This day in Charleston

April 28

2 entries · 1862–1864

1862Freedom

Fifteen people row out to the Bienville

At two in the morning fifteen enslaved people came off to the USS Bienville off Charleston in a boat belonging to the Confederate quartermaster’s department, having left the city at half past nine the night before. One of them, named Gabriel, gave a careful account of the harbor defenses, down to the shell-proof port shutters going up in Fort Sumter’s casemates. It was two weeks before Robert Smalls did the same thing with a steamer.

Official Records of the Navies, Series I, Vol. 12

1864Fort Sumter

Fifty-one mortar shells at three in the afternoon

“The enemy opened on the fort at 3 p.m., firing from two 10-inch and one 13-inch mortars. Fired 51 shots, of which 38 missed.” The 13-inch seacoast mortar threw a two-hundred-pound shell in a high arc; against a fort with no roof, misses were the only mercy.

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.