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Major General Benjamin F. Butler directed the first Union expedition to
Ship Island in December 1861. Photo courtesy The National
Archives
Fort Massachussetts on Ship Island. Drawing from Harper’s Weekly,
January 4, 1862.
View of Ship Island, Mississippi, from Harper’s Weekly,
February 8, 1862
After the fall of New Orleans, Major General Nathaniel P. Banks
commanded new expedition to Ship Island. Photo courtesy The National
Archives
The Banks expedition — soldiers of the 41st Massachusetts regiment
writing home upon their arrival at Ship Island. 1863 wood engraving
courtesy Library of Congress, call no. LC-USZ62-98002
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In 1969 Hurricane Camille cut Ship Island in two, creating East and
West Ship Island. Fort Massachusetts is located on West Ship Island. The
two islands are part of the Gulf Island National Seashore, protected by
the National Park Service. Photo courtesy National Park Service
In 2005 Hurricane Katrina damaged Fort Massachusetts, but it still
stands. The fort is shown here with debris left from the hurricane. The
replica of the 1886 Ship Island lighthouse on West Ship Island was
completely destroyed. Hurricane Katrina put about 67 percent of East Ship
under water, widening the Camille Cut about 2 miles. Photo courtesy
National Park Service Go to NASA Earth Observatory for satellite images of East and West Ship Island before and after Hurricane Katrina.
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Union Soldiers on Ship Island During the Civil Warby James G. Hollandsworth Jr. Most Union soldiers fought the American Civil War close to home.
Recruits from Pennsylvania in the Army of the Potomac, for example,
Nevertheless, there were some Union soldiers during the Civil War who
served in remote places that were very different from what they were
Their story began September 10, 1861, just six weeks after the Union
lost the battle to the Confederates at Bull Run, the first battle of
General Butler Initially, Butler intended to use these troops to clear Confederate forces from the eastern shore of Virginia but shifted his attention to the Gulf Coast when he learned that the Confederates had already abandoned the eastern shore. Butler’s new plan was either to attack Mobile, Alabama, or to establish a foothold in Texas. Eventually, he hoped to take New Orleans, Louisiana. Butler selected two infantry regiments, the 9th Connecticut and the 26th Massachusetts, and a battery of light artillery, the 4th Massachusetts, and ordered them to Ship Island. Butler had a good reason to occupy Ship Island in November 1861. The Confederates had evacuated the place in September, and a detachment of Yankee sailors and Union marines had been holding the island ever since. The strategic importance of Ship Island was obvious. “As the purposes of [Butler’s] expedition were not positively known to either the rebels [Confederates] or the people of the North,” a soldier in the expedition commented after the war, “and as Ship Island was quite as desirable a base for movement against Mobile or the Texas coast as New Orleans, its selection served the double purpose of affording ample accommodations as a Union naval station and of keeping the rebel authorities in a constant state of uneasiness as to the point of attack.” The SS Constitution steamed out of Boston Harbor on November 21, 1861,
with the vanguard of Butler’s expedition on board. The “Well I have just been on deck and taken another look of Ship Island.
We have come to anchor within 1/8 of a mile from shore. You may
The 9th Connecticut and the 26th Massachusetts were the first of twenty-seven Union infantry regiments to see service on Ship Island during the Civil War. In addition to these regiments, six batteries of light artillery and a battalion of cavalry spent time on the sandy outpost. Each of these units stayed for varying lengths of time; some for only a few days, others for several weeks, and one, the African- American 2nd Louisiana Native Guards, for almost three years. General Banks Union troop strength on Ship Island peaked in April 1862 when more than 15,000 men assembled for the assault on New Orleans. As soon as New Orleans fell, the Union garrison on Ship island was reduced to one regiment of infantry, the 13th Maine. Three months later, eight companies of this regiment were transferred to the forts below New Orleans, leaving two companies to hold the island by themselves until December, when troops from a new expedition from New England, this one commanded by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, began to arrive. Only seven regiments from Banks’s expedition disembarked on Ship Island
because most of the ships carrying Banks’s men continued on to The mixture of black and white troops created an explosive atmosphere,
and a racial dispute between the men from Maine and the black soldiers
from Louisiana broke out within a week. Banks quickly decided to withdraw
the two companies of white soldiers, and the 2nd Ship Island had been used as a prison and detention center almost as
soon as Union troops landed there. Butler sent the first civilian
By June 8, 1865, there were no prisoners — Confederate, Union, or
civilian — left on the island. On October 11, 1865, the 2nd Louisiana
Native Guards, which by then had been redesignated as the 74th Infantry
USCT (United States Colored Troops), was mustered out Soldier life on Ship Island Many Union soldiers who spent time on Ship Island during the Civil War
wrote letters home or kept detailed diaries of their experiences.
