This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1863–1864
Federal troops walked into Battery Wagner at dawn and found it empty; the whole garrison of Wagner and Gregg had been carried off in small boats during the night, in the face of the fleet. Brooks counted the damage: of sixteen guns in the fort, after forty hours’ bombardment at short range by the best heavy artillery in the service, only three were wholly disabled.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 28, Pt. 1
With Morris Island taken, the monitor Weehawken pushed into the channel and went aground between Cumming’s Point and Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie and the Sullivan’s Island batteries opened on her; the New Ironsides and the rest of the ironclads came up to cover her, and she was got off. It was the sharpest ship-versus-fort action in the harbor since April.
Official Records of the Navies, Series I, Vol. 14
Six hundred Confederate officers, prisoners of war, were landed on Morris Island and put in a stockade between the Federal batteries and the Confederate guns, in retaliation for Union officers held under fire in Charleston. They were there about six weeks. Both sides knew exactly what they were doing, and both did it.
Official Records, Series II
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.