Tag Archives: Fort Moultrie

Plastering Charleston, 160 years ago

Posted on by Leave a comment

Reportedly the oldest naval combat photos that can be definitively dated.

Taken from Fort Sumter by George Cook on 8 September 1863, it shows the 18-gunned steam-powered wooden-hulled broadside ironclad USS New Ironsides and two Ericsson-designed single turret monitors, USS Montauk, and USS Passaic, firing on Conferate-held Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor.

The photo is credited to George S. Cook and is attributed as “taken by a Confederate photographer.” (Source: Field, Ron. Silent Witness, 2017, page 264) in combat, firing on Fort Sumter. LOC LC-USZ62-49549

The photo shows tents and soldiers on the beach of Morris Island. In the distance, ironclads, including USS New Ironsides and five monitor-class warships are in action against Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie in Charleston harbor. (Source: 99 Historic Images of Civil War Charleston, ed. by Garry Adelman, John Richter, and Bob Zeller, Center for Civil War Photography, 2009, p. 18). LOC LC-DIG-cwpb-04748 (digital file from original neg.)

At this stage in Dupont’s efforts to reduce the rebel defenses at Charleston, Fort Wagner was bombarded daily until it was evacuated by the Confederates on 6 September when his ships then turned their attention to Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie, operating for the rest of the year against these fortifications which guarded the “Cradle of the Rebellion.”

The event was reported in The Illustrated London News, as “Iron clad frigate New Ironsides and two Ericsson batteries going into action at Charleston,” complete with a much more romantic depiction. 

Hant-tinted copy of a line engraving by Smyth, depicting USS New Ironsides and two monitors in action at Charleston, South Carolina, circa 1863. Courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. NH 85573-KN

Patrick O’Brien has done a more contemporary work.

Cannon Row at Fort Moultrie

Posted on by Leave a comment

(Photo: NPS/Johnson)

Via the National Park Service:

Cannon Row at Fort Moultrie is home to eight pieces of heavy artillery original to Charleston Harbor. Each piece has a story to tell of ingenuity, technology, and resourcefulness. Cannon Row includes a 13-inch seacoast mortar, two 10-inch Rodmans, a 10-inch Confederate Columbiad, a 10-inch Columbiad that was rifled and banded during the war, an 8-inch Parrott, a 10-inch Parrott, and the 7-inch triple-banded Brooke Rifle. Of the 8 pieces, the rifled and banded Columbiad and the Brooke are the most unique.

The modified Columbiad was originally a Union piece and then was captured by the Confederates during the surrender of Fort Sumter in 1861. At a later date, the gun was hit at least twice by artillery and became unserviceable. Beauregard sent the piece to be rifled by a private firm in Charleston. It was outfitted with a bronze trunnion band bearing the initials “CS.” When the gun was recaptured by the Union, they very crudely carved a “US” into the band.

The triple-banded Brooke, now at Fort Moultrie, is the only one surviving of the three ever cast. Thanks to its hard-hitting, iron-penetrating bolts, the gun became a favorite for the soldiers on Sullivan’s Island and a terror for the Union Navy.

Pictured above is Fort Moultrie’s cannon row with an impending thunderstorm in the background.

 

It’s been a cold winter already

Posted on by Leave a comment

Not a typical South Carolina day: Fort Moultrie, Saturday, January 6, 2018, closed due to ice and snow. Photo: NPS/Byrnes.

 

And just like that, it was gone

Posted on by One comment

Below is a 10-inch (254mm) Watervliet M1888MI rifle on an M1896 disappearing carriage at Battery Jasper on Fort Moultrie Sullivan’s Island during World War II, as manned by the U.S. Army’s Coastal Artillery. The battery was named after SGT. William Jasper, 2nd South Carolina Regiment, who, during the attack of the British fleet on Fort Sullivan in 1776, heroically restored to the fort the flag which had been shot away by a ball from a RN ship.

Per Ft. Moultrie NPS:

Battery Jasper on Sullivan’s Island was completed in 1898 and boasted four 10-inch guns mounted on “disappearing” carriages. A 55-ton counterweight moved the gun to its firing position en barbette. The recoil from firing the 571-pound shell lowered the gun behind the protective, 80-foot thick embankment where it could safely be serviced and reloaded. Though it took 43 men to load and fire a gun, a skilled crew could aim and fire it every 30 seconds. The 10-inch disappearing could fire an armor-piercing shot 8.5 miles.

Today, there are no 10-inch guns at Battery Jasper. They were taken out of service and scrapped for the war effort in 1943. However, visitors can tour one of the gun positions and follow the steps the crew would have taken to fire one of these impressive guns.