This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1861–1864
The largest American fleet yet assembled sailed from Hampton Roads under Flag Officer Du Pont with General Thomas W. Sherman’s troops aboard, destination unknown to almost everyone in it. It was Port Royal Sound, sixty miles from Charleston, and it fell on 7 November.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 6
A commissary officer reported on his errand to Florida, sent to find out why the shipments of beef cattle to Charleston had ceased and to get them started again. By late 1863 the defense of Charleston was as much a transport problem as a military one, and the answers were always the same: no cars, no engines, no track.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 2
By order of the Mayor, a reward of five thousand dollars was offered “for proof to conviction of the person or persons who have recently set fire to the Buildings in Market and Hayne streets.” The notice is signed by M. H. Nathan, Chief of the Fire Department. A city already shelled nightly, and already gutted once by fire in 1861, now had someone setting it alight on purpose.
Charleston Mercury, 15 November 1864, p. 2 (notice dated 29 October 1864)
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.