The Last Commander of Fort Sumter: Thomas Abram Huguenin

By Gary R. Baker

Thomas Huguenin was born into a wealthy South Carolina Lowcountry family. In the early 1890's, he penned this autobiography, not for publication, but for the benefit of his family.

An 1859 graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel), Huguenin, within two years, was actively engaged in the defense of Charleston Harbor. Serving in the forts around the harbor, he was involved in Union ironclad attacks and the defense of Morris Island., including a failed attempt to blow up Battery Wagner.

In July 1864, he was placed in command of Fort Sumter which endured massive bombardments from Union naval vessels and artillery around Morris Island. Huguenin remained in command until February 1865, when the fort was abandoned, not surrendered. He recounts the final withdrawal into North Carolina, and his role in the Battles of Averysboro and Bentonville.

It is a rich historical account by a young man who was deeply involved in the war and Reconstruction period.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Bookworks
• Release date: Jan 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781887301329

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The Last Commander of Fort Sumter: Thomas Abram Huguenin

THE LAST COMMANDER OF FORT SUMTER: THOMAS A. HUGUENIN

A Sketch of the Life of

Thomas Abram Huguenin

Written at the Request of My [HIS] Family

Edited by

Gary R. Baker

New Material

Copyright © 2015 by Gary R. Baker

All Rights Reserved

First Printing: 2015

Manufactured in the

United States of America

by:

Palmetto Bookworks

201 Pilgrim Point Drive

Lexington, SC 29072

email: [e-mail]

ebook ISBN: 1-887301-32-1

printed book ISBN: 1-887301-04-6

DEDICATION

To my dear wife, Mary, who has endured many hours and days of my working on this publication.

To my large extended family who have patiently waited for me to finish this book for the past twenty plus years.

And, last but not least, to The Citadel which has produced young men and women who, like Thomas A. Huguenin, have served in many places of honor and danger.

Huguenin2.jpg

Capt. Thomas A. Huguenin

Charleston City Hall

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

Captain Thomas Abram Huguenin

Map of Charleston Harbor, 1862-1863

Shelling of Fort Sumter

Huguenin Family Arms

General M.L. Bonham

Arsenal Academy, 1856

Citadel Academy, 1850

General Richard Heron Anderson

General Barnard E. Bee

Battery Beauregard

Captain John Johnson

Col. David B. Harris

Plan of Battery Wagner

General Pierre G.T. Beauregard

Firing of Evening Gun at Fort Sumter

Battery Wagner after the occupation by Federal troops, 1863

Captain John C. Mitchell

Shell exploding inside Fort Sumter

Brig. General Roswell S. Ripley

Sgt. Leonard Huguenin, Co. A, 144th New York Volunteers

Flag over Fort Sumter

Captain Huguenin in his office, December 7, 1864

Interior of Fort Sumter, 1865

Sketch, Averysboro

General Anderson's sword

Captain Thomas A. Huguenin

Huguenin's diagram of his route from Battery Beauregard to Fort Sumter

Interior of Fort Sumter, 1864

Interior view of Fort Sumter

Saber and epaulettes of Thomas A. Huguenin

Fort Sumter battle flag

Fort Sumter signal flag

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It’s not often that a Civil War historian comes across personal memoirs which have the richness of the material here. The author, Thomas A. Huguenin, a graduate of the South Carolina Military Academy in 1859, was an active participant in the activities in Charleston Harbor. He tells a large part of his story from his position on Sullivan’s Island, Morris Island, and, finally, at Fort Sumter.

Ms. Jane Yates, of The Citadel Museum/Archives, introduced me to a copy of the handwritten manuscript memoirs more than twenty years ago. The original is in the Southern Historical Society Collection at the University of North Carolina.

It’s not known when Huguenin sat down to pen these memoirs for his family. He apparently wrote the manuscript in the mid-1890s. While the emphasis is on the period of the Civil War, Huguenin starts with his birth, I was born... and ends with an appended account of the Darlington Riots of 1894, just several years before his death. Huguenin’s handwritten manuscript is 119 pages long, consisting mainly of three lengthy paragraphs with two short paragraphs added at the end covering a harrowing boat ride to Fort Sumter and the Darlington Riots.

