First Battle of Charleston Harbor
Encyclopedia
The First Battle of Charleston Harbor was an engagement near Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

  that took place April 7, 1863, during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. The striking force was a fleet of nine ironclad warships of the Union Navy
Union Navy
The Union Navy is the label applied to the United States Navy during the American Civil War, to contrast it from its direct opponent, the Confederate States Navy...

, including seven monitors that were improved versions of the original . A Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

 contingent associated with the attack took no active part in the battle. The ships, under command of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont
Samuel Francis du Pont
Samuel Francis Du Pont was an American naval officer who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, and a member of the prominent Du Pont family; he was the only member of his generation to use a capital D...

, attacked the Confederate defenses near the entrance to Charleston Harbor. Navy Department officials in Washington hoped for a stunning success that would validate a new form of warfare, with armored warships mounting heavy guns reducing traditional forts.

Du Pont had been given seven of the Passaic class monitors, the powerful , and the experimental ironclad . Other naval operations were sidetracked as their resources were diverted to the attack on Charleston. After a long period of preparation, conditions of tide and visibility allowed the attack to proceed. The slow monitors got into position rather late in the afternoon, and when the tide turned, Du Pont had to suspend the operation. Firing had occupied less than two hours, and the ships had been unable to penetrate even the first line of harbor defense. The fleet retired with one in a sinking condition and most of the others damaged. One sailor in the fleet was killed and twenty-one were wounded, while five Confederate soldiers were killed and eight wounded. After consulting with his captains, Du Pont concluded that his fleet had little chance to succeed. He therefore declined to renew the battle the next morning.

Union

The war was not going well for the Union in late 1862 and early 1863. Although the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...

 had been repulsed at Antietam
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...

, it had escaped intact and had inflicted a major defeat on the Federal Army of the Potomac
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...

 at Fredericksburg, Virginia
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside...

, following which the Army of the Potomac was in disarray. In the West, the campaign for control of the Mississippi River seemed to be bogged down before Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Confederates had actually managed to retake Galveston, Texas
Battle of Galveston
The Battle of Galveston or the Second Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle that occurred on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War when Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. John B...

. A mood of war-weariness was evident throughout the North, and the fall elections, regarded as a referendum on the war, had shown a swing away from the Republican party. The Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 Administration therefore began to apply great pressure on its field commanders to achieve some success that would lift the national spirit. It was in this atmosphere that the Navy Department began to urge an attack on Charleston.

Charleston in 1863 was already of only limited military significance, as the active centers of combat were mostly in Virginia and the interior of the country. Its value as a port for blockade runners was not much greater than that of Mobile, Alabama
Mobile, Alabama
Mobile is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 195,111 during the 2010 census. It is the largest...

 or Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...

, and all were eclipsed by Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...

. However, it was selected as a target more for its symbolic worth than for its strategic importance. In the words of one of the participants in the naval attack, "Fort Sumter was regarded in the public mind, North and South, as the citadel of the fortress, the incarnation of the rebellion, and as such it was attacked and defended."

Among the most vocal proponents of the attack was Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Assistant Secretary of the Navy is the title given to certain civilian senior officials in the United States Department of the Navy....

 Gustavus Vasa Fox. Fox had an ulterior motive, in that he wanted the Navy to be free from domination by the Army. He was therefore not disturbed when General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck would not agree to a major part for the Army in the operation. Halleck was willing to commit only 10,000 to 15,000 untrained soldiers, who would exploit any successes made by the naval force but would not otherwise have an active role.

The Navy Department supported the operation by assigning almost all of its armored vessels to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Du Pont. These included the massive ; New Ironsides would serve as Du Pont's flagship. The Passaic class gunboats were designed as improved versions of the original ; as they were commissioned, they were sent to South Carolina, so seven of them were able to participate in the attack. In addition, the experimental armored gunboat was added to the fleet.

Du Pont did not share the enthusiasm of the Navy Department for the armored vessels. Although they could withstand whatever punishment the coastal artillery of the day could mete out, their offensive capabilities were severely restricted. New Ironsides carried 16 guns (broadside, so only 8 could be brought to bear at one time), but each of the others carried only two guns. Each Passaic had one 15 inches (381 mm) and one 11 inches (279.4 mm) gun, while Keokuk carried two 11 inches (279.4 mm) guns. Although they were larger than the typical 32-pounder weapons that would be used against them, their rate of fire was much less. Seven minutes was needed to swab, reload, and aim between shots.

Despite his lack of faith in the monitors, Du Pont did not propose any alternative plans to capture Charleston. He concentrated instead on how to preserve his ships. His defeatism must be taken into account in any reckoning of results of the battle.

