“Aye aye, sir.”
As Robbins walked away, Chase went to find his petty officers and give them the word. McDougall glanced at Wake but said nothing. The old gunner went off to get Faber and see about getting their men ready. Wake was left alone, sitting under the oak tree on a limestone rock, thinking about the consequences of the decision he had just made. He knew it was the right decision. He just hoped that it was going to be a successful operation.
Thirty minutes later they were formed up into a double line on the road leading out of the camp. Faber, Hilderbrandt, and Wake were at the head of the column with McDougall and Meade in the rear. Robbins’ men had moved out ahead of the main body. In addition to a cutlass and pouch belt, each of the sailors had a .69-caliber muzzle-loading Plymouth musket on his shoulder. There was some grumbling from seamen who had served with other squadrons that had been issued breech-loading carbines and rifles, many of which were repeaters. Finally the petty officers told them all to pipe down, they would all get the chance to shoot a Reb soon enough and it didn’t matter how many holes they put in him.
The first of the 195th Infantry had arrived a quarter hour before the sailors formed up. The young lieutenant in charge of the first boatload of soldiers was amazed to find the camp’s defenses as well prepared as they were. He also was taken aback by the navy’s willingness to go ahead and move inland without all the troops, baggage, equipment, and artillery. Wake explained to him that the navy was used to traveling fast and light, and that they were going to take advantage of the time given them.
Wake also told him that a detail of soldiers needed to remain at the camp to guard the riverbank portion of the perimeter since the tug was not going to be able to perform that important function. Once the tug could stay in the river, the detail could move up to the rest of the regiment.
The army officer smiled and advised Wake that upon Major Martin’s arrival he would recommend that the regiment should send up a company to augment the sailors occupying Claresville and also assign some men to the camp perimeter. He explained that two companies were arriving by boat currently and three more would come on the next tide. The artillery and the last three infantry companies would come on the tide after that. It seemed that Colonel Wherley was still aboard the Nygaard and would be coming ashore with the second contingent of the regiment. The lieutenant pleasantly assured Wake that the army would be delighted to take over all of the offensive operations from the naval landing party once it had established itself ashore properly and in good order. He was sure that Major Martin would take the recommendations into consideration.
Wake recognized the bureaucratic inertia of the army lieutenant and realized that he would have to present Major Martin with a fait accompli by the time of his arrival. Bidding the smiling lieutenant good-bye, Wake quickly walked over to the column of sailors and told the petty officers to get them under way and follow Robbins’ men who were already far out ahead. There wasn’t time for the army to get established in good order, for Wake had an uncomfortable feeling that the enemy already was.
The road was as sandy and winding as Robbins had reported. The four miles seemed much longer, primarily because of the clouds of mosquitoes. Back at the camp a sea breeze had penetrated that far inland and moved through the shadows of the trees, keeping most of the sand gnats and mosquitoes at bay. But there was no movement to the air on the road and the trees overhung it to form a dark murkiness, even in the height of day. Swarms of the biting, torturing insects descended upon the bluejackets as the column trudged along the track that was little more than a pathway. It was worse than anywhere else in Florida Wake had been, and he wondered how and why the Floridians lived here.
From either side of the roadway the swamp reached out for them with barbed vines and branches. Occasionally their feet sank into what looked like solid ground but was in reality a calf-deep mush that stranded several men until they were pulled out, bringing with them an underground odor redolent of decay and death. The hot, humid air combined with the smells and insects to assault every sense of the miserable sailors.
It was an inauspicious start to their mission, and the sailors began complaining about ever leaving the sea and coast, in spite of dire threats from the petty officers to remain silent lest they warn the enemy of their approach. To the slogging, swatting, sweating sailors the primary enemy was the place itself, and they were losing that contest rapidly.
Halfway there, by Wake’s calculation, the column came upon Robbins standing in the road. He gestured to Wake to come to him.
“Sir, we are about a mile and a half or so from Claresville. I have placed five men off in the swamp on either side of the road, about two hundred feet out. I’ll leave three here and keep the others patrolling up and down the road to keep it secure.”
“Very good, Mr. Robbins. We’ll go forward now and leave you to your duties.”
“Sir, it’s horrible in that swamp. We’re trying to keep them quiet, but they’ve never seen anything like it and are scared out of their wits about snakes and alligators. The mosquitoes are driving them mad in there.”
Wake sympathized. He didn’t think he could handle the horrors of the swamp. But someone had to be there. The Floridians wouldn’t have had any hesitations. He wished he had a few men with their experience with him now.
“Mr. Robbins, I understand
