The Ironclad Assault on Charleston Part III (April 7-After, 1863)

The sinking of the Keokuk as illustrated in Harper's Weekly

Charleston Stands

It seemed to the Federals that the Confederates were unfazed. This was almost true, and the Charleston defenders had reason to be elated. Losses at Fort Moultrie were paltry. When he took a boat over there, General Ripley learned that the most considerable damage was done to the flagstaff. It had been cut by enemy shot, the top part falling down and crushing a Private Lusby. Lusby soon died from his injury. The Confederates defiantly set their regimental flag on the traverse to replace the one that had fallen. The other casualty at this spot was a gunner, Private Harrison, who accidentally lost a finger while helping push his gun into place.[1]

Indeed, Confederate losses were light, especially in terms of men. An ammunition chest exploded in Battery Wagner, killing 4 men and wounding 4 others. Fort Sumter, which was hit about 55 times, can be said to have had the worst of it. One Columbiad exploded and flew back into the parade grounds, and a rifled 42-pound piece was put out of action not by enemy fire, but by a defective gun carriage that was crushed by the recoil of the gun. Six men, one of them a slave or free black, were hit by debris from shattered brick and wood. Major Echols, one of the engineers, added, “Nearly all the window panes and some of the sashes in the fort were broken by concussion.”[2] Total Confederate losses in manpower mounted to 4 dead and 10 wounded.[3]

The Ironclad Assault on Charleston Part II (April 7, 1863)

 

With Du Pont's attack force of 9 ironclad warships steaming towards the harbor, both sides were ready for the possibility of their success. Confederate war ships were waiting further back in the harbor. The most formidable were the Chicora and Palmetto State, both ironclads. For their part the Union had wooden ships waiting to join once the ironclads had done their part. Neither of these groups would act unless the ironclads made it past Fort Sumter.[1]

Storm in the Harbor

The Confederates knew the ironclads were coming, and they worked on ensuring that their batteries and works were ready for battle. At 2 PM the enemy fleet began to advance up the channel, and the South Carolinians waited expectantly for them to get into range. General Roswell S. Ripley, commanding the defense, had personally gone to Fort Sumter as it was sure to be the epicenter of the battle.[2] Frank Vizetelly, a British journalist, waited like the Confederate defenders, and reported on the appearance of the oncoming ironclads:

There they came, their turrets whirling in a waltz of death. Cautiously they worked their way up the ship channel, and, as I watched their approach through my glass, I could hear the thumping of my heart against my ribs…Every house is pouring out its inmates, eager to witness the engagement: ladies, in almost gala costume, are hastening to the battery promenade, from whence an unobstructed view of the harbor and forts, and of the enemy’s fleet, can be obtained. There is no terror expressed in any of these countenances – all are calm and collected; they are going to witness the bravery of their defenders.[3]

Frank Vizetelly was a traveling British journalist. At the start of the American Civil War he attended the Union Army, but then went South to report from the Confederate side. He grew so like the Confederates so much that he began to label the conflict the more secession-friendly "War Between the States." (https://emergingcivilwar.com/2012/04/04/drawing-the-war-part-3-frank-vizetelly/)

In Fort Sumter, as the defenders assembled for action and the flags were raised, the band struck up “Dixie,” though there’s no record that the Union seamen could hear it. However, they must have heard the 13-gun salute, either a humorous attempt to treat the battle like a gala occasion or a chivalric salute to the enemy.[4]

The Ironclad Assault on Charleston Part I (Leading up to April 7, 1863)

Charleston, South Carolina was the birthplace of the Confederacy. It was there that delegates from across the state successfully voted to secede on December 24, 1860. Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard found himself overseeing the bombardment of Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. This initiated the Civil War and gave the Northern states more reason to despise the city. Beauregard would go on to command at Bull Run and in Western Tennessee, but in September 1862 would return to the city that made him a nationwide name.

