The Defense of Charleston Harbor: Including Fort Sumter and the Adjacent Islands, 1863-1865 |
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Common terms and phrases
angle April armored vessels army assault attack August Battery Gregg Battery Wagner Beauregard boats bombproof brigade Brigadier-General Captain captured casemates casualties Charleston battalion Charleston harbor Colonel Rhett columbiads command Company Confederate Cumming's Point Dahlgren damage débris defense eastern enemy enemy's engaged evacuation explosion Federal feet fire flag flank fleet Folly Island Fort Johnson Fort Moultrie Fort Sumter Fort Wagner forts four front garrison Georgia Gillmore gorge gunboats guns head-quarters heavy hundred inches infantry Ironsides James Island Johnson July killed land Lieutenant Lieutenant-Colonel loss lower casemates magazine Major-General miles Military monitors morning Morris Island mortars Moultrie naval navy night obstructions officers operations parade parapet Parrott rifles quarters Rear-Admiral regiment Ripley River sand sandbags Savannah sea-face September shell ship shot smoothbore South Carolina Artillery South Carolina volunteers Stono Sullivan's Island Sumter torpedo troops turret Twenty-fifth South Carolina Union forces wall Weehawken wounded XI-inch yards
Popular passages
Page xlix - I attempted to take the bull by the horns," he wrote General Hunter, the day after the battle, "but he was too much for us. These monitors are miserable failures where forts are concerned ; the longest was one hour and the others fortyfive minutes under fire, and five of the eight were wholly or partially disabled.
Page 156 - Inform Admiral Dahlgren that he may have Fort Sumter when he can take and hold it.
Page xlix - The exigencies of the public service are so pressing in the Gulf that the Department directs you to send all the ironclads that are in a fit condition to move after your present attack upon Charleston directly to New Orleans, reserving to yourself only two.
Page cxxix - Weehawken, which, meanwhile, gallantly replied, and, in less than an hour's firing, blew up one of the enemy's magazines, which was recognized by a cheer from the men of our vessels near me. Some movement in Sumter seemed to draw attention from the Weehawken, which, with a few well-directed shells, settled that business. Captain Colhoun has, in my opinion, more than compensated for the misfortune of getting aground by the handsome manner in which he has retorted on the adversary and defended the...
Page 207 - Resolved by the Congress of the Confederate States of America, That the thanks of Congress are eminently due, and are hereby cordially tendered, to...
Page clxiii - The Patapsco had her torpedo tenders and netting stretched as usual around her. Three boats with drags had preceded her, searching to some depth the water they had passed over, while steam-tugs and several boats were in different positions on the bow, beam, and quarter.
Page liii - I never hold councils of war), I determined not to renew the attack, for in my judgment it would have converted a failure into a disaster; and I will only add that Charleston cannot be taken by a purely naval attack, and the army could give me no co-operution.
Page cxxv - I have the honor to report that, in obedience to orders received from department headquarters, I left Fort Steilacoom on the steamer Julia on the 9th instant, (the morning after the receipt of the order,) with my command. In a short time after leaving we were met by the steamer "Active...
Page 163 - Several of the boats, and among them two of the ftneAatan's, had by this time effected a landing, but the evidences of preparation were so apparent, and the impossibility of effecting a general landing, or scaling the walls, so certain, that orders were given to withdraw. All who landed were either killed or taken prisoners, and serious casualties occurred in the boats near the fort.
Page lvi - Several of them were completed and considerably strengthened. This work was continued all night and the next day by the garrison and the fifty negroes who had been employed at the fort, and remained during the engagement. On the following morning the fleet lay inside the bar, in the same line of battle in which they approached — the first one about two miles and a half from Sumter, and one and a half miles from Morris Island.