For ease of reading, I took some license in editing these memoirs. The text remains Huguenin’s with only a few changes being made in punctuation and spelling. I established relatively short paragraphs and separated the manuscript into twelve chapters. All these editing changes were made strictly for the purpose of readability.

Other supportive material has been added to supplement Huguenin’s view of activities. This material includes letters, reports, newspaper accounts, and extracts relating to Huguenin. I added editorial comments to provide background when Huguenin failed to do so. That editorial information appears in bold print. Appendixes have been added to provide further information about Huguenin which was not included in the memoirs. This material covers Huguenin’s command of the 4th Brigade SC Militia in the postwar period as well as his funeral. Photographs, maps, and sketches have also been added.

I had the pleasure to meet the late Mary Ellen Vereen Huguenin back in 1992. She graciously conducted me and my good friend, Tom Low, on a tour of Halidon Plantation, the home she shared with her late husband, Thomas Abram Huguenin, grandson and namesake of the author of these memoirs. She showed us the epaulettes and sword of Gen. Huguenin and later provided material quoted in this book.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank my son, Mark, his wife, Lisa, and my daughter, Gara, for their help in translating and keying in the text.

My interest in the Civil War began during my teenage years when my high school friends and I would take bicycle trips to Civil War battlefields near my then-Maryland home. Tom Low, my best friend since high school, has continued to fuel my interest in the war, and I have served with various organizations to study and preserve the rich history of the war period.

I met Dave Ruth while he was Historian at Fort Sumter. His interest and enthusiasm for the fort are evident in any discussion with him. Tom and Dave have provided valuable input to me regarding the editing of the manuscript.

To fully understand Charleston Harbor’s impact on the war effort, it’s necessary to look beyond the memoirs. A brief history of the war in Charleston Harbor and the South Carolina lowcountry area has been added.

David Evans of Athens, Georgia was instrumental in providing material and advice to me. He is a first rate historian.

The late Mrs. Leroy Keyserling of Beaufort, South Carolina, and David and Julius Huguenin of Georgia, relatives of the book’s subject, have been very supportive in providing documents, photos, and advice concerning the Huguenin family which traces its origins to Switzerland.

Mrs. Richard K. Anderson provided me with a photo of the sword presented to General Richard Heron Anderson for his Mexican War service. That sword was used by Huguenin while in command of the 4th Brigade SC Militia in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

My thanks also to Jane Yates, The Citadel Museum/Archives; South Caroliniana Library; South Carolina State Library; South Carolina Department of Archives and History; South Carolina Historical Society; University of Georgia Special Collections Library; and the University of North Carolina Library for making material available. I also used materials from the United Daughters of the Confederacy as well as the Charleston County Public Library, Lexington County Library, and the Edisto Island Museum. Appreciation is also expressed to Rick Hatcher, Historian at Fort Sumter, for providing photos to me from the fort’s collection.

Gary R Baker

December 2015

charlestonharbor.jpg

Map of Charleston Harbor, 1862-1863

FOREWORD

Most folks who think of Charleston during the Civil War remember the opening shots at Fort Sumter. The 36-hour bombardment on April 12-13, 1861, is considered the traditional starting point of the war, the first extensive exchange of gunfire since the state of South Carolina had proclaimed its independence from the fledgling United States. Some few others also recall the film Glory which tells the story of the gallant charge of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, a unit composed of former slaves and freed blacks, against the solid defenses of Battery Wagner in July 1863. But wartime Charleston was much more than these two affairs. Some 239 engagements occurred in South Carolina during the war. The focus of many of those was Charleston Harbor.

Charleston was a major seaport, the largest along the Atlantic coast in the Confederacy. The 29,000 white residents and 37,000 slaves of the historic town made their living from the import/export trade. The South primarily engaged in agriculture, with minimal manufacturing. While Charleston and its environs contained some rice mills and textile mills, residents relied heavily on goods manufactured in the north or in Europe.

Local manufacturers found local markets small. Just prior to the war, poor patronage caused the close of a shoe factory while a local silversmith struggled to make a living. Even a cotton factory had to find northern markets to stay afloat.