Confederacy

General P. G. T. Beauregard
P. G. T. Beauregard
Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard was a Louisiana-born American military officer, politician, inventor, writer, civil servant, and the first prominent general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Today he is commonly referred to as P. G. T. Beauregard, but he rarely used...

 commanded the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. As he had led the rebel forces at Charleston at the time of the bombardment of Fort Sumter
Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina, that started the American Civil War. Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On...

 that opened the war, he was intimately familiar with the fortifications surrounding the city. He had been called away to service elsewhere, but returned in September 1862. The batteries that had been set up under his supervision to assault the fort were incorporated into the harbor defenses. His successors, Major General John C. Pemberton
John C. Pemberton
John Clifford Pemberton , was a career United States Army officer who fought in the Seminole Wars and with distinction during the Mexican–American War. He also served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War, noted for his defeat and surrender in the critical Siege of Vicksburg in...

 and Brigadier General Roswell S. Ripley
Roswell S. Ripley
Roswell Sabine Ripley was an officer in the United States Army during the Mexican-American War and, despite being Northern-born, a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War...

, made some additions in the year and a half that he was gone, but the basic features were due to Beauregard.

The fortifications that had been set up around the harbor were well-suited to repel attacks from the ocean. The most seaward guns were placed in Battery Wagner (often referred to in Union accounts as Fort Wagner) and Battery Gregg, both on Morris Island. Near them, on a man-made island on the same side of the harbor, was Fort Sumter. Fort Moultrie and its outlying batteries lay across the harbor on Sullivan's Island. These formed the first or outer defensive ring. A second ring consisted of Fort Johnson and Battery Glover on James Island
James Island, South Carolina
James Island is a former town in Charleston County, South Carolina, United States. It is located in the central and southern parts of James Island. As defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and used by the U.S...

, and Fort Ripley and Castle Pinckney
Castle Pinckney
Castle Pinckney was a small masonry fortification constructed by the United States government by 1810 in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina...

 in the harbor, and finally the White Point Battery (Battery Ramsay) at the southern end of the city itself. A third ring, formed of several batteries on the Cooper
Cooper River (South Carolina)
The Cooper River is a mainly tidal river in the U.S. state of South Carolina. These cities are located along the river, Mt. Pleasant, Charleston, North Charleston, Goose Creek and Hanahan. Short and wide, it is joined first by the blackwater East Branch, then farther downstream, the tidal Wando River...

 and Ashley River
Ashley River (South Carolina)
The Ashley River is a blackwater / tidal river in South Carolina, rising from the Wassamassaw and Great Cypress Swamps in western Berkeley County. It consolidates its main channel about five miles west of Summerville, widening into a tidal estuary just south of Fort Dorchester...

s and in Charleston, was intended to protect against land assault on the city. In all, they mounted some 385 land-based guns.
The defense also included shipping barriers spanning the harbor. First to be put in place was a row of piles that stretched from Fort Johnson to near Fort Ripley in the Middle Ground. This proved to be ineffective, as storms and strong tides soon ripped out major sections. Later, a "boom" was laid between Forts Sumter and Moultrie. Formed of 20-foot (6.1 m) lengths of railroad iron floated by large timbers, bound together by chains, and anchored at intervals, this barrier also broke under the strain imposed by the tides. It was supplemented by a rope obstruction that was meant to foul the propellers of enemy vessels. Despite the effort that went into these barriers, the defenders did not believe them to be serious impediments to an invading fleet. The same was true of most of the torpedoes (present-day mines) that were laid. Du Pont was unaware of their flaws, so the barriers and torpedoes were major concerns in his preparations for the battle.

The South also had a naval contingent present. Two armored gunboats, and , were ready to fight if the invaders neared the city. They would be used only reluctantly, as they were known to be too slow to pose a significant threat to the Northern monitors.

The defenses before Charleston were strong, but Beauregard knew that he had to prepare for the worst. Thus, shortly after he resumed his command, he made the potentially fateful decision to defend the city street by street if necessary. He wrote to Governor Francis W. Pickens to state his position: "As I understand it is the wish of all, people and government, that the city shall be defended to the last extremity."

Battle

Du Pont chose to mount the attack in the early part of April, in order to take advantage of the spring tides brought by the full Moon.

Minesweepers

As the date was nearing, a new device was introduced by the Navy Department. Because of Du Pont's often-expressed fears of torpedoes in the harbor, the Department had called on the man who designed the monitors, John Ericsson
John Ericsson
John Ericsson was a Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer, as was his brother Nils Ericson. He was born at Långbanshyttan in Värmland, Sweden, but primarily came to be active in England and the United States...

