[applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] civil war, union forces repeatedly targeted the port of charleston, South Carolina, using a variety of tactics, including new naval warships. , ironclad historian steven wise talks about the seize of charleston. The various artillery methods the role of blockade runners in keeping charleston supplied. Hosted by the South Carolina historical society. It runs about an hour and 10 minutes. Good evening. Im faye jansen. Like to thank everyone for joining us. Id also like to thank the board managers of the society for sponsoring this event tonight. There will be refreshments afterwards and you can thank our board for those. The union series, alan nevin points out that the federal assault on charleston was planned for both reasons. And military he writes that the seizure of of the confiden confederacy, would humiliate every follower and exalt every northern heart. Were going to hear about this Important Campaign tonight from finestSouth Carolinas historians. Is professorgar emeritus at the university of South Carolina where he began 1972. Ng in he has written or edited more a dozen books on the american south, including the encyclopedia, South Carolina history, coats, thend red southern conflict that turned the tide of the american revolution, and South Carolina in the modern age. He has also contributed numerous essays and reviews to professional publications and has delivered hundreds of talks to school, civic and community groups. Dr. Edgar was the founder and director of the universitys Public History Program and served as the institute fore southern studies. Since 2000, he has been the host weekly programs radio. H carolina e tv walter edgars journal and read. Rn we were fortunate to have dr. Edgar serve as president of of therd of managers South Carolina historical society. In 2009, he was inducted into carolina hall of fame in honor of his outstanding contributions to the state. 2010, he was inducted into the South Carolina higher fame, whichll of recognizes individuals who have one a Lasting Impact university education. Dr. Edgar is dr. Stephen wise. Mastersreceived his degree from Bowling Green and his ph. D. From the university of carolina. He is the director of the Parris Island museum and an instructor at the university of South Carolina. A wellknown civil war dr. Wise has authored a number of books and articles, lifeline of the confederacy, blockade running war, and gateil of hell, the campaign for 1863. Ston he is currently working on the ofond volume of the hifor histy beaufort county. Lectureris a popular who has appeared frequently on channel. E discovery and fortunately for us, he also ofves on the Editorial Board the South Carolina historical magazine. Welcome walter edgar and stephen wise. [applause] steve, before we get started, faye also mentioned the occupants. Books. But somebody asked me, what books would they read about the charleston . And i said, well, if you want to go back, first thing you need to is look at burtons occupant b, which has been around for a while. And then lifeline of the confederacy and gate of hell, by steve wise. Steve, the siege of now, when it began matter up for discussion. Tenscovered maybe eight of possible dates. Did it start on december 26, the Union Occupation of fort sumter . When the blockade was proclaimed in april . Start in may 1861 when blockade ship came . Some people have dates after that, but i think it gets a little dicey. Everything is confusing, yes. Youve got three possible dates. Youre the man who is the expert in naval history and blockade. Ly the when would you lets settle this once and for all in charleston. When did the siege actually begin . Boy, i cant even answer that one. I like to put the siege starting when the federals occupied port royal, november 7, 1861. Federal troops within 40 air miles of charleston. It allows them to increase the blockade off charleston. It also gives them a pac base fm which they can launch both land and sea assaults against charleston. Almost immediately, when the federals occupied port royal sound. To remember, its a whole new time of warfare. Blockadeto carry out a of the confederate coast, you need coaling stations. In the war, the United States actually set up you could argue the first of staff board to dear out cary out a strategy to defeat the confederacy. With a concept of blockading the south and establishing coaling stations could findwarships refuge, be refueled and carry out a much tighter blockade of coast. As they chose port royal site to establish a naval base, guarded by an army installation, blockade. Ut this they actually chose it before the confederates even started building their fortify cases, the guard, port royal sound. 1861, aovember 7, fleet, the largest fleet up to u. S. History, 15 warships, will seize port royal sound. The sea islands will be abandoned by their owners. Be abandoned. Army troops will be landed on head. Then theyll establish this massive base from which they can launch attacks against charleston. And the commander of this Expeditionary Force was thomas west sherman. Sherman. Ot the hes sometimes called the other sherman. Underoor guy, he was direction almost immediately to capture charleston. Well, here he is with only 14,000 men at port royal. Yes, the naval base. To seize jackson, fernandina, saint augustine. But charleston was a symbol that won it. H and he almost the north wanted. Givenost immediately was out instructions, carry out an attack against charlotte. Quotedally, when faye alan nevin, who quoted somebody when he talked about charleston in the revolution, he would say, talking about the Sullivans Island i, he findthe british would charleston a tough nut to crack. It was. They sent sherman out to his engineers. Plan thatup with a called for landing troops on Sullivans Island and Morris Island. Sullivans