The advent of the war, however, placed pressure on the Confederate government to develop manufacturing venues. Within a short time after secession, a laboratory for manufacture of ordnance was in place at the Citadel. Soon, Charleston was the home for a manufacturer of pontoons, a drum builder, a factory for production of rifled cannon and cannon balls, shoe factory, and a printer of Confederate money. Salt was being produced in and around Charleston and James Island. An iron foundry was soon in place along with an arsenal that, by the end of 1861, was equipped with enough machinery to produce munitions and equipment. Shipbuilding facilities were established to manufacture torpedo boats and ironclad vessels. Throughout South Carolina, factories were set up to produce civilian and military clothes and equipment. Clearly, the economy had turned from one of dependence to one of at least partial independence.

Charleston’s wide harbor provided easy access to trading ships. After mid-1861, the Federal blockade of Confederate ports made Charleston a ready port for the blockade runners. With its location close to Nassau and other Caribbean ports, Charleston saw more activity from blockade runners than any other Confederate port. Cotton and rice were collected in the port bound for the Caribbean ports where the neutral ships from Europe could offload their finished goods, clothing, food products, and furniture manufactured in the factories or workshops of the North or Europe.

The port city was the terminus of three railroads, one from Florence (the Northeastern RR), one from Branchville (the South Carolina RR), and one from Savannah (the Charleston & Savannah RR). These three railroads were part of a transportation matrix between North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. Goods which came in through the blockade could be easily moved to the army in Virginia or the army in Georgia or Tennessee. Consumer goods could easily be transported to the interior of the Confederacy.

The inland planters purchased their supplies in the port city, shopped in its fine stores, and maintained fine houses there. The townspeople attended Episcopal and Jewish churches or synagogues, received their educations at a number of public and private schools. The College of Charleston and the South Carolina Military Academy (the Citadel) provided college education for the young men. Doctors were trained at the Medical College of South Carolina. Libraries, shops, and theaters offered diversions.

It was critical that Charleston remain open and in the hands of the Confederate government. On May 21, 1862, the Executive Council passed a Resolution:

Resolved. That the governor and Executive Council concur in opinion with the people of South Carolina, assembled in Convention, that Charleston should be defended at any cost of life or property, and that in their deliberate judgment they would prefer a repulse of the enemy with the entire city in ruins to an evacuation or surrender on any terms whatever.

General Samuel Jones[1], in writing of the siege of Charleston, stated that:

...cotton being the basis of financial credit of the Confederacy, it was manifest to hold seaports from which cotton could be shipped and return cargo entered. Charleston and Savannah were the most important ports on the South Atlantic coast connected by a railroad of about 115 miles lying near the coast which is intersected by numerous bays, inlets, rivers and creeks, navigable to within striking distance of the railroad...The city is a shipping port providing railroad communication with Virginia, North Carolina, and eastern Georgia. For its commercial, military, and political importance, it would have been disastrous if Charleston was captured.

It was clear that Charleston, the Cradle of Secession, needed to be defended at all costs. Severing the railroad system or the shipping system would seriously impact the Confederacy. Early in the war, an interior defense system was established which effectively ceded the sea islands to the Yankees. Fortification lines were established further into the interior to provide a tighter defense network. No longer was the coast line a requirement to defend with its myriad inlets, islands, creeks, and tributaries. In a tactical sense, this interior system allowed better use of the railroad and local defenders. Troops could be shuttled quickly to the point of encounter with invading troops. This system also allowed those troops to protect the waterways at strategic points. The price? Cotton and rice from the sea island plantations, a valuable exchange commodity used by the Confederate government with European suppliers.

The Federal forces were intent on capturing Charleston to punish the state and the city where the war had symbolically begun.  A lot of resentment among the Federal troops and their commanders provided a viable goal …and vindictive hatred in which Charleston was held was once held by the large mass of northern people. As General Henry W. Halleck[2] wrote to General Sherman[3] in December 1864:

Should you capture Charleston, I hope that by some accident the place may be destroyed, and, if a little salt should be sown upon its site, it may prevent the growth of future crops of nullification and secession.

But this infuriation with South Carolina was also what held South Carolina together. The State had started the exodus from the Union, and they would fight to the end. South Carolinians knew they were the prime target of the Yankees. They were dead set to let their enemy know that they believed passionately in their cause. They would protect their hallowed city.

