This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1862–1864
An engagement on the Black River, inland from Georgetown. The rivers north of Charleston carried rice, salt and, increasingly, people leaving for the Federal gunboats, and both sides patrolled them hard.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 14
Gillmore ordered Brooks to attempt no further advance against Battery Wagner until the batteries opened on Fort Sumter. The reasoning was sound: once the breaching batteries began, they would draw off part of the Confederate fire that was falling entirely on the advanced trenches.
Major Brooks’ journal, OR I, 28, Pt. 1
The Mercury’s siege column opened with the summary of the firing from the harbor. Four hundred and one days had passed since the Federals came ashore on Morris Island, and the paper had counted every one of them on page two.
Charleston Mercury, 13 August 1864, p. 2, “Siege Matters — Four Hundred and First Day”
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.