Battle of Charleston Harbor

Confederates in Charleston

In April 1863, the United States Navy turned its attention to Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston was an important city in the Civil War. Not only did it have military importance, as a center of blockade running, but it also had a vast political importance. It was where the war began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in the harbor, and its capture would prove a major hit to Confederate morale and the town was also very supportive of secession. 

Samuel Du Pont

For these reasons it was decided by the Federal government to make an attempt to capture the town. The command was given to Samuel Du Pont. Du Pont had been sailing since the age of 12, and by the Civil War was a captain. He was on his way toward retirement, holding a post as commander of the Philadelphia Shipyard, but, when the Civil War came, he was returned to active service. He was promoted to flag officer, and after commanding the navy at the capture of Port Royal, he was promoted to rear admiral.

Ironclads advance

The expedition would be primarily naval in nature. Du Pont was given nine ironclads to make the attack. The flagship was the massive New Ironsides. It had been designed independently of the Monitor, was very similar to the French ironclad Glorie. It carried 18 guns and had masts as well as a steam engine. Accompanying the New Ironsides in the attack on Charleston were seven sister ships of the Monitor and an experimental ironclad, the Keokuk.

Burnside

Charleston was commanded by General P. G. T. Beauregard. He had gained his fame in the town by leading the capture of Fort Sumter. He was assigned to duty elsewhere, but was sent back to South Carolina when he did not preform to the satisfaction of Richmond. The Confederate batteries and forts were well suited for the defense of Charleston from an attack from the sea. They had also placed barriers and torpedoes in the harbor, and although the defenders knew they were defective, the Yankees did not. 

The Federal navy came out to battle on April 7th, 150 years ago today. Time was lost as the ships met delays in their preparations. As the ships moved forward, one after another, problems were encountered with the New Ironsides. The sailors had difficulty maneuvering her, so she was pulled out of line and anchored, so the rest of the ships could proceed. Unknowingly, the New Ironsides was anchored directly over a huge Confederate torpedo. But, when the rebels pulled the electric switch to activate it, nothing happened. It is not known exactly why the torpedo failed, but a great opportunity was missed to destroy an important Union ship. 

New Ironsides

As the rest of the ships continued on, Du Pont's battle plan fell apart. The ships became disordered and came under a tremendous fire from the Confederate batteries. The fire was intense, and the ships remained far away from the Confederate batteries, rendering their fire inaccurate. When the tide began to turn, Du Pont ordered his fleet to retreat. The Confederate batteries had fired about 2000 shot, hitting 520 times. The Union ships had fired only 154 shots.

Different Union ships received differing amounts of damage. The Keokuk was hit the worst. She was shot 90 times, 19 below the waterline. She was taking on water as she withdrew from the fight, and despite the efforts of the crew, she sunk the next morning. Although the Union ships had been badly damaged, the actual casualties were light. On the ships only one was killed and 21 wounded, with the Confederates losing five killed and eight wounded. 
 
When Du Pont held a council of war the next day, his captains were unanimously against a renewal of the battle, and so he called of another attack. The government in Washington was not happy with Du Pont for giving up so easily, after loosing only a handful of men. He was removed from command.

Farragut's Ships Under Attack

USS Varuna

 This is part of a series of posts on the capture of New Orleans. Seem them all here. 
The Union fleet finally made it past the fort with minimal damage, but the battle was not yet over. The Confederates had a small fleet of gunboats, and the small ironclad, the Manassas, which had sent the blockading squadron into flight in the battle of Head of Passes. She and the other Confederate vessels went out to take part in the fight. The Manassas turned on the Brooklyn.

The ram, the ram!" Craven called out, "... Put your helm to hard-a-starboard!" Then I saw the smokestacks of the Manassas and the flash from her gun, and the next moment I was nearly thrown on the deck by the concussion, caused by her striking us just amidships. I ran to the No. 10 port, the gun being in, and looked out, and saw her almost directly alongside. A man came out of her little hatch aft, ... and locked to see what damage the ram had done. I saw him turn, fall over, and tumble into the water ... I asked the quartermaster, who was leadsman in the chains, if he had seen him fall. "Why, yes, sir," said he, "I saw him fall overboard, - in fact, I helped him; for I hit him alongside of the head with my hand-lead." ... It was not until the coal in the starboard bunker had been used up and the side of the ship was uncovered that we realized what a blow she had received from the Manassas. On the outside the chain had been driven its depth into the planking, and on the inside, for a length of five feet or more, the planking was splintered and crushed in. The only thing that prevented the prow of the Manassas from sinking us was the fact that the bunker was full of coal.

