This day in Charleston
2 entries · 1862–1863
After the failure at Pocotaligo in October, Federal forces spent November 1862 probing the approaches to the Charleston and Savannah Railroad without committing to another attack. The railroad was the department’s spine, and both sides knew it.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 14
From department headquarters: “It is an axiom in war that no work is sufficiently strong to resist a determined attack unless properly garrisoned. The defenses of Charleston require 18,500 infantry” — a figure the Confederacy never came close to providing, and Beauregard knew it when he wrote it.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, 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.