---

[1]Foreword

Jones, Samuel (1819-1887) USMA 1841. Pre-war US Army service; resigned and appointed CSA Chief of Artillery and Ordnance. Commanded Departments of Western VA and SC. In 1865, appointed Commander of Department of Florida and South Georgia. Postwar, president of Maryland Agricultural College.

[2] Halleck, Henry (1815-1872) USMA 1839. Mexican War veteran and pre-war lawyer, railroad president, and land speculator. Commander of the Department of Missouri and later Tennessee. In July 1862, promoted to general-in-chief of the Union armies until Ulysses Grant was appointed to that position, and he assumed duties as Chief of Staff. Remained in the Army until his death.

[3] Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891) USMA 1840. Banker, lawyer, military school superintendent. Served in eastern and western theaters. Conducted March to the Sea through Georgia and the Carolinas Campaign. Postwar, US army commander.

Background

BACKGROUND

A brief history is necessary to fully understand the war in the Charleston area. This history is not an in-depth study of the operations in South Carolina but is merely a background for the reader of these memoirs. The reader who feels so inclined can find more information in such books as John Johnson’s The Defense of Charleston Harbor 1863-1865 and E. Milby Burton’s The Siege of Charleston 1861-1865.

It’s a real gamble to attempt to put together a brief history of a four year war. When such a time period is summarized, certain activities get downplayed or forgotten altogether. To a person who was involved in the planning or execution of an activity, particularly if they sustained a career adjusting wound, or even death, that activity amounts to a very substantial activity, one that family members may not want to gloss over. Since it is not my purpose here to recount the four year history of the struggle for Charleston, I will proceed knowing full well that some will feel that certain things should be more fully explained while others will find it tiresome and deflecting from the main story.

South Carolina seceded from the United States at a convention held in Charleston. The Ordinance of Secession was signed on December 20, 1860, barely six weeks after the election of Abraham Lincoln[4]. Anticipating Lincoln’s election as a harbinger of continued abolition agenda, a Secession Convention met briefly in Columbia, then, due to an outbreak of smallpox, reconvened in Charleston. On the night of December 20, all ties with the United States were severed, and, interestingly, with the remaining sister Southern states. South Carolina considered itself an independent republic. A Secretary of State, Secretary of War, Secretary of Treasury, etc. were appointed to carry out the old national functions now assumed by the former state.

South Carolina, to this time, had been the site of a Federal arsenal in Charleston, and a contingent of Federal troops occupying Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island. Out in Charleston Harbor, an uncompleted fortification, Fort Sumter, protected the channel into Charleston. A contingent of Federal forces occupied Castle Pinckney, a small defensive enclave located closer in to the city itself.

On the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson[5], commander of the Federal artillery forces at Fort Moultrie, moved his troops and their families to Fort Sumter, abandoning and destroying ordnance at Moultrie. Aggravated that Anderson had made the move to Fort Sumter in light of an unwritten agreement with U.S. President James Buchanan[6] that no Federal property would be occupied in South Carolina, Governor Pickens[7] ordered the occupation of the Federal arsenal, Fort Moultrie, and Castle Pinckney by South Carolina militia troops on the night on December 27. Anderson maintained that he was not aware of that agreement and that he was not violating such an agreement, that he was just transferring his command to a more tenable position.

Anderson and his unit occupied Fort Sumter in anticipation of receiving reinforcements of materiel and men. The steamship Star of the West attempted this mission, but was forced back on January 9, 1861, with artillery manned by cadets from the Citadel and troops at Fort Moultrie. The Star of the West returned to New York.

Negotiations continued during the next three months to solve the crisis of the Federal occupation of Fort Sumter, then, on April 12-13, 1861, Confederate troops laid on a bombardment of Fort Sumter to drive out the occupiers. Major Anderson negotiated a surrender with his garrison boarding a ship on the 14th to end the Federal occupation. The start of the Civil War would be credited with starting with the first shell fired at Sumter on the early morning of April 12, 1861. The war in Charleston did not end with the surrender of Fort Sumter. War was here, and it was not all the romantic adventures of Rhett Butler and his fictional counterparts.

Troops began to assemble in the Charleston area for the expected brief effort to remove Federal forces from Southern soil. The new Federal administration of Abraham Lincoln, however, would not let the nearly one hundred year Union dissolve. Proclamations were issued placing