, to provide some means of defense. He came up with a raft-like structure made up of heavy timbers that could be attached to a ship's bow. Each raft carried grappling hooks intended to snag the mooring lines of enemy torpedoes. It also carried its own torpedo, so it could blast its way through the obstructions. Two of the rafts were built and sent down to South Carolina in time for the attack. After considering the steering and handling problems the rafts would introduce, Du Pont's captains were unwilling to mount them on their ships. The torpedo was particularly worrisome, as collisions between ships in the narrow channel with unknown currents could be expected. Only one captain, John Rodgers of Weekawken, could be persuaded to carry the raft on his ship, and then only without the torpedo. In the event, the motion of the raft pounded his ship so severely that Rodgers decided to cast it loose before it had cleared any enemy torpedoes.

Final preparations

The fleet assembled off the mouth of the harbor on 5 April; on that day, Du Pont sent the buoy schooner and the survey vessel , accompanied by Keokuk, to mark the entrance channel with buoys. The weather on the following day was hazy, making navigation difficult, so Du Pont postponed the attack for another day. The harbor was obscured by haze again on the morning of April 7, but it cleared up by noon, and the signal to attack was given.

Line of battle

Four monitors led the way; first was , under Captain John Rodgers. Getting under way, Weehawken's anchor fouled the grappling hooks on the torpedo raft, delaying the start by about an hour. She then could make only three knots (5.5 km/h), and the rest of the column had to follow at her slow pace. Second was , commanded by Charleston native Captain Percival Drayton
Percival Drayton
Percival Drayton was a United States Navy officer during the American Civil War.-Biography:Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Drayton was the son of a prominent lawyer William Drayton who eventually relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...

. Third was , led by Commander John L. Worden; Worden was famed as the captain of when she engaged CSS Virginia
CSS Virginia
CSS Virginia was the first steam-powered ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, built during the first year of the American Civil War; she was constructed as a casemate ironclad using the raised and cut down original lower hull and steam engines of the scuttled . Virginia was one of the...

 at the Battle of Hampton Roads
Battle of Hampton Roads
The Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of Ironclads, was the most noted and arguably most important naval battle of the American Civil War from the standpoint of the development of navies...

. Next came , under Commander Daniel Ammen
Daniel Ammen
Daniel Ammen was a U.S. naval officer during the American Civil War and the postbellum period, as well as a prolific author.-Biography:...

. These were followed by the flagship, , commanded by Commodore Thomas Turner; also aboard were Rear Admiral Du Pont
Samuel Francis du Pont
Samuel Francis Du Pont was an American naval officer who achieved the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy, and a member of the prominent Du Pont family; he was the only member of his generation to use a capital D...

 and his fleet captain
Fleet captain
Fleet Captain is a rare military title that may be bestowed upon senior naval captains for a variety of reasons, the most common of which is to temporarily take command of more than one vessel. The rank can, therefore, be interpreted as a close equivalent to Commodore or to the 19th century rank...

, Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers
Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers was an officer in the United States Navy. He served in the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, as Superintendent of the Naval Academy, and Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron.-Early career:Rodgers was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a naval family...

. Then came three more monitors: , under Commander George W. Rodgers, brother of C. R. P. Rodgers and cousin of John Rodgers; , under Commander Donald M. Fairfax; and , under Commander John Downes. Twin-turreted , commanded by Commander Alexander C. Rhind, was at the end of the line.

Almost two hours elapsed between the time the ships got under way until the opening shots were fired. In that time, they found that New Ironsides had severe handling problems in the strong current and shallow water. She was forced to stop and anchor to avoid going aground, just about the time that the lead monitors were coming under fire. She dropped out of the line, and the four ships following her passed around, with some difficulty. The waiting Rebels could not have chosen a better place for New Ironsides to anchor, as she was directly over a 3000-pound (1360 kg) electrically-triggered torpedo that would be activated by closing a switch on shore. Their high hopes were dashed, however, when the switch was closed and nothing happened. Two explanations for the failure have been offered. According to the one, an ordnance wagon had broken the wires by being driven over them. The other holds that the wires were simply too long, so the electrical current would not be great enough to create a spark and detonate the charge.

