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Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 1. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Seacoast defences of South Carolina and Georgia. (search)
holly different plan, both at Charleston and Savannah. And so comprehensive were these changes, that had General Long chanced to visit those two places and the intermediate lines about the first day of July, 1863, he would have been sorely puzzled to point out in all the results of defensive engineering skill, which must have met and pleased his eyes in the department, any trace of what he had left there something more than one year before. For example, the Fort Sumter and works on Sullivan's Island, which fought and defeated the fleet of Admiral Dupont on the 6th of April, 1863, were, in nothing else scarcely than the terrain on which they stood, the same works that Beauregard had found constructed. As arranged by him, on that day they encountered a naval onset more formidable, from the character of the vessels engaged and greatness of calibre of the armaments, than any other fortifications have ever been subjected to; and in less than forty minutes five of the nine iron-armored
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., From Moultrie to Sumter. (search)
United States arsenal in Charleston to get some friction primers and a little ammunition, a crowd interfered and drove his men back. It became evident, as I told Anderson, that we could not defend the fort, because the houses around us on Sullivan's Island looked down into Moultrie, and could be occupied by our enemies. At last it was rumored that two thousand riflemen had been detailed to shoot us down from the tops of those houses. I proposed to anticipate the enemy and burn the dwellingsway without any demonstration. Captain Chester, in his paper which follows, has omitted a fact that I will mention. As the fire against us came from all directions, a shot from The hot-shot furnace, Fort Moultrie--from a photograph. Sullivan's Island struck near the lock of the magazine, and bent the copper door, so that all access to the few cartridges we had there was cut off. Just previous to this the officers had been engaged, amid a shower of shells, in vigorous efforts to cut away
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Inside Sumter: in 1861. (search)
ite, was considered a rather pleasant station, Sullivan's Island being a favorite summer resort. Many of the w candidate. At one of these entertainments on Sullivan's Island, the regimental band attended,--hired as an atoad iron; and batteries on Morris, James, and Sullivan's islands were approaching completion. But our prepara floating battery in action at the west end of Sullivan's Island. Colonel Joseph A. Yates, who was a lieutenbatteries, the James Island batteries, and the Sullivan's Island batteries. With these last was included the fhad taken up a position off the western end of Sullivan's Island to command the left flank of Sumter. Captain her Costolan.--editors. to the guns bearing on Sullivan's Island. The guns in the lower tier, which were the o non-combatants, had collected on the beach of Sullivan's Island, well out of the line of fire, to witness the ly after his departure another small boat from Sullivan's Island, containing officers in full uniform (Wigfall
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., The first step in the War. (search)
h Carolina, and afterward of the Confederate States, took possession of Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, the arsenal, and other United States, property in the vicinity. They also remounted the guns at Fort Moultrie, and constructed batteries on Sullivan's, Morris, and James islands, and at other places, looking to the reduction of Fort Sumter if it should become necessary; meantime leaving no stone unturned to secure from the authorities at Washington a quiet evacuation of the fort. Several arr impressive ceremonies. Major Anderson and his command left the harbor, bearing with them the respect and admiration of the Confederate soldiers. The officers, under General Beauregard, of the batteries surrounding Fort Sumter were: Sullivan's Island, Brigadier-General R. G. M. Dunovant commanding, Lieutenant-Colonel Roswell S. Ripley, commanding the artillery: Five-gun Battery (east of Fort Moultrie), Captain S. Y. Tupper; Maffit Channel Battery (2 guns) and Mortar Battery No. 2 (2 10-
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The siege of Morris Island. (search)
roached in front over ground that was completely swept by its guns. The guns of Gregg took it in reverse, while those of the enemy's batteries on James and Sullivan's Islands took it both in reverse and flank. The barbette guns of Sumter commanded it by a plunging fire, and threw shells a mile beyond. The operations were carriehe storm does not participate in this unnatural feeling. The troops marched up to the head of the island under a cross-fire from the batteries on James and Sullivan's Islands. On the return I went into Wagner, and never before saw a place in such universal ruin. Everything but the sand was knocked to pieces; guns dismounted, caors and marines from the fleet. It was anticipated and repulsed. The next day an action took place between the iron-clad fleet and the enemy's batteries on Sullivan's Island, which was, probably, the severest naval engagement that ever took place in America. The enemy opened with a hundred guns of heavy calibre, but before the d
