This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1862–1864
The dispositions of the blockading vessels off Charleston in mid-May 1862 put steamers on the main channel, at Rattlesnake Shoal, off Stono Inlet and off Bull’s Bay — an arc that had to be held day and night against pilots who had grown up on this water. Two days later one of those pilots took a Confederate steamer straight through it.
Official Records of the Navies, Series I, Vol. 12
No firing on the post for twenty-four hours. The gin had been removed from over the carriage where a 100-pounder Parrott had been mounted, second from the fort's left of the Federal middle battery — which meant the gun was gone, and something else was coming.
Fort Sumter post returns, OR I, 35, Pt. 1
“Since the destruction of the Housatonic, nothing has been heard of Captain Dixon and his crew.” The Mercury printed a letter from M. M. Gray, the captain in charge of Charleston’s torpedoes, dated 29 April 1864: “I am of the opinion that the torpedo being placed at the bow of the boat, she went into the hole made in the Housatonic by explosion of torpedo, and did not have power sufficient to back out, consequently sank with her.” It is the earliest written explanation of the Hunley’s loss, and the question stayed open until she was raised off Sullivan’s Island in 2000.
Charleston Mercury, 11 May 1864, p. 2, “Captain Dixon and his Crew”
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.