By the middle of January all his work was done, except the accumulation of supplies to commence his movement with.
He proposed to move in two columns, one from Savannah, going along by the river of the same name, and the other by roads farther east, threatening Charleston.

He commenced the advance by moving his right wing to Beaufort, South Carolina, then to Pocotaligo by water.

This column, in moving north, threatened Charleston, and, indeed, it was not determined at first that they would have a force visit Charleston.
South Carolina had done so much to prepare the public mind of the South for secession, and had been so active in precipitating the decision of the question before the South was fully prepared to meet it, that there was, at that time, a feeling throughout the North and also largely entertained by people of the South, that the State of South Carolina, and Charleston, the hot-bed of secession in particular, ought to have a heavy hand laid upon them.

In fact, nothing but the decisive results that followed, deterred the radical portion of the people from condemning the movement, because Charleston had been left out.

To pass into the interior would, however, be to insure the evacuation of the city, and its possession by the navy and Foster's troops.