This day in Charleston

August 28

2 entries · 1863–1864

1863Morris Island

“A gale is coming on, and I am coming in the creek”

Gillmore asked again about lighting up Cumming’s Point and Fort Sumter; Dahlgren replied that he had no objection, but the contrary — and added that his chief pilot said a gale was coming on, so the fleet would shelter in the creek. Prisoners had told the Federals that Fort Sumter was resupplied by small boat from Cumming’s Point in the dark, and the calcium lights were meant to stop it.

Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 2

1864Fort Sumter

Seventeen misses out of eighteen

“Eighteen Parrott shots were fired at the fort last night, of which 17 missed; 32 columbiads, of which 5 missed. One negro wounded.” Some nights the Federal gunners could not find a target four hundred feet wide.

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.