PORT ROYAL FERRY, Engagement at. After the naval battle of Port Royal Bay (q.v.), 7 Nov. 1861, the navy explored the various sounds and creeks in the vicinity, capturing some abandoned guns. While the navy was thus em ployed the army had completed a very large and strongly intrenched camp on Hilton Head, sur rounding Fort Walker, and on 11 December oc cupied Beaufort, some Confederate cavalry falling back across Coosaw River, taking to the farther side the ferry-boat and ropes and all other boats and covering the crossing by a blockhouse, which was soon destroyed by two adventurous soldiers who swam the river. By the end of December the Confederates had erected a strong field-work on the mainland opposite and commanding Port Royal Ferry, on the Coosaw, and they repulsed the efforts of the gunboats to dislodge them. The position was held by the 14th South Carolina regiment, four companies of the 12th South Carolina, about 45 cavalry and a section of Leake's battery, all under command of Col. James Jones. Obstructions had been placed in the Coosaw above and below the ferry to prevent the ascent of the gunboats, and a battery put in position opposite Seabrook's Point. A com bined land and naval expedition was set on foot to take the position and clear the river. Gen. I. I. Stevens brigade, reinforced by two regiments, in all 3,000 men, was to cross the Coosaw several miles below Port Royal Ferry, advance up the left bank of the river and take the work in rear, while two gunboats, an armed tug and four boats armed with howitzers, all under Commander C. R. P. Rodgers, were to enter the Coosaw by Beaufort River. A naval co-operating force was to move up Broad River and thence to the Coosaw to attack the battery opposite Seabrook's Point. On the night of 30
December a large number of flatboats were col lected and sent up Beaufort River, and at 1 A.M. 1 Jan. 1862 the embarkation began and, passing up the Coosaw, the troops were landed during the morning. At 1.30 P.M. they moved for Port Royal Ferry, marching parallel with and close to the river, the gunboats and launches shelling the woods in advance of the skirmish-line. A mile had been marched when a concealed battery opened its fire on Stevens' column, but Stevens soon drove it and its infantry support from the field and, closely following, reached the fort which had been abandoned, upon the appearance of the gunboats, the enemy leaving one gun. Meanwhile the gunboats moving by way of Broad River had cleared the Coosaw, beyond the ferry. During the night the ferry was completely restored, the captured fort leveled to the ground, and next morning the troops crossed the ferry and marched back to Beaufort with the captured gun and a few prisoners. The result of the action was an abandonment of any future at tempt to plant batteries on the Coosaw or the adjacent network of waters; and, being almost the first Union success since the defeat at Bull Run, it was considered of so much importance that the thanks of the government were given in general orders to General Stevens and his command for their victory at the battle of Port Royal Ferry. The Union loss was 3 killed and 14 wounded; the Confederate loss, 8 killed and 23 wounded. Consult 'Official Records' (Vol. VI) ; Ammen, 'The Atlantic Stevens, 'Life of Gen. I. I. Stevens' (Vol. II) ; 'Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.'