This day in Charleston
2 entries · 1863–1886
The Confederate transport Sumter, carrying troops off Morris Island, was taken for an enemy vessel by the batteries on Sullivan’s Island and sunk by their fire. It is the clearest single measure of what nights in Charleston Harbor had become by the end of August 1863.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 1
Twenty-one years after the war, at about ten at night, an earthquake estimated near magnitude 7 struck Charleston. Some sixty people died and most of the city’s buildings were damaged; the earthquake bolts and iron washer-plates still visible on hundreds of Charleston houses date from the repairs. The city that had been shelled for eighteen months was knocked down again in forty-five seconds.
United States Geological Survey; contemporary press accounts
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.