rodgers landed with a small force and raised the Federal flag over the deserted batteries.
Fort Beauregard, across the harbor entrance, seeing the fate of Fort Walker, was abandoned by Captain Elliott, its commander, late in the afternoon, and now the most important position that either the army or the navy had yet gained was in the possession of the North, and the coveted naval base established.
Early on the morning of January 1, 1863, General Magruder made a vigorous attempt to recapture the city of Galveston, which had been taken by Farragut's squadron the previous October.
The side-wheel steamer Harriet Lane bore the brunt of the naval attack, and she was captured by two small steamers after her commander and lieutenant-commander had been killed.
The ferry-boat Westfield was burned.
The military force in the town surrendered, and the blockade was broken for a week.
On the 31st of this month, the Confederate iron-clad rams Chicora and Palmetto State, built and equipped at the navy-yard in Charleston, steamed down past the forts and took the inner line of the blockading fleet by surprise.
The Mercedita was captured, and the Keystone State was badly injured.
As it was calm weather, the Chicora and the Palmetto State proceeded out to sea, and as the outer line of the blockading squadron was far off the coast, they came back and reported that the blockade was raised.
In fact, General Beauregard attempted to bring this point before the foreign consuls at Charleston.
It was on the 28th of February that the cruiser Nashville, lying up the Ogeechee River above Fort McAllister, Georgia, was destroyed by the monitor Montauk while she was waiting for a chance to get to sea. One well-directed shot from the monitor's 15-inch gun struck the Nashville fair amidships, and in a few minutes she burst into flame, and blew up.
The Confederate ram Atlanta, on the 17th of June, 1863, running down into Wassaw Sound, secure in the protection of
Review of Reviews. New York. 1912.
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