This day in Charleston

June 24

2 entries · 1862–1864

1862The blockade

No sail vessel is to leave the harbor

Pemberton telegraphed the Secretary of War that he had forbidden all sailing vessels to leave Charleston, believing they would be caught and their cotton fall into Federal hands, and asked for instructions. From this point the port belonged to steam — the fast, low, grey Clyde-built runners that could make the bar on a dark flood tide.

Official Records, Series I, Vol. 14

1864Fort Sumter

Thirty shells, everything quiet

“Everything quiet. Twenty-two Parrott shells fired; 7 missed; 8 mortar shells, 3 missed; all since last report.” On a day like this the fort's whole war fits in one sentence.

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.