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International Journal of Naval History
On the morning of
April 7 1863, a small but powerful squadron of Union ironclads waited
impatiently inside the bar of Charleston harbour to begin the long-expected
attack against Fort Sumter—if not also against the city beyond. Here was where
the great ‘Rebellion’ began.
It
was not until noon of April 7th that the New Ironsides, the flagship
of the Union squadron, finally hoisted the signal to weigh anchor and proceed
with DuPont’s pre-arranged order of battle: line-ahead, with the monitors
Weehawken, Passaic, Montauk, and Patapsco; New Ironsides at the middle of the
formation (to better facilitate signalling during the action); followed by the
monitors Catskill, Nantucket, and Nahant; with the experimental, twin
‘fixed-turret’-ram U.S.S. Keokuk bringing up the rear. The ships were to
navigate between forts Sumter and Moultrie, firing “when within easy range”, to
a position “six…to eight hundred yards” off Sumter’s northwest face. “After the
reduction of Fort Sumter,” the plan concluded somewhat vaguely, “it is probable
that the next point of attack will be the batteries on Morris island.”
On the 5th of
April, the enemy’s force had materially increased
in the Stono and the North Edisto. His iron-clads, including the
frigate New Ironsides, and eight monitors had crossed the outer
bar and cast anchor in the main channel. No doubt could be
had of their intention.
Two days later on the 7th a date ever memorable in the
annals of the late war, the signal for the attack on Fort Sumter,
so long anticipated and so long delayed, was finally given.
First steamed up, in line, one following the other, the Weehawken, the Passaic,
the Montauk and the Patapsco; four single-turreted monitors. The New Ironsides,
the flagship of the fleet, came next. Then came the Catskill, the Nantucket, the
Nahant; three other single-turreted monitors. The double-turreted Keokuk was the
eighth, and closed
the line.
The first
turret opened fire at five minutes past three, and moved backward, thus
developing their maneuver of attack. . . . The second turret passed first fired,
moved backward; the first moved forward, passed the second, fired, and backed,
then retired from action; the other turrets maneuvering in the same relative
manner, each time nearing or receding a little from the fort, in order not to
present a permanent target. . . . The Keokuk sank off the south end of Morris
Island, at half-past eight o’clock the following morning (Apr11 8). Her
smoke-stack and turrets are now visible at low water. From her wreck floated
ashore a book, a spy-glass, and pieces of furniture bespattered with blood, and
small fragments of iron sticking in them. -
The firing of the turrets was timed; they discharged generally at intervals of
ten minutes. - . - Allowing six of them constantly engaged, they delivered
eighty-seven shots; one fired twice and retired; the Keokuk fired three or four
times, and the Ironsides about seventeen making the total number fired by the
enemy about one hundred and ten, which were principally
directed at Sumter.* her walls show the effect of fifty-five missiles shot,
shells and fragments.
The action lasted two hours and twenty-five minutes; but the chief
dam-
age is reported by the enemy to have been done in thirty minutes. The
Keokuk did not come nearer than nine hundred yards of Fort Sumter. She
was destroyed. The New Ironsides could not stand the fire at the range of a
mile. Four of her consorts, monitors, were disabled at the distance of not less
than thirteen hundred yards. They had only reached the gorge of the harbor,
never within it, and were baffled and driven back before reaching our lines
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