island, didnt they fail once before . Did. M sure they im sure they studied all of that. Problem was, he only had about the campaignd called for about 30,000 men. And he wasnt going to get those 30,000 men. Its going to be out of port royal that all attacks against charleston will come from. Course, the naval blockade and even the naval attacks will originate. Some things people forget. They think about the blockade. Youve actually got the ships patrolling. But in december 1861, and what,y 1862, they sank, 30 ships loaded with stone to avenues and various passes into charleston . Yes. Port royal,eized information or directives came at thatadmiral dupont, time captain dupont, saying are going to be sending you stone fleet. These were old whalers that the United States government had loaded them up with granite from new england. They were to come down and supposed to sink them in the channels off of charleston. Dupont hated the idea. He called them white elephants. They didnt know really what to do with them. Followed orders. Went ahead and sank them in the main ship channel. Then another group came down a later and sank them off of Sullivans Island. Dupont could tell, the sinking of these vessels, granite helped scour out the channels to make them even deeper. [laughter] blockade runners could get them a little easier. Them into machine shops which he thought was a them. Etter purpose for you mentioned captain admiral dupont. 1863, he made a stab at fort sumter. Yes. Fascinating individual. He was sort of the aristocrat of the United States navy. He was on that blockade board. Hes one of the ones who helped design the blockade. Given command of the expedition to come down and seize this area. To his first cousin. No children. Day. E wrote her every and the letters are fascinating. He even writesd in french, if theres something he doesnt want everybody to read. But he leaves behind a tremendous amount of wonderful that describe it. He did not want to attack charleston. He said its just like a porcupine hide turned inside out. You couldnt get into charleston. And hes also a man of the old navy. A midshipman about the age of 12 or 14. In the big, tall, wooden vessels. He didnt like the ironclads. And hes being sent these monitors, these ironclads that be the weapon to of the age. The United StatesNaval Department thought these ironclads could do anything. And he sent down this is the largest ironclad fleet ever assemblied by the United States to come against charleston. Theres a great description of flagship, theis frigate. Hes standing there watching the first monitor come in. He said this little tiny raft comes in. Its being swept over by water. Said the crew comes out onto the deck. And they look like drowned rats. [laughter] and he said we can never use unless we can come up with iron sailors. Into thethat leads whole area of naval the development of Naval Warfare and technology. And so lets back up a little bit, because i think were going monitor, ift the were going to talk about that, weve got to talk about the of Hampton Roads in virginia, when both the confederacy and the union were coming up with ironclads. The confederacy, to break the blockade, an attempt to break not quite as good a design as the monitors. No. The first battle between steampowered ironclad vessels will be the virginia and the popularly known as the merrimack. The south,e from its the virginia. Yes. Its not the merrimack. New england, its the merrimack. Okay. Yes, sir. For those who dont know, the frigate sunk the at norfolk that they converted into the virginia. Yes. That goes out. Was designed as a large ram, though she didnt have very good engines, which was a problem with confederate ironclads. Monitor, which was the brainchild of the swedish inventor. So you had this very unusual, huge confederate ironclad, big armored casement coming out of the water. And this little tiny monitor turret that just spun around. Couldnt fire straight ahead or off the pilot house, but it could fire in other directions. Butmerrimack had a big ram it had already broken off the day before when it attacked some wooden vessels. They sparred for an entire day. Inconclusive battle. But after this point, each side begins building these styled ironclads. The confederacy, smaller versions of the virginia. The north turns out between 60 and 80 of these monitors during war. The confederacy turns out between 50 and 60 smaller versions of the virginia. A port wheren is they have an ironclad squadron. There the war is out, will be four active ironclads in two orton harbor with three more on the stocks. The two of they had two. The first two they built, one the palmetto state. The other was the jacora. Both were vessels built in. Harleston engines were taken out of other ships. They didnt have very good engines. The jacora was particularly vessel. Very slow it was said that the jacora took from thes to steam battery to fort johnson. [laughter] one said that a log floating in the tide could outrun it. Ironclads. Re and they will actually go out and attack the federal fleet, january 30, 1863. There were no Union Ironclads there. And they had plenty of time. I think they had six hours to get from the cooper river out to the mouth of the harbor. Minstral stroll. And they attack the federal fleet. State damages the union blockader. A largera takes on the keystoned state. And i have to do this. Im sorry. Story. To do this sidewheel vessels do not make the best warships, because you can imagine, you know i knew he was going to work it in. Do this. To and like comedians, historians steal from other historians, so i have to say im stealing this from craig simmons. Warships, the United States and most nations sidewheel vessels. Of course, if you hit a side wheel, it was a shot. It hurts. You cant do much. Jacora damaged the keystone state paddle wheel. The keystone state is