Bulls Island Incident
30-31 JANUARY 1863
BULLS ISLAND INCIDENT
Bull Island is a low coastal island 10 miles north of Charleston Harbor separated from the mainland by the Intercoastal Waterway. Today a national wildlife refuge, in antebellum times it was owned by a family named Gibbes, who built a house and a separate summer cottage on the island. Bull’s Bay indents the shoreline north of the island and was regularly investigated by Union blockading ships during the Civil War. Indeed, on 28 December 1862 USS FLAMBEAU and USS RESTLESS landed a shore party that burned a Rebel battery on the island. Having noted the abundance of game during that sortie, FLAMBEAU’s skipper, LCDR J.H. Upshur, returned this day and sent two foraging parties ashore: Acting 1st Assistant Engineer, A.G. Pemble and the skipper’s steward, Mr. d’Estimauville comprised one party; and Acting Master LT William B. Sheldon and a freed Negro made up the second. On FLAMBEAU the expected shots were heard in the distance, but curiously d’Estimauville and the Negro were seen running back to the longboat in panic!
On the other side of the island earlier that same morning Confederate Army CAPT Charles T. Haskell, Jr. and seven men from the garrison at Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island to the south had landed. They were to scout Union activity and reconnoiter FLAMBEAU. They noted her at anchor in Bull’s Bay, and unaware of the Yanks ashore, proceeded to investigate the Gibbes house.
Engineer Pemble was cautiously on the lookout for Rebel activity when he noticed Haskell’s men milling about the abandoned Gibbes house. But as he approached to investigate further he was set upon by the Rebels. D’Estimauville fled and was chased for nearly a mile and a half. In desperation the steward then turned and fired his Enfield rifle at his pursuers, who paused long enough for d’Estimauville to duck under a thicket. He evaded detection and later managed to escape. Haskell now laid a similar trap for LT Sheldon who stumbled into the Rebels as well. Likewise, his Negro partner turned, ran, and successfully escaped. The Confederate commander sent his two prisoners back to Fort Moultrie at the same time requesting 50 more men as reinforcements.
News of the officers’ capture, but not of their fate, reached FLAMBEAU. An immediate response was forthcoming. The ship was brought to within 200 yards of the beach and her guns were run out. A hundred-man rescue party of sailors and Marines rowed ashore. For the rest of the afternoon and into the night they searched, but in vain. It wasn’t until around 2300 that the last of their boats returned to FLAMBEAU.
Haskell and most of his men were still on the island. They had lain under cover, watching the search party most of the day. That night they bedded down in the Gibbes house, confident that once their reinforcements arrived, they could challenge the Yankee intrusion.
Continued tomorrow…
“Abstract log of the U.S. bark RESTLESS, Acting Master Browne, U.S. Navy, Commanding.” IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863). Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 491.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, pp. 410-11.
“Report of Acting Master Sheldon, U.S. Navy, regarding his capture.” IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863). Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 575.
“Report of Capt. Charles T. Haskell, jr., C.S. Army, commanding post.” IN: The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume XIV. Washington, DC: GPO, 1885, pp. 210-11.
“Report of Lieutenant-Commander Upshur, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. FLAMBEAU.” IN: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, Volume XII, South Atlantic Blockading Squadron (May 14, 1862-April 7, 1863). Washington, DC: GPO, 1901, p. 573-74.
Silverstone, Paul H. Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, pp. 90-91.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The 180-foot, brigantine-rigged, single screw, wooden FLAMBEAU had originally been built for the China coastal trade. But a US Navy hard pressed for blockading ships at the beginning of the Civil War had purchased and armed her in November of 1861. As was not uncommon for similar warships, her civilian name was retained.
