Charleston Harbor

On April 7, 1863, Union naval forces clashed with Confederate defenders in the waters near Charleston, South Carolina, in what became known as the First Battle of Charleston Harbor. Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont led nine ironclad vessels, seven of which were monitors built as upgraded successors to the original USS Monitor, straight toward the fortifications guarding the harbor entrance. A body of Union Army troops accompanied the expedition but played no part in the actual fighting. Officials within the Navy Department back in Washington had high hopes that this assault would prove a triumphant vindication of ironclad warfare, demonstrating that heavily armed armored vessels could overpower fortifications built along conventional lines.

For this mission, Du Pont commanded seven vessels of the Passaic class, the formidable New Ironsides, and the untested ironclad Keokuk. So much emphasis was placed on this operation that other naval efforts elsewhere were pushed aside as resources flowed toward the Charleston campaign. Extensive preparations preceded the engagement, and the attack finally moved forward once tidal patterns and visibility proved favorable. However, the monitors proved sluggish, reaching their positions only late in the day, and Du Pont was forced to call off the assault once the tide shifted against him.

The bombardment itself lasted under two hours, yet the fleet failed to break through even the outermost layer of harbor defenses. When the ships withdrew, one vessel was taking on water and near sinking, while the majority of the remaining ships had suffered damage of some kind. Casualties on the Union side amounted to one sailor killed and twenty-one wounded. Confederate forces, meanwhile, lost five soldiers killed and eight wounded. Following discussions with his ship captains afterward, Du Pont came to believe that his fleet stood little chance of achieving victory, and as a result, he chose not to resume the attack when morning came.

Battle

Du Pont settled on early April for launching his assault, timing it to catch the spring tides that came with the full moon.

As the chosen date approached, the Navy Department introduced something new. Du Pont had repeatedly voiced concern about torpedoes lurking in the harbor, so the department turned to John Ericsson, the man behind the monitor design, to devise a countermeasure. He produced a raft built from heavy timbers, meant to be fastened to a ship's bow. Grappling hooks on each raft were meant to catch and pull up the mooring lines of enemy torpedoes, and the raft also carried its own torpedo so it could blast a path through any obstacles. Two of these contraptions were constructed and shipped to South Carolina before the attack began. But once Du Pont's captains weighed how the rafts would affect steering and handling, none wanted them fastened to their vessels. The onboard torpedo was especially unsettling, given that ships would likely collide in the narrow, current-swept channel. Captain John

Aftermath

Navy Secretary Welles took the setback hard. Given how few men had fallen and how hesitant Du Pont had seemed beforehand, he initially suspected the assault had been carried out half-heartedly. Only when John Rodgers, a man widely regarded as capable and hard-driving, backed Du Pont's assessment did Welles begin to reconsider his stance. Rodgers argued, and Welles ultimately accepted, that the navy alone lacked the means to seize Charleston. Success would demand a joint effort, army and navy working in concert.

Welles came to agree that Du Pont's judgment about Charleston had been sound, yet the rift between the two men could not be mended. On June 3 he relieved the admiral of command, first naming Rear Admiral Andrew H. Foote as his successor. Foote never truly recovered from wounds suffered at Fort Donelson, however, and death claimed him before he could take up the post. Reluctantly, Welles then handed the naval side of the Charleston campaign to Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren.

Unlike their commander, Du Pont's captains emerged from the failed campaign with their careers intact. Seven went on to reach the rank of rear admiral: John and C. R. P. Rodgers, along with Ammen, Fairfax, Turner, Worden, and Rhind. Drayton was named Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, a post that would have brought him the same rank, but a heart attack killed him while his Senate confirmation was still pending. George W. Rodgers, considered among the fleet's finest captains, lost his life in a later assault on the city.

The blockade of Charleston went on, with the monitors and New Ironsides remaining part of the effort, though the ironclads never again struck the same fear into Confederate defenders as before the attack. Every one of them stayed engaged in the ongoing campaign against the city.

Even after going down, the Keokuk played a further role in the conflict. She rested in water shallow enough that her smokestack still broke the surface, revealing exactly where she lay. Adolphus W. LaCoste, a civilian from Charleston working for the Confederate government, managed to recover her two 11-inch guns from the wreck. Operating under cover of darkness, he and his men avoided detection by the blockading ships altogether, and Du Pont learned nothing of the salvage until the Charleston Mercury printed the news.