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The First shot against the flag. (search)
evacuation of the fort, and, if this is refused, proceed in such manner as you may determine to reduce it. On the morning of the 11th of April, the dawn of day disclosed an activity at once unusual and significant. over the entire harbor. The waters were covered with vessels hastily putting to sea. An iron-clad floating-battery of four guns, the construction of which in Charleston had been watched by the garrison for months, was towed down the bay to a point at the western end of Sullivan's Island, where its guns bore directly upon Fort Sumter. A wooden dwelling on the beach, near the end of the island, was pulled down and unmasked a land work, mounting four guns, hitherto unknown to the garrison. Its fire would enfilade the most important battery of Fort Sumter, which was upon the parapet of the right flank of the work, and whose guns were mainly relied upon to control the fire from the heavy guns on Cumming's Point, that would take the fort in reverse. Bodies of troops were
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Torpedo service in Charleston harbor. (search)
ound at Charleston an exceedingly bad defensive condition against a determined attack. Excepting Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, the works and batteries covering Charleston harbor, including Fort Sumter, were insufficiently armed, and their babut in the same manner as the David. As the Housatonic was easily approached through interior channels from behind Sullivan's Island, and Lieutenant Dixon readily procured a volunteer crew, his little vessel was fitted with a Lee spar torpedo, and attack on Fort Sumter opened, early in April I placed the floating battery in position at the western extremity of Sullivan's Island to enfilade certain barbette guns of the fort which could not be reached effectively by our land batteries. It, thced in a few days. Such a result at that time would have been necessarily followed by the evacuation of Morris and Sullivan's Islands, and, soon after, of Charleston itself, for I had not yet had time to complete and arm the system of works, includi
Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, June, 1863. (search)
ween them is Fort Ripley, which mounts — heavy guns. Moultrieville, with its numerous forts, called Battery Bee, Fort Moultrie, Fort Beauregard, &c., is on Sullivan's Island, one mile distant from Fort Sumter. There are excellent arrangements of--, and other contrivances, to foul the screw of a vessel between Sumter and Moultrie anticipated, the Monitors had managed to force their way past Sumter, they would have been received from different directions by the powerful battery Bee on Sullivan's Island, by this island, Forts Pinckney and Ripley, by the two gunboats, and by Fort Johnson on James Island — a nest of hornets from which perhaps they would never is was the case with the steamer Stono, a short time since, which, having been caught in this manner by the army, was lost by the navy shortly afterwards off Sullivan's Island. News has just been received that Commodore Foote is to succeed Dupont in the command of the blockading squadron. Most of these officers appeared to rej
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 2: Charleston Harbor. (search)
odern warfare. It lies one mile from the city; it was capable of holding a war garrison of 100 men; and its armament of twenty-two guns was at the time complete. Farther out is the second in size and importance Fort Moultrie, situated on Sullivan's Island, some four miles from the city, very near the mouth of the harbor, on its northern side. It dates back in name and heroic reputation to the Revolution, when, however, it was little else than an extemporized battery of palmetto-logs and sanrge, had a garrison of sixty-nine soldiers and nine officers under Major Robert Anderson, who had command of the whole harbor and all the forts. The walls of Moultrie were low, and at one place almost submerged in the drifting sandbanks of Sullivan's Island; a storming party, the commandant reported, could run like rats over the ramparts. Parties of Charlestonians frequently visited it to spy out its weak points; volunteer companies were organized in the city for the expedition of capture; sc
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 5: Sumter. (search)
ll stock of provisions, and thus hasten the process of reducing the fort by starvation. The rebels had built their siege-works on the approaching points of the islands forming the harbor. These lay in a sort of triangle about the fort: Sullivan's Island, containing Fort Moultrie, to the northeast at a distance of 1,800 yards; Cumming's Point, on Morris Island, to the south at a distance of 1,300 yards; and on James Island, near old Fort Johnson, to the west at a distance of 2,500 yards. Th of the first day Sumter kept up its fire, though with greatly slackened speed. Only six guns were kept in action for the remainder of the day: two against Cumming's Point on the south, and four against Fort Moultrie and other batteries on Sullivan's Island to the north. At nightfall even these ceased, as also did most of the guns in the rebel batteries; their mortars, however, keeping up a sullen and steady discharge of bombs upon the fort at intervals of about ten minutes, the whole of the