Beached Remains, Folly Island

A wreck lies broken on the tide line — a paddle wheel canted over, boilers and framing scattered along the sand, a horse and a few figures small beside it. The Library of Congress dates the plate February 1865 and its title breaks off in the filename before it names the vessel.

February 1865 is the month Charleston fell: the Confederate garrison went out overnight on the 17th and 18th, firing stores and shipping as it left. Whether this hull is one of those, a blockade-runner that misjudged the bar, or an older casualty of the station, the record as held here does not say.