This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1862–1863
Beauregard wrote to Richmond that Captain Francis D. Lee of the Provisional Engineers had submitted a plan for a torpedo ram for the defense of Charleston Harbor. Lee’s ram was never finished; his spar torpedo sank three United States warships.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 14
Thirty-nine shots from Simkins, thirty-eight from Cheves, effect not reported — and at Battery Simkins, an “infernal machine” floated up during the night and was secured. The report gives no description of it. Both sides were now putting explosives in the water faster than anyone could keep track of them.
Journal of Operations in Charleston Harbor, OR I, 28, Pt. 1
The Mercury’s daily siege column reported the enemy’s batteries altogether quiet, and Battery Simkins keeping up its fire against Gregg and Wagner — the works on Morris Island that had been Confederate five weeks earlier and were now being shot at by their former owners.
Charleston Mercury, 13 October 1863, p. 2, “Siege Matters”
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.