coming along, loses a paddle wheel, so its kind of going like [laughter] the jacora was so slow, she catch the one paddle here of the keystone state. But, again, they could take on wooden vessels. Wooden vessels could get into the harbor, they would be very formidable. Armament. Ery good called brook cannons, massive rifled guns. The Confederate Navy believed in rifle guns, fired like a bulletlike projectile, weighing up to 200, 300 pounds that could enemy the side of an ship, hit engines, magazines and such. The north believed in firing great big round balls, weighing 440 pounds. They didnt care if they broke the armor of an enemy vessel. They just were going to pound it into submission. If you can imagine being inside iron case and a 440pound ship,its the side of your knocks out half the crew, splinters are thrown all over ship. Terior of the thats the main thing, because behind that iron are oak timbers. Like the danger in the navy on the wooden ships, it was not shot itself but from the splinters. You mentioned the engines which southernakness in ironclads. Tell us about the smokestack. Yeah. Riddled. K would get then you didnt have the draw coming back in and that would well down grately as greatly as well. In some battle, the smokestack literally fall off, it had been hit so many times. Thene thing is, yes, confederate ironclad is above water, but most of the and all ofow water the union ship is below water. Port holes. Youve got that turret and thats it. Youre off Charleston Harbor in the summer. Just stop and think about that. Were alwaystors wet. You could not stay dry in the monitors. Mean, they were theory erikson had this that rafts could ride over waves. Vat. Rked well in a wave doesnt work in reality. And waves go right over them. These just floods vessels. And theyre small crews, a littlefrom 80 to over 100 men. They got special pay for serving on monitors, because they were constantly wet. They couldnt see down in the hulls of these vessels, as says. They had some dead lights, some brought the deck that in some light. But it didnt do much at all. One officer who was stationed charleston wrote his wife and said, we have some Interesting Times when we have messes. Were given bowls of food. You cant see the roaches in them. Youhe said the bigger ones, can pick out. But the smaller ones, you just eat normally as you go through. It was suggested that the navy the rum ration. By this time, for the sailors. Had theirrs still wine mess. But the sailors did not. And it was thought maybe we should bring this back for the serving on board the monitors. The chief surgeon of the United States navy said, no, no, no. A mixture of warm oatmeal and be much better. I think they would have preferred the rum. They would have. All right. Weve got port royal. Weve got the blockade. Weve got dupont decides to at have a foray against fort sumter. Scares dupont the most and scares the men on the monitors and these are top officers. Dupont had was top officers. Family ofn charleston. One is bankhead, who took over the monitor after the commander monitor was wounded in the action against the virginia. But theyre scared to death these monitors have very buoyantness. And they know the generalates the comes and takes over in charleston in september of 1862. To try anything. One thing they do is place lace in the harbor and out in the main channel. Mines, floating what they torpedoes. If these torpedoes hit and detonated against a monitor, you had less than a minute to get out. Over and sink. One hit a mine in charleston went down with 64 of her men. I mean, it went over. It wasnt even a minute. Go down. Flip and so theyre very brave men. Minute. It an so when dupont sends his vessels she has a ship, something designed by erikson, contraption on her bow up theto catch and blow mines, the torpedoes, as they come into the harbor. Quite sure exactly what happened. It seems that it hit one mine. Up. And that was enough. Nobody was going to attempt to harbor. Charleston the commander eventually cuts this contraption and it floats off. And the ironclads dont even try Charleston Harbor, because of the mines. They take up a position to fort sumter. Its a very uneven match. Have these huge cannons. And, again, think about world we hadand such, when 16inch guns on board the new jersey and the later classes our battleships. Monitors during the civil war 15inch guns. And they could fire, again, a 440 pounds,g up to which they fired against fort sumter. Know that, and ive read that. Youve got that. But how does the crew load a cannonball into that gun . Allhe monitors are steampropelled, steamoperated. Designed inside them steam lifts that would lift up the powder and, again, the powder is quite heavy. Bring thesefts to shot and shells up from the hulls to the turrets. Turrets, you had around the turret, a blockandtackle system that would actually snap onto these they had little them. S in they would snap onto these balls and be manhandled over and into these huge guns. Time, almost five minutes, to fire one of these guns. Thats sort of what happened to them, when they come into Charleston Harbor. Off 162 shots, about 16,000 pounds of metal against fort sumter. The confederates get off from their cannons, which are just 2,000g the harbor, over of metal. 0,000 pounds and its just raining down on these monitors. Hold up under the bombardment. Decks, rips upir their decks, jams their turrets. Again, as walter mentioned, the vesselsnses inside these are knocking bolts loose. Ares about this big breaking off in the turret and whizzing around the turret, gunners. He after about four, five hours of this, they withdrew. And dupont gets these reports back from his officers. The monitors have all been quite roughly handled. A couple of them dropped out of battle. There was one vessel, she was not a monitor. A towerwhat they call ironclad. Had two towers