:...a Yankee fleet is en route..."

Friday, November 1, 1861
Our time in Charleston was very brief. Barely had our tired souls refreshed when it was time to strike camp and leave again. I must write this in great haste as there is a strong sense of urgency going through the whole camp.

I have completed the circle. Our regiment is on Phillips Island at a place called Bay Point, opposite Hilton Head Island. My home is perhaps just three or four miles away.Once the regiment arrived, we were put to work with spades and saws continuing what others have started, the construction of Fort Beauregard. Half of the regiment is not here, it having been sent to Hilton Head to work on Fort Walker.

All are in agreement that a Yankee fleet is en route to some point down south. There is much speculation as to exactly where. There must be someone, certainly of higher rank than us, who thinks the the fleet is heading here and that is the reason for our intense labors. I cannot see it. Charleston is where the war started and the Yankees would have much to gain by it's capture. There is nothing here of any military value. If their destination is Charleston, our efforts here are being wasted. If we do not remove ourselves to Charleston soon, that great city will fall easily to the Yankees. But lowly people such as myself are not in command so here we are and here we work our tools.

At least we are not alone. The Beaufort Artillery, under Captain Stephen Elliott, is here along part of Captain Screnen's company of Beaufort Guerillas under Lieutenant Youmans. The Colleton Rifles are here and I suppose there are others that I have not yet seen. Our own colonel, Dunovant, is in overall command of the defenses on this island. Captain Elliott is commanding Fort Walker itself. Surgeon Turnipseed, the officer who examined me in camp, is here on the colonel's staff. Even the state militia has been called out. The First Regiment of Artillery is here.

Over on Hilton Head are rumored to be the Eleventh and Fifteenth Regiments of South Carolina Infantry. There are supposed to be some infantry and artillery from Georgia as well. There are many guns here, some already mounted and others awaiting their turn to be placed so they can blast the Yankee fleet, should it arrive here, to the bottom of the sea. As I am not a gummer, I barely know one gun from another. I do, however, know how to work a spade. I know mine backwards and forwards. I know every dug earthwork and every felled tree by their first names. Beckham, Caston, Duncan, Hancock, Shehane and White, my old squad for which I was briefly their lance corporal, are here. So is Corporal Flynn.