Beauregard’s engineering expertise arrived just in time. Surprisingly the Union Navy had made no firm attempt to take the rebellious city, instead seizing other ports. But as 1862 progressed it finally began to tighten its grip, and the Army mounted a failed expedition in July. Still absent was a major naval assault. It would finally come on April 7, 1863. Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, a lifelong sea man who had joined the Navy at age 12 in 1815, would try to force Charleston Harbor with the latest in naval machines, the Jon Ericsson-designed ironclad monitors. Du Pont would pay the price for the hubris and unrealistic expectations of his political superiors.

The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 2

If you have not read the first half, look here.

Below are two images from reenactments of the battle. I doubt they recreate the massacre for family audiences.

Final Push

On the Union left Companies C and I, 1^st Kansas Colored, saw about a hundred men in blue coats pass along their front. They assumed they were from the 2^nd Kansas Cavalry as well as sharpshooters from the 18^th Iowa. They were soon corrected when hundreds of Confederate cavalry appeared alongside them Cabell had ordered Crawford, who to this point had only skirmished, to move all of his available men forward. Gibbons “immediately ordered the men to fire, which was kept up for a few minutes only, but with such effect as to check the enemy’s advance.” Among the men commended in Gibbons’ report was First Sergeant Berry, a black officer who urged his men to think of freedom and hold their place.[1]

Gibbons ordered his men 60 yards back. They fired a volley, but made another withdrawal when they saw the rest of the regiment in retreat. Crawford’s Confederates “moved rapidly and steadily forward, firing volley upon volley” at the black troops. Gibbons attempted to mount his horse. He tripped on his saber halfway up and the horse “became scared and dragged me about 5 yards.” His infantry left him behind and he was left alone against the on-rush of screaming Rebels. “I need not say I mounted quick and rode away quicker.”[2]

Alan Taylor's American Republics

Taylor, Alan. American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783-1850. W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.

American Republics is the third entry in Alan Taylor's ongoing history of the United States (following American Colonies and American Revolutions). He uses the plural form of Republic because he argues that the United States was hardly a united front, with various ideas for what the nation should be. The most obvious divide was between free-soiler Northerners and pro-slavery Southerners. However many reformers, religious outliers, Abolitionists, and others further added to a dazzling array of variants on the American ideal. Many Americans, and Indian Peoples as well, even struck out to create their own independent republics (Mormons, Texans, and Cherokees are among the notable examples), though all eventually fell into the United States anyways. Taylor also shows how shaky the American Republic was in its early years. It struggled economically and was battered by established empires, foremost Britain's. Internal strife frequently led it to the brink of disunion as different geographic and political sections pursued differing agendas. The book ends with the Compromise of 1850, which did ward off Civil War, but also heightened tensions to the point that it caused one anyways ten years later.

Taylor also gets into the history of America's neighbors, such as Canada and Spanish Florida. These are among the strongest parts of the book, contextualizing America within a wider continental history (as the title promises), and providing some inroads into other countries' histories for more curious readers Another strength is the collection of various unique characters, many little known even to history buffs. In addition to well-known monumental figures ranging from Henry Clay to Frederick Douglass to Andrew Jackson, Taylor treats us to would-be republic founder William Bowles (77-80) to humanitarian slaveholder Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr. (150-155) to William and Ellen Craft, a slave couple who posed as male master and valet to escape to the North (374-375). This makes for an expansive and colorful collection of characters and stories within 400 highly readable pages. American Republics serves as a wonderful starting point to find topics to investigate.

The Poison Spring Massacre (April 18, 1864) part 1

 

On April 18, 1864, the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment faced its worst day. A foraging expedition turned into a desperate battle, and the battle concluded with their heaviest losses. While many of the former slaves and their white officers fell in combat, the worst came after the battle had been lost. The wounded were targeted for a racial and revenge-motivated killing spree at the hands of the victors. The Battle of Poison Spring was not the largest battle of General Frederick Steele’s Camden Expedition in Arkansas, but it gained an infamous place in Civil War history. Arkansas citizens in the area did not call it a battle, but the Poison Spring Massacre. It helped usher in 1864 as perhaps the cruelest year of the Civil War.

