Fort Randall- Little River, SC

During the Civil War, the Union Navy was very active along the coast of South Carolina. As a result a series of forts were built between the North Carolina border and Georgetown at Little River, Murrell’s Inlet and Winyah Bay. The fort protecting Little River inlet was named Fort Randall. It was located on the eastern end of Little River Neck at Tilghman Point. It was named after Captain Thomas Randall, who owned the property at the time the fort was constructed. Randall was a large landowner in the community and owned 85 slaves in 1860. His home was located only a few hundred feet from the fort. The first reference to the fort I could find was in the Charleston Mercury on April 9, 1861.

Two days later a more lengthy description of the dedication ceremony of the fort appeared in the Horry Dispatch. It appears in full in the sources at the end of the post, but is shown in text form below. Important information is bolded.

Fort Randal, is an earthwork on Clardy’s Point, commanding the entrance to Little River. This work was thrown up some six weeks ago, by labor contributed by citizens of All Saints Parish, under the superintendence of Major W. C. White. The lumber was furnished by our patriotic and noble citizen, Capt. T. Randal. Prudence forbids my giving a description of this work, or its armament- it is within range of the North Carolina line.

On Thursday, 21st ult. (March 21st) the All Saints Rifles, Capt. John Litchfield, and two gun detachments of the Waccamaw Light Artillery, Capt. T.W. Daggett, assembled at Fort Randall to receive a flag presented by the master spirit of patriotism, Rev. Chas. Betts, in behalf of Carolina’s daughter, Mrs. Susan Randal.

Our esteemed, patriotic, and Reverend friend, with a few brief, appropriate, and touching remarks, passed the flag to the keeping of our young friend, Capt. J. Litchfield who replied thus:

“We accept with pride and pleasure, this beautiful banner of our noble State, and beg you to convey to the generous donor, our sincerest thanks for this manifestation of confidence in our patriotic devotion, together with (the)pledge of our lives and honor to stand by it to the last. Turning to the Company, he said: Fellow Soldiers-it devolves upon you to guard and protect this sacred trust, which now passes to your keeping. I have feebly expressed your thanks, and pledged your honors to protect it. As you were prompt to answer the call of your State, so you will ever be ready to bear her banner in triumph to the field, as it has been borne before, where our fathers taught us, to resist the tyranny of king or people. Let us but do the soldier’s duty, and it will not fall, at least, from the high position in which Carolina’s chivalry has placed it. And what greater incentive can we have than the feelings that should actuate us all? Honor the pole star of Southern chivalry—the defense of our homes- the first impulse of the patriot’s heart. If we should fail under such circumstances, we are less than men, and deserve not their name. Rather should we invoke the God of battles to make this banner our winding sheet, than for us ever to allow it to trail in the dust with dishonor. While we acknowledged our allegiance to the Stars and Stripes, we strove to make it the banner of liberty, by the offerings of Southern treasure, Southern valor, and Southern blood, as Eutaw, Moultrie, and King’s Mountain will attest; and when we looked upon it as the badge of power, glory, and renown, we could but remember, the patriots, Washington, Jefferson and Calhoun, were born and reared on Southern soil. As we glanced over the history of our past difficulties, and asked ourselves who were the master spirits. Our hearts would swell with pride at the answer- they were Southern men. But coordinate with our efforts to render it the emblem of truth and justice, have been the counter-efforts of unscrupulous demagogues, to make the mighty power it represented, a machine of democratic tyranny. This power having, at length passed into their hands, we have left them forever, to work out their own salvation; and relieved of this incubus, we are now free to shape our future, as becomes a free and loyal people possessed of the fairest portions of the globe, with no boundary to their course of empire. Our sincerest thanks are due to this sectional party, who has ? as brothers over the broad face of this Southern land, to do now what we should have done long ago. But the irrevocable deed cannot now be “sickled over with the pale cast of thought, nor in this regard, can its current turn away and lose the name of action. We have dismembered a nation whose history will present an anomaly in the annals of the world. It sprang into life and activity like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter, armed and as it was unprecedented in its rise, so it has been unequalled in in its fall. It will present a furrowed monument in after times, for the comment of millions yet to be. Each of whom, perhaps, will assign reasons for its progress and decay. From political principles yet unsounded by any school, and assign it the position which our feelings leave us incapable of giving it. With all due reverence and respect, we bid it a final farewell. Fellow Soldiers- Here on the confines of our territory, you are to take your stand, resolved, if there be occasion to defend the honor of your flag, your common homes, and your common country. Per what you have already done, your country owes you a debt of gratitude, as your bruises have not been fruitless. If Sumter is ours, and no foreign flag now flaunts insult and defiance, it was promptitude and energy, that has happily brought about these results.”