“Here we are, at seven in the morning, dropping anchor within a mile or
two of Ship Island. The water is smooth, the sky grey and lowering, the
air damp but not cold. Around us are three or four navy steamers and
several sailing vessels, which are probably transports. The island is a
low stretch of sand, almost as white as snow, with no discernible
vegetation except something which looks like pine underwood. A few board
shanties are visible, two or three encampments Private James F. Stoddard described his first night on the island in a letter to his wife after the 7th Vermont disembarked in April. “We got on the island last knight and put up our tents[.] the land is white sand . . . . there was 15 of us went up to the upper end of the island after grass to put into our tents to cover up the sand and we saw lots of prickley pares growing on the island and we saw one wild hog that some one had killed and one wild Cow and we killed one snake that was about 3 feet long[.] it is 6 miles up whare we went and we did not git back until 10 oClock at knight and i was as tired as any one need to be[.] there is some lemmon trees on the island but they [don't] have any lemmons on them. . . the Sand drifts like Snow it filled my eyes and ears full[.] it was very warm hear yesterday but it is coal this morning[.] it Seems like october[.] i got wet to the skin last knight for there was a havy shower before we got back[.]” Once they got settled in, these accidental tourists explored their new home. Lieutenant George G. Smith recorded his first tour of Ship Island in his diary. “We started from the west end of the island, where the troops are
quartered, at 9 a.m. On reaching the center of the island we found As would be true with many of the men who set foot on this barren shore, Captain DeForest was impressed by how sandy the island was. “Ship Island is the sandiest region this side of the Great Sahara. . .
Here the sand is of a dazzling white which glistens in the moonlight like
snow, and by day dazzles and fatigues the eyes Sand was a nuisance in other ways, as indicated in a letter from Andrew
M. Sherman written in July 1863, when he stopped over at Ship “When I tell you that this island on which we have been encamped since the first part of the month, consists almost entirely of fine, white sand, with scarcely a tree for shade or ornament, and with only here and there a patch of grass, you cannot doubt the propriety of applying the word ‘barren’ to our present quarters. In this sand our tents are pitched, and on this sand, with a mere blanket for a bed, we lie, and sleep as best we can, with the various insects that minister to our discomfort. Our shoes are never free from the irritating presence of this sand. You may find it difficult to believe me when I say that from 10:30 A. M. till about 1:30 P. M. the sand is so hot from the sun’s rays that an attempt on our part to walk in it with bare feet, as some of the acclimated natives do, will prove so painful as to deter one from a second attempt.” Hot weather was particularly bothersome to the soldiers from the North, who were accustomed to a much cooler climate. Assistant Surgeon Simeon Evans, who remained on Ship Island with the 13th Maine during the summer months after Butler transferred most of his men to New Orleans, wrote to his mother in June to complain about the heat. “We have terrible weather here now. The sand reflects the heat so that
we get about as much from below as we do from above. I tell you, In addition to oppressive heat, Union troops on Ship Island had to weather severe thunderstorms in their flimsy tents. In April 1862, James C. Biddle, an aide-de-camp on General Thomas Williams’s staff, wrote home about a big storm the night before. “I went to bed at about 11 o'clock & was just about going to sleep,
when the whole side of our tent blew open & commenced flipping
violently. We were obliged to get up, & after a good deal of trouble
succeeded in securing it, everything being soaking wet. This is nothing
for a soldier. He must soon get used to such things. I found Heat and bad weather were not the only trials, insects were the bane of
almost every soldier who spent time on the island. Colonel Henry “Winged animals of all sizes, shapes and kind are flying in the candle, flying about my head, buzzing in my ears, crawling down my neck and even in my hair — so I must quit writing, close my door. Blow out my candle, get under the [mosquito] bar and try to forget them. Whew! What a plague they are!” With so many men camped on this sandy station, obtaining a reliable
supply of fresh water was crucial. Fortunately, the problem was easily
solved. “By digging two feet into the sand and setting down a barrel,”
James Schneider, chaplain of the 2nd Infantry USCT, wrote in Actually, water from these little wells was not salt water made fresh
but rain water trapped in the sand. Within a few days, organic matter
Cooking rations was another priority, and the soldiers busied themselves setting up kitchens as soon as they arrived. In March 1862, Assistant Surgeon Evans wrote home to report on their standard bill of fare. “For living we have bread[,] hard & soft, beef, hard & salt,
bacon, hard, salt & fragrant, beans good when well cooked, rice for