The Northern Hook

The Camden Expedition was in fact part of the Red River Campaign. Major-General Henry W. Halleck, Chief-of-Staff of the Army, was determined to see the conquest of Texas and its cotton bundles. General Ulysses Grant, recently promoted to Lieutenant-General over all Federal forces, had wanted Major-General Nathaniel Banks (one of several notoriously incompetent political generals), to descend upon Mobile, Alabama, one of the last functioning major ports in the South. Halleck, however, won his case for Banks to advance on Texas instead. There were legitimate military objectives. Texas, largely untouched beyond its Gulf coastline, contained vast amounts of cattle and other supplies that it could still slip east past the Union-occupied Mississippi River. Also, the Lincoln Administration still feared that the French, waging their war in Mexico just to the south, might still potentially form an alliance with the Confederacy. A large Federal presence in Texas could dissuade this. More controversially there were political and economic motives as well. Lincoln hoped to install a pro-Union government in conquered Texan territory that would of course in turn hold pro-Lincoln voters. Above all the Federals coveted Texas’ vast amounts of cotton. Since Texas had a land border with Mexico, it could bypass the Union naval blockade and send cotton directly to French and Mexican middlemen.

The Battle of Honey Springs (July 17, 1863)

Honey Springs is the third significant battle of the 1^st Kansas Colored Regiment. It was a direct and much larger follow-up to the Battle at Cabin Creek. In fact it has gone down in history as the largest battle in Indian Territory with at least 6,000 participants. Some have also called it the “Gettysburg of Indian Territory.” Not only did it take place shortly after that famed battle, it effectively ended any Confederate dominance in the region, save for a few major raids in the future. Finally the battle has been noted for its ethnic diversity. In addition to the black troops in the 1^st Kansas both sides sported various Indian units. It was truly a polyglot fight in which whites fought for the future of the American vision, blacks fought for freedom and equality, and Indians fought for self-determination.

Quick Action Required

The 1^st Kansas’ entry into Indian Territory at the Battle of Cabin Creek gave them ample opportunities to prove themselves in further battle. However, Indian Territory was rarely covered in the wider national press, so their contributions would go unnoticed by most Northerners. Also, despite having fought in two sizeable engagements since their inception, they still drew the racial prejudice of their fellow white soldiers. Captain Nicholas Earle of Company F remembered that the 2^nd Colorado Infantry, made up of rough-hewn white westerners, “treated us with contempt.”[1]

James G. Blunt

Major General James Blunt, recently arrived in Indian Territory, began his campaign with a halved department. Major General John M. Schofield, his superior, placed his eastern half along the Missouri border under General Thomas Ewing. Blunt and his Kansan political ally James Lane were angry and saw the need to boost the former’s standing with a quick victory. As luck would have it, military events necessitated speedy action. William Phillips’ scouts (from his Union Indian Brigade) saw that Confederate General William Cabell, having missed his rendezvous with Brigadier General Douglas Cooper for the Battle of Cabin Creek, was still approaching with 3,000 troops from Arkansas. Cherokee women came to Fort Gibson on ponies and passed on further observations about the movements and size of the Arkansan force.[2]

The Battle of Island Mound (October 29, 1862)

Well before the 54^th Massachusetts stormed Fort Wagner and well before contrabands-turned-soldiers repulsed a Confederate assault at Milliken’s Bend, a regiment of black soldiers, many of them only recently escaped from slavery, fought and bled against Rebel forces, near the Kansas-Missouri border. Far from the central command in Washington D.C., Unionists in the Trans-Mississippi were able to act somewhat independently. This unfortunately resulted in violent guerilla bands called Jayhawkers, who entered into a mutual war of terror with Rebel Bushwhackers. There was a positive, however, the first regiment of black soldiers. This unit, the 1^st Kansas Colored, was hastily formed and entered into battle before Lincoln even authorized the creation of black regiments. Their trial of fire was the Battle of Island Mound, a furious skirmish with Confederate partisans in western Missouri.

This battle is mostly known simply for being the first use of a full black regiment in a Civil War battle. There are scant sources on it and actual primary sources can be counted on one hand. I plan to make this an ongoing series that covers the battle history of the 1^st Kansas. Not only was it the first true, if unauthorized, black regiment to fight for the Union, it fought in the Trans-Mississippi theatre (my area of focus), and in contrast to the more famous 54^th Massachusetts actually had a good win-loss record.