Seven guns were fired by the detachment of Artillery, while the flag was hoisted by Capt. Litchfield of Rifles, and Lieutenant Clemants of Artillery. The flag has a blue ground, white border, white palmetto and white crescent. The flag-staff was erected by Lieut. T.W. Gore of Artillery. The company partook of an ample repast, furnished by the citizens of that generous neighborhood under the superintendence of Lieut. Samuel Permenter (? spelling).

Conspicuous, by soldierly bearing and graceful horsemanship, in the ranks of the Artillery, could be seen our gallant Major W.C. White, showing that he was as much at home as a private in the ranks, as he would be at the head of his battalion. The Lower Detachment of Artillery, return their thanks to Daniel Stanley Esq., for the kind appropriation of his house to their use, and his many efforts to make them comfortable.

Fort Randall is occupied by a detachment of the Waccamaw Light Artillery. Fort Ward at Murray’s Inlet, by a detachment of (the) same Company.

Should our enemies try to make a landing in All Saints, they will meet a warm reception, which we think, will attach them so closely to our soil, that but few, if any, will pass out, to tell of the impressive generosity of Carolina’s (rest of the sentence illegible).

The first mention of the fort in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, occurred on April 13, 1861, in a dispatch from Major W.C. White, the commander of the First Battalion, Thirty-Third Regiment of the South Carolina Militia, to the Confederate Secretary of War, shown below. Here he describes the forces he has positioned along the coast from Georgetown to Little River.

The fort protected both the village of Little River and the surrounding countryside from invasion, and also provided a safe haven for blockade runners. As the war progressed and the Federal blockade around Charleston and Wilmington became more effective, Little River Inlet emerged as an alternative port of entry for blockade runners. As shown above Fort Randall was formally dedicated in March of 1861. At that time Captain Thomas Daggett, commander of the Waccamaw Light Artillery, was deploying his men at Fort Randall, as well as Fort Ward at Murrells Inlet. Captain Daggett, a Massachusetts native, was an engineer who had moved to South Carolina before the war. At its outset, he was given command of coastal defenses from Winyah Bay to Little River Inlet. Battery Randall was an earthen fortification. Reports from the Official Records show that Fort Randall had a mote that was 10 feet wide and 5 feet deep, a parapet and a wooden blockhouse. Captain Daggett armed Fort Randall with two 6-pounders and had asked permission to move two 12-pounder cannons there. He also built a munitions magazine to store ammunition and arms.

There was considerable blockade running activity in the Little River Inlet area. Acting Volunteer Lieutenant George W. Browne, commander of the U.S. Bark Fernandina reported on December 14, 1861, “Sir: I have to report that on the evening of the 13th instant, off Little River Inlet, North Carolina (mistakenly identified as NC rather than SC), I observed numerous fires. Some forty were counted in one place, and several others in scattered positions of from 1 to 2 miles apart along the coast. At 7 PM I tacked and stood in to reconnoiter. On nearing the shore I observed several bodies of men, which caused me to believe there was an encampment of Confederate troops and the distant fires were their picket guard. After having burned a preparatory signal and receiving no answer, I opened fire with my starboard battery on the men and fired, several of the shots being heard to strike some hard substance very distinctly. At this time the vessel was within 700 yards of the beach in 4 fathoms of water; could see the men on shore running plainly. After firing three rounds with the starboard battery, tacked ship and fired one round of shot and one shell from port battery. By this time the fires were mostly extinguished. Secured the batteries and proceeded on our course. From the appearance of things, I am now led to believe the fires were signals for some vessel endeavoring to run a cargo. Having stood close in during the morning, and seen several men on the beach, they perhaps supposed I was the vessel expected, or one wishing to run the blockade.”

Lieutenant E. Hooker, Commanding the USS Victoria reported on January 2, 1863, “Sir: I have to report my coal as reduced to 10 tons. I have also to report that I have received information by contrabands, four of whom came to my ship December 30, that there were two schooners in Little River, nearly or quite loaded for sea, and also one in Shallotte in the same condition. On the afternoon of the 31st a sail was discovered inside, which we thought was working down to Little River Bar. We soon, however, lost sight of her. At sunset I got underway and proceeded to Little River and lay off and on for a while. At 8 PM I came to anchor and sent a boat on shore. At the first point of landing they were met by cavalry pickets and retired. They then entered the river and proceeded several miles up the river without, however, discovering anything except more cavalry pickets. The boat returned to the ship at 7 o’clock AM, January 1, and I returned to my anchorage. The schooners in Little River are the Argyle and James Bailey. At high water there is about 9 feet on Little River Bar.”