low diet, syrup, sugar, sand, sand & sand. You will see that by
ingenious combinations of these, especially the last three, we are able to
have a great variety. We get plenty of good water by sinking a barrel
As would be expected, the Union soldiers on Ship Island attempted to supplement their standard army rations in various ways. During the summer months, blackberries grew in profusion on the island, which were a welcome addition to the spartan army diet. Enterprising Southerners along the Mississippi Gulf Coast also helped
supplement the men’s meager rations when they crossed the sound in
As the weeks passed, Ship Island began to take on the appearance of an
active military post. Sergeant Charles Freeman Reed of the 2nd
“Ship Island looks very different now from what it did when we first
came here. Buildings have been erected in quick succession. Some for
The Union soldiers soon settled into a daily routine. Although Ship Island saw no combat during the Civil War, death was no
stranger to the soldiers stationed there. Initially, the island had been
“considered the most healthy place on the Coast & would be a good
place to establish a general hospital.” But the troops who stayed behind
after the occupation of New Orleans did not fare well An officer with the Sanitary Commission who sailed with the expedition wrote a scathing report of the health conditions on the island and ended it with a remarkably understated conclusion. “The wretched condition of Ship Island, a barren, desolate sand-spit,
left free for the most part to alligators and such reptiles as abound
Given the rough living conditions, unhealthy climate, and boring routine, it is not surprising that most of the Union soldiers stationed on Ship Island counted the days until they would be able to leave. Except for those unfortunate black soldiers in the 74th USCT, most of the Union soldiers who spent time on Ship Island eventually got a chance to get away. Life on Ship island for soldiers during the Civil War was a boring,
uncomfortable, and often a deadly experience. Plaques mounted at the
However, there are no plaques with the names of the 232 Union soldiers
who died and were buried there as well. They were mainly from New England
— Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, with a few boys from New
York, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin mixed Shortly after the war, Lieutenant George B. Oldham visited the army
cemetery and found it in very poor condition “owning principally to
As a result, 228 bodies were exhumed in December 1867 and sent to the
mainland to be re-interred in the Chalmette National Cemetery outside of
New Orleans. Because of the poor condition of the records and loss of
headboards, only 60 of the 228 exhumations could be identified. The
remainder were marked “unknown” when they were re-interred at
It might be thought that the occupation of Ship island by Union
soldiers came to an end with the massive re-interrment. But that was not
so, for twenty years later, in 1885, a correspondent for the New Orleans
Times-Democrat visited Ship Island and discovered a number of
rough coffins inside the remains of a picket fence about one mile east of
the lighthouse. “Why their bodies were not removed to the National
Cemetery at New Orleans, when it was established,” he wrote, The newspaper article resulted in a rash of angry letters, and the
quartermaster general in Washington directed the superintendent of James G. Hollandsworth Jr. of Jackson, Mississippi, is the author
of The Louisiana Native Guards: The Black Military Experience During
the Civil War (1995), and Pretense of Glory: The Life of General Nathaniel
P. Banks (2005), both published by Louisiana State This article is condensed from Hollandsworth’s “What a Hell of a Place
to Send 2000 Men 3000 Miles: Union Soldiers on Ship Island Posted January 2006 Sources and suggested reading: Butler, Benjamin F. Butler’s Book: Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler. Boston, Mass., 1892. DeForest, John William. A Volunteers Adventure: A Union Captain’s Record of the Civil War. New Haven, Ct., 1946. Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of Rebellion. Des Moines, Iowa, 1908. Howe, Henry Warren. Passages from the Life of Henry Warren Howe. Lowell, Mass., 1899. Lufkin, Edwin B. History of the Thirteenth Maine Regiment from Its Organization in 1861 to Its Muster-out in 1865. Bridgton, Me., 1898. Sherman, Andrew M. In the Lowlands of Louisiana in 1863: An Address Delivered by Rev. Andrew M. Sherman at the Forty-Second Reunion of the Twenty-third Conn. Regimental Association. Morristown, N. J., 1908. Shorey, Henry A. The Story of the Maine Fifteenth; Being a Brief
Narrative of the More Important Events in the History of the Smith, George G. Leaves from a Soldier’s Diary: The Personal Record
of Lieutenant George G. Smith, Co. C, 1st Louisiana Regiment Infantry
Tarbox, Increase N. Memoirs of James H. Schneider and Edward M. Schneider. Boston, Mass., 1867. Weaver, C.P. Thank God My Regiment Was an African One: The Civil War Diary of Nathan W. Daniels. Baton Rouge, La., 1998. Wormeley, Kathrine P. The United States Sanitary Commission: A Sketch of Its Purposes and Its Works. Boston, Mass., 1863. | ||||||
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