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Before following
General Sherman in the remainder of his march northward, let us consider events on the sea-board, in 1864, and the beginning of 1865, which had direct and indirect connection with his campaign.
First, let us turn back to the early part of 1864.
We have seen how
Fort Sumter and the city of
Charleston seemed to be at the mercy of
General Gillmore, at the close of 1863, and yet how the award of their capture was withheld by the unwillingness of
Admiral Dahlgren to expose his fleet to destruction, by running into the harbor among torpedoes.
1 Seeing no prospect of active operations against
Charleston, for some time,
Gillmore determined to send a part of his force on an expedition into
Florida.
He had been informed, by refugees, that Union sentiments predominated there, and that the people, generally, tired of the war, were ready for amnesty and restoration to the
Union.
This alleged fact was communicated to the
President, who commissioned
John Hay, one of his private secretaries, as major, and sent him
to
Hilton Head, to join the proposed expedition, as the representative of the
Executive, to act in a civil capacity should circumstances require.
Gillmore placed
the expedition under the command of
General Truman Seymour.
It was embarked
at
Hilton Head, on twenty steamers and eight schooners, and went down the coast under convoy of the gun-boat
Norwich.
It entered the
St. John's River the next day, and arrived at
Jacksonville at 5 o'clock that afternoon.
The troops were landed without other resistance than a few shots from a Confederate force there, which turned and fled before a company of colored troops sent in pursuit of them.
Jacksonville was in ruins, and only a few families, composed mostly of women and children, remained.
Seymour, pursuant to instructions, immediately marched
from
Jacksonville to
Baldwin, in the interior, at the junction of the railway leading from the former place with one from
Fernandina.
The army moved in three columns, under the respective commands of
Colonels C. C. Barton of the Forty-eighth New York,
J. R. Hawley of the Seventh Connecticut, and
Guy V. Henry of the Fortieth Massachusetts.
The latter led the cavalry, and was in the advance.
It was known that
General Joseph Finnegan2 was in command of the
Confederates in that region, but their number and strength were not exactly computed; so the army moved cautiously.
It was soon ascertained that
Finnegan was encamped a dozen miles from
Jacksonville, and it was determined to surprise him. That duty was assigned to Henry, who moved on with his horsemen, a horse battery, and the Fortieth