Lieutenant William Barker Cushing commanding the Home, having heard of a pilot station at Little River, sailed there and attacked Fort Randall. In his January 8, 1863, report in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies he states, “Sir: I have the honor to report that I failed to capture the Wilmington pilots where I desired to act. Having learned, however, that there was a pilot station at Little River, 30 miles below Fort Caswell, I made sail for that point and reached it on the morning of the 5th. At 8 o’clock at night I crossed the bar with three cutters and twenty-five men, and proceeded up the river. My object was to look for pilots, and also to find some schooners supposed to be inside. About a mile from the mouth the enemy gave us a volley of musketry from a bluff on the left. I beached the boats at once, formed my men about 200 yards from the enemy’s position and gave the order, ‘forward; double quick; charge.’ Without firing a musket the men moved forward, and when we got clear of the woods I saw a fort in front and the light of the camp fires. Knowing that the rebels were ignorant of our numbers, I charged with the bayonet and captured their works, going over one side as they escaped over the other. I found the fort an earthwork, a ditch about 10 feet broad by 5 deep. Inside was a blockhouse pierced for musketry. No guns were mounted. I learned that it was held by one company of infantry. The enemy left in such haste that their stores, clothing, ammunition, and a portion of their arms were captured. I destroyed all that I could not bring away. I went a short distance farther up the river; had another skirmish; did not see the schooners; got out of ammunition and returned with the loss of but one man shot in the leg. In conclusion, I beg leave to state that officers and men behaved nobly. Acting Master’s Mates Valentine and Hicks were with me. Acting Master Savage, commanding mortar schooner Matthew Vassar, furnished me with two boats and a portion of the men… P.S. – The fort was in South Carolina, 1 mile from the border line.”

A little over a month later James C. Gibney and George Smith, both Acting Ensigns aboard the USS Maratanza off Little River reported, “Sir: In obedience to your order to make reconnoissance up Little River, and to ascertain if there were any vessels up the river, on the 9th instant at 7:30 PM we left the ship in the launch, the crew properly armed and equipped for such an enterprise, and accompanied by a boat and crew from the schooner Matthew Vassar, moved inshore in a northeasterly direction. After some delay in finding the channel we eventually succeeded and crossed the bar, on which we found 6 feet of water, it being about mid tide. After crossing the bar, and depending on the officer in charge of the boat from the Matthew Vassar (who had been up the river before) for instructions how to proceed, we found him totally, deficient of any knowledge of the course of the channel, and consequently had to depend wholly on our own resources; in doing so, we got into a false channel, and in retracing our way we discovered a boat with five men in her, pulling up the river. When about 100 yards off we hailed them and ordered them to come alongside, but they being near the shore, and taking the alarm, three of them jumped overboard and succeeded in making their escape. We immediately landed a party and sent them in pursuit, but owing to the facilities the place afforded for secreting themselves, we failed in capturing them. In the captured boat were two men named, respectively, G.W. Hewett and Stephen Hewett, natives of North Carolina, who surrendered as prisoners without resistance. We found also in the boat 5 muskets, 23 each of jackets, caps, drawers, shirts, stockings, 23 pair of shoes and 1 dozen blankets, intended for the use of a company of infantry stationed at this place. From what appeared to us to be very reliable statements, made by the prisoners (that there was one company of infantry and one of cavalry, about 175 men in all stationed at a small fort about one-half mile up the river from where we were then, the fugitives having alarmed the garrison, as we saw by their firing muskets and rockets), we did not deem it prudent to proceed up the river any farther, so started on our return. In running out of the inlet, sounding as we came, we found from 2 to 3 fathoms of water in mid-channel, and on the bar at 11 o’clock, it being high tide, we found 10 feet of water. We returned to the ship at 12 midnight, not being entirely successful in accomplishing the object of our enterprise.”

It has been reported that all that remains of Fort Randall today is an outline of the fortification. No remains of the fort are left. The site is on private property and only visible from the Little River.

Sources

Fort Randall at Little River Neck, Fort Randall