This day in Charleston

April 16

2 entries · 1863–1864

1863Torpedoes

“Far superior to any gunboat for attacking iron-clads”

Beauregard wired South Carolina’s senators asking whether iron plating could be found to finish Captain Francis D. Lee’s torpedo ram, then nearly complete: “It is far superior to any gunboat for attacking iron-clads. I regret cannot convince War and Navy Departments of that fact.” The ram was never finished. Lee’s spar torpedo was, and it changed naval war.

Official Records, Series I, Vol. 14

1864Fort Sumter

Three shots at night, two more at breakfast

“Three shots were fired at the fort last night; 2 have just been fired; no casualties. The condition of the fleet remains the same as the last report.” Captain J. C. Mitchel, commanding, wrote a version of this sentence most mornings for four months.

Fort Sumter post returns, OR I, 35, Pt. 1

Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.