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Charleston, east of
Fort Johnson.
At the point of the peninsula of
Secessionville where the battery was erected, the peninsula is narrowest, probably not more than half regimental front, and on either side of it run the tidewaters of
Lighthouse creek and Big Folly creek, bordered by impracticable marshes.
The banks of the peninsula in front and in rear of the battery were fringed by a thick growth of myrtle bushes.
Col. T. G. Lamar was in command of the fort at
Secessionville (afterward called
Fort Lamar, in his honor) and its infantry supports.
The garrison consisted of Companies I and B of
Lamar's regiment of South Carolina artillery,
Capts. G. D. Keitt and
Samuel J. Reid; and the infantry support was composed of two battalions of infantry, the Charleston battalion,
Lieut.-Col. P. C. Gaillard, and the
Pee Dee battalion,
Lieut.-Col. A. D. Smith.
The battery mounted an 8-inch columbiad, two 24-pounder rifles, several 18-pounders, and a mortar.
A gunboat battery on the east bank, anchored in Big Folly creek, and commanded by
Capt. F. N. Bonneau, would have been an effective ally, had not its guns just been moved on shore to be added to those of the fort.
In the early morning of June 16th, the Secessionville picket was on duty at Rivers' place, a mile in front of the fort, and the Twenty-fourth, with six companies of the First South Carolina and one of the Forty-seventh Georgia, was covering the front of the east-lines, under command of Col. C. H. Stevens.
In the fort a gun detachment was awake and on the watch, but the remainder of the garrison was fast asleep.
At 1 o'clock a. m., Gen. N. G. Evans had started 100 picked men from Colonel Goodlett's Twenty-second regiment, under Capt. Joshua Jamison, as a fatigue party, to go over the bridge to Fort Lamar and assist in mounting Captain Bonneau's guns in the fort.
These men reached the fort about daylight.
Just at dawn the Secessionville picket was surprised and several of them captured.
