http://www.brettschulte.net/ACWBooks/southcarolina.htm
<i>Secessionville: Assault on Charleston</i>. Patrick Brennan. Savas Publishing Company (1996). 394 pp. 23 maps.
This is a review and summary of Patrick Brennan’s <i>Secessionville: Assault on Charleston</i>. <i>Secessionville</i> is a detailed battle history focusing on the James Island Campaign of June 1862 and the resulting Battle of Secessionville on June 16, 1862. The author is not a professional historian. Instead, I was interested to learn, he is a musician by trade. Do not let this fool you as far as his qualifications for writing this book go. John S. Petersen’s Foreword makes it abundantly clear that Patrick Brennan is an avid student of the Civil War and has been for a long, long time. Union Generals David Hunter and Henry Benham landed on James Island just south of Charleston in early June 1862. After a period of fortifying their camps, the Union forces attacked the advanced left flank of the Southern line at the Tower Battery. Unfortunately for them, Henry Benham was not much of a leader, and the attacks failed after several hours. The author asserts that the Battle of Secessionville was important far beyond its small size. He believes Charleston would have fallen had the Tower Battery been taken on June 16. Brennan also points out that with Charleston as a base in 1862, vast inroads could have been made into the Carolina interior. Brennan also points out that the two Generals in charge, Henry Benham and John Pemberton, were removed not long after the operation took place. The book contains 394 pages and 23 maps, and as usual with a tactical history there are many endnotes and an impressive bibliography.
In late 1861, the Union had taken Fort Pulaski near Savannah, Georgia, and they had landed at Port Royal and Beaufort along the Carolina coast. By the summer of 1862, General David Hunter and his Army of the South were looking to establish a way to attack Charleston, South Carolina with the help of Admiral Du Pont’s Southeast Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Hunter and his subordinate Henry Benham landed two Federal Divisions under Isaac Stevens and Horatio Wright Battery Island, Sol Legare Island, and James Island, just south of Charleston, in early June 1862. They spent the first half of June establishing and fortifying camps on Sol Legare and Battery Islands, separated from James Island by swamp. As the Union troops expanded their encampments, several sharp skirmishes took place. In the interim, David Hunter departed for Hilton Head and left Benham strict instructions not to attack.
Through some rules lawyering, Benham interpreted an attack on Tower Battery as a way to “secureâ€
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