[150] and its inhabitants were the victims. General Hunter, believing that the forces detached from that side would be required for the operations he proposed to undertake against Charleston, recalled them all to Beaufort on the 31st of March. The incidents which marked this third evacuation rendered it particularly unfortunate for the Federal cause. Jacksonville, celebrated for the mildness of its climate, was, before the war, the rendezvous of numerous families who came there to find a shelter against the rigor of the winters of the American continent. They had brought comfort and luxury to the place: charming villas nestled under palm trees, while gigantic oaks and orange trees formed long and pleasant avenues. Most of the proprietors, devoted to the cause of the Union, did not venture to face the return of the Confederates, and took refuge on board the Federal transports. Here they were badly received, and, to render their exile still more bitter, they had to witness the almost complete destruction of the town, which was burned and pillaged by the Federal soldiers in the midst of a confusion which did not permit the leaders either to identify or to punish the guilty parties.
But let us resume the narrative which has been for a moment interrupted. The month of March, when storms were yet too frequent to enable the monitors to keep at sea in the dangerous harbor of Charleston, had expired: it had been remarkable for the capture or destruction of a number of blockade-runners, and among others two large steamers, the Queen of the Wave and the Georgiana, which, being hotly pursued by Federal ships, were driven upon the coast and abandoned by their crews. The operations against Charleston were about to commence. A regiment of infantry had occupied Cole's Island, on the left bank of the Stono River, on the 28th of March—a position extremely well chosen for commanding both this arm of the sea and the entrance of the long channel which under the name of Folly River runs as far as Secessionville. The navy had completed its preparations and collected together all the forces it could dispose of. These forces comprised nine iron-clad vessels. They were the four monitors already mentioned, the Montauk, the Passaic, the Patapsco, and the Nahant; three others, named the Weehaw-