After this unsuccessful attack the Manassas continued down stream, but the forts opened fire on her, mistaking her for a Union ship in the smoke. She eventually ran aground and the crew abandoned her, having failed to sink a single one of Farragut's ships. However, the other small Confederate steamers made attacks on the Federal fleet. The CSS Governor Moore, called a cotton clad as cotton was put on her decks for armor, encountered the USS Varuna ahead of the rest of the Federal fleet. Although much weaker, the Governor Moore boldly gave battle and rammed twice, taking many casualties. The Varuna, seriously damaged, sank near shore. This was the only large ship Farragut lost. Jubilant at his victory, the captain and most of the crew of the Governor Moore wanted to continue and take on the rest of the Federal fleet. However, the Lieutenant, would have none of it. It was wounded, as were most of the crew, and ignoring the captain's orders turned the ship towards shore. The Federal fleet opened on her, and she was abandoned.

Morning dawned on a victorious Federal fleet. Farragut had lost one large ship, the Varuna, and three smaller ones, and had lost 37 killed and 149 wounded. The Confederates had lost 12 killed and 40 wounded from the fort, along with the entire Confederate flotilla and most of the crew. But more importantly for both sides, the ships had run the fort. They were now in a position to easily capture the forts, and sail up river and subdue New Orleans.

Farragut's Fleet Runs the Forts

Mortar Boat

 This is part of a series of posts on the capture of New Orleans. Seem them all here. 

The Federals began their attack with a bombardment from Porter's mortar boats. They opened on April 18th and began firing steadily for the next few days. The mortars were a failure. Porter at thought the boats would complete their work in 48 hours, but in six they had not finished their work. The big shells at first scared the garrison, but they soon realized that although terrifying, the projectiles caused few casualties and little serious damage. The mortar crews themselves had even harder work, with the terrible concussion of firing the huge mortars every few minutes. The fire was finally stopped as the mortar crews were completely worn out, and it seemed useless to continue.

Mortar Boat

With the first part of the plan having failed, Farragut decided to try with his wooden ships. He had sent two of his ships forward, and they had been able to open a gap in the chain boom across the river. The ships would advance in two columns and when the forts opened fire, they would answer them, but their main focus would be to get past them as fast as possible. In preparing the ships chains were brought up to cover the critical parts, protecting them from Confederate shot, fire brigades were trained and the ships were covered with mud so that they could advance as far as possible without being seen. As was customary in sea battles, the decks were covered in sand so that the sailors would not slip in their comrade's blood.

The fleet set off at 2 am on April 24th, 150 years ago today. They were undetected until they reached the boom. At that moment the forts opened on the ships with tremendous noise, and the Federal ships soon replied. "Imagine all the earthquakes in the world, and all the thunder and lightnings together in a space of two miles, all going off at once." Farragut said the bombardment was "as if the artillery of heaven were playing upon earth." Farragut's ships were sucessfully making it through the gap in the chain, but they suffered under the fire from the forts. John Bartlet captain of the Brooklyn, wrote,

"As we came to the obstruction the water-battery on the Fort Jackson side opened a most destructive fire, and here the Brooklyn received her first shot. We gave the water-battery a broadside of grape. With our own smoke and the smoke from the vessels immediately ahead, it was impossible to direct the ship, so that we missed the opening between the hulks and brought up on the chain. We dropped back and tried again; this time the chain broke, but we swung alongside of one of the hulks, and the stream-anchor, hanging on the starboard quarter, caught, tore along the hulk, and then parted its lashings. The cable secured us just where the Confederates had the range of their guns, but somebody ran up with an axe and cut the hawser, and we began to steam up the river. ... There were many fire-rafts, and these and the flashing of the guns and bursting shells made it almost as light as day, but the smoke from the passing fleet was so thick that at times one could see nothing ten feet from the ship. While entangled with the rafts, the Brooklyn was hulled a number of times; one shot from Fort Jackson struck the rail just at the break of the poop and went nearly across, plowing out the deck in its course. Another struck Barney Sands, the signal quartermaster, and cut his body almost in two."

The Confederates were launching fire rafts, attempting to set the wooden vessels on fire. The flag ship ran aground, and a fire ship rammed into her. For a few minutes it appeared, that Farragut, the ship, and the entire crew would be engulfed in flames, but the crew was finally able to blow up the fire raft and get the ship afloat.