Meanwhile, the other ships were being pummeled. Weehawken had advanced to a line of buoys that Captain Rodgers thought might mark torpedoes, so he swerved from the channel and stopped to consider what to do next. At this time, an underwater explosion rocked the vessel; Rodgers thought that it was a torpedo, but some historians believe that it was more likely the explosion of a shell from one of the forts. In either case, the ship suffered no significant injury. Because she had left the channel, however, the line of ships following her were thrown into confusion, and whatever was left of Du Pont's battle plan collapsed. The intense fire the ships received from the forts kept them farther from Fort Sumter than the admiral had envisioned, so their return fire was less accurate than planned. It was not accuracy that determined the result, however, but the sheer disparity in firepower. In the course of the two hours of the engagement, the Confederate forces got off more than 2000 shot and shell, of which 520 hit. By contrast, the Union fleet fired only 154 shots. Their armor protected the crews, but several ships suffered damage that impaired their fighting abilities, such as jammed turrets and gunport stoppers. Worst hit was Keokuk, which was hit 90 times, including 19 shots at or below the waterline. Captain Rhind withdrew his ship from the fight, barely able to keep her afloat until she was beyond enemy gunfire. By this time, the tide had turned, so Admiral Du Pont decided to suspend the attack until the following day.

Termination

Du Pont in his official report asserted that he fully intended to renew the attack the next day, but his captains were unanimously opposed. Keokuk sank during the night (with no loss of life), two or three of the monitors had sustained damage that would keep them out of further action for days if not weeks, and the captains agreed that nothing good could come from prolonging the battle. Even if they could knock out Fort Sumter, the rest of the fortifications remained, and the fleet had not penetrated the first defensive ring.

Thus the battle fizzled out. The Union had lost one ironclad, and Fort Sumter had sustained damage that could be repaired in short order, though it was somewhat more than Du Pont realized. Personnel casualties were quite low despite the volume of fire. Only one man, Quartermaster Edward Cobb of Nahant, was killed in the fleet, and 21 others sustained various degrees of injury. The Rebels had lost five killed and eight wounded.

Aftermath

Secretary of the Navy Welles was dismayed by the failure. The small casualty list, coupled with Du Pont's evident reluctance beforehand, led him to believe at first that the attack was not pressed with vigor. His criticism softened only when John Rodgers, who was known to be a thoroughly competent and aggressive officer, sided with Du Pont. As Rodgers saw it, and as Welles had to agree, Charleston could not be taken by a purely naval assault. It would require a combined operation, with full cooperation of both services, to achieve that.

Welles saw that Du Pont was correct in stating that Charleston could not be taken by naval forces alone, but the breach between the two men was irreparable. Welles recalled the admiral on June 3, replacing him at first with Rear Admiral Andrew H. Foote. Foote, however, had never fully recovered from a wound he had received during the Battle of Fort Donelson
Battle of Fort Donelson
The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River as an avenue for the invasion of the South. The success elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S...

, and he died before he could report to his new station. Welles therefore somewhat reluctantly turned responsibility for the naval portion of the campaign to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren
John A. Dahlgren
John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren was a United States Navy leader. He headed the Union Navy's ordnance department during the American Civil War and designed several different kinds of guns and cannons that were considered part of the reason the Union won the war...

.

Du Pont's captains fared better than he, and none of them suffered professionally for their participation in the failed campaign. Seven of them (John and C. R. P. Rodgers, Ammen,
Fairfax, Turner, Worden, and Rhind) eventually became rear admirals. Drayton was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, which would have made him a rear admiral, but he died of a heart attack while awaiting Senate confirmation. George W. Rodgers was known as one of the best captains in the fleet, but he was killed in a later attack on Charleston.

The monitors and New Ironsides continued to take part in the blockade of Charleston that remained in force, but the former never again inspired such awe among the Rebels as they had before the attack. All were used in the continuing campaign against the city.

Even the sunken Keokuk continued to figure in the war. She had sunk in shallow water that left her smokestack above the surface, so her position was known. Adolphus W. LaCoste, a Charleston civilian hired by the Confederate government, was able to salvage the two 11 inches (279.4 mm) guns from the wreck. He and his crew worked by night and were able to escape notice of the blockaders; Du Pont did not suspect their activity until it was announced in the Charleston Mercury.

See also

  • Second Battle of Charleston Harbor
    Second Battle of Charleston Harbor
    The Second Battle of Charleston Harbor, also known as the Siege of Charleston Harbor, Siege of Fort Wagner, or Battle of Morris Island, took place during the American Civil War in the late summer of 1863 between a combined Union Army/Navy force and the Confederate defenses of Charleston, South...

  • List of monitors of the United States Navy
  • Ironclads: American Civil War
    Ironclads: American Civil War
    Ironclads: American Civil War is a 3D naval historical turned-based strategy game based on the Civil war in the USA.The player operates a squadron of warships of the United States or Confederations Navy: broadside ironclads, ironclad rams, ironclad turret ships, monitors, sloops-of-war, gunboats...

    .
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