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James Bradley Sterling Papers

出版	1861
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=yafjjwEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api

註釋Letter, 29 November 1861, describes the rough seas during Sterling's trip from Fortress Monroe in Hampton (Virginia) to Port Royal (S.C.) aboard the steamship Illinois, during which the Union fleet was hit by what has come to be known as the "Expedition Hurricane" off the coast of North Carolina. The waves, which were "higher than three Ships," knocked the Illinois to "within one ships length of the rocks whare one Ship had alredy struck." When they reversed the ship "came in contact with the Ship that we were a towing," causing much damage to both vessels. Upon resuming course around 3:00 A.M. the crew of the Illinois spotted "a Signell light... on bord a steam boat" and "run up to hayling distance of her and found out that it was the Govenor and that in the storm she had sprung leak." The Illinois could offer no assistance to those aboard the floundering ship as "our Ship was loded as heavy as she would bare," but another boat "arrived just in time for as She took the last man of her deck the boat rold and down she went." Outside sources indicate that the steamship Governor sank at approximately 3:30 P.M. on 3 November with a loss of seven lives. "After having been on the water for 3 weeks," Sterling came in sight of land during the shelling of Forts Walker and Beauregard - which guarded the entrance to Port Royal Sound - by Union gunboats. Though Sterling's ship was "within range of their guns their fire was directed towards the gunboats and the man of ware that lay along with them." Confederate forces abandoned the forts on the afternoon of 7 November and Sterling noted that "about dark we went on toward the shore." Union forces occupied the forts during the night and Sterling awoke the next morning to "a scream that would have child the coldest hart." The cause of the scream was the discovery "in one place... a mans arm in another a hand in another place where a shell had struck there was a mans scul and branes." Sterling concluded this letter by reporting that his unit was then moved to Braddock's Point on Hilton Head Island where they found cattle "running wild in the woods... plenty of hogs and other wild game."