The Great Skedaddle

It was called the “Great Skedaddle.”

After the Union victory at the Battle of Port Royal in November 1861, a mass civilian flight swept across the South Carolina Lowcountry. Families and businesses left nearly everything behind, including thousands of enslaved people who immediately claimed their freedom.

It was an entire society emptying out, not slowly but in a panic that unfolded over hours and days.
Just 18 months later, on June 4, 1863, Union troops carried out orders under the campaign known as the Bluffton Expedition and burned most of Bluffton. The attack is now remembered as the Burning of Bluffton.

At the time, there were about 60 structures in the village, including homes, summer cottages, outbuildings, shops, churches and sheds. Approximately 40 buildings were destroyed. The Church of the Cross and Campbell Chapel AME Church were spared, along with about 15 private homes.

Some background:

Union troops were stationed on Hilton Head Island after its capture in 1861. It became the largest Union base in the South. Fort Walker housed more than 10,000 soldiers, and some estimates place the total military presence at twice that number. Hilton Head served as the staging point for Union expeditions along the coast and as headquarters for the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Supply depots, docks, hospitals and support facilities quickly transformed the island into a major military center.

On the morning of June 4, 1863, Bluffton was largely a ghost town. Most families had left during the Great Skedaddle. Only a handful of residents remained, along with Confederate pickets and scouts.

Union troops had reason to target Bluffton. Confederate forces frequently crossed the water from Bluffton to Hilton Head, slipping past Union patrols to gather intelligence, raid supplies and harass Union forces.

By midmorning on June 4, Confederates watching from the bluff along the May River would have seen dark smoke and heard the unmistakable sounds of approaching Union steamers before the vessels came into view. They likely knew immediately what was coming.

About 1,000 Union infantrymen, Marines and sailors moved quickly through Bluffton. The order was given to burn the town. Confederate defenders offered little resistance before retreating inland.
One can imagine what followed. Sparks drifting across the river. The crackling of burning pine. The glow of flames consuming homes, businesses and outbuildings. For those who witnessed it, the scene must have been unforgettable.

Before sunset, Union troops left the charred remains and returned to Hilton Head.

To Union commanders, the attack was justified as a military operation against a community that had become a source of Confederate activity. To those who remained behind, the destruction of Bluffton was something else entirely.

In the years that followed, Bluffton rebuilt. Freedmen and formerly enslaved families acquired land and established new lives in the community.

Among them was Cyrus Garvin, one of Bluffton’s most prominent Black landowners. By 1868, he was a registered voter. By 1870, he owned property. By 1878, his home, which still stands today as the Garvin-Garvey House, had been built.

Bluffton is also known as the birthplace of the Bluffton Movement, the fiery states’ rights protest of 1844. The town has long attracted people with an independent streak, individuals who think for themselves and resist tidy labels.

Newspaper publisher Graham Bullock even had a name for them. Through The Bluffton Eccentric, he celebrated the quirky, stubborn and unconventional people who made the town what it was.

Graham was one of my favorite curmudgeons. He was not born here, but he understood Bluffton. Maybe that’s the point. You do not have to be born in Bluffton to become a Bluffton eccentric. You simply have to appreciate the place, embrace its independent spirit and refuse to fit neatly into someone else’s box.

Tamela is a proofreader and book editor; she hosts paint parties for adults, art and drama camp for kids, and is the art teacher at May River Montessori. www.tamelamaxim.com