This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1863–1864
“This morning the long-expected, and, by the sappers, anxiously hoped for, bombardment of Wagner by all the land batteries and the Ironsides began, and with it ended all the difficulties in sapping.” In the twelve hours to noon the Confederates fired 173 shots and the Federals 864. By evening the Federal flag stood abreast of Wagner’s south angle.
Major Brooks’ journal, OR I, 28, Pt. 1
At ten minutes to five in the morning Dahlgren signaled Gillmore from off Morris Island: “Shall the Ironsides then begin the attack, as was agreed upon?” The forty-hour bombardment that emptied Battery Wagner started with that question.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 2
“A cessation of hostilities took place during Saturday.” After four hundred and twenty-four days of it, a quiet Saturday was itself the news, and the Mercury led its siege column with it.
Charleston Mercury, 5 September 1864, p. 2, “Siege Matters — Four Hundred and Twenty Fourth Day”
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.