This day in Charleston

April 21

2 entries · 1863–1864

1863Torpedoes

Monitors in the North Edisto, and a plan for the rowboats

Six monitors returned to the North Edisto with transports, and Beauregard concluded they meant to stop him raising the Keokuk. He proposed attacking them on a favorable night with the spar-torpedo rowboats, and Captain Tucker ordered Lieutenant Dozier to have his best torpedo boats and crews ready for immediate service. Cole’s Island, at the mouth of the Stono, had just been given up.

Official Records of the Navies, Series I, Vol. 14

1864Fort Sumter

The Wabash is gone from the offing

“All remains quiet. The Wabash and another large war steamer not in sight this morning.” The heavy frigates were being drawn away from Charleston as the war's weight shifted north; the monitors and the batteries on Morris Island stayed.

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.