Ironclad Waters: The Union Navy Failure at Charleston Harbor

by Paul Francis Brown

On April 7th 1863. The Union Navy steamed toward Charleston Harbor with nine ironclad ships intending to intimidate the city and its citizens into surrender. Instead, the Confederate Batteries on Fort Sumter and other points along the shore dealt the Union an embarrassing rebuke. Loss of life was limited to one sailor but loss of face for the North was beyond measure. Who was to blame for such an embarrassing turn? Was it Gustavus Fox? The ambitious but unremarkable Assistant Secretary of the Navy, who selected Charleston to appease his desire for revenge, or was it Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont? The aristocratic naval hero of the North's first stunning naval victory at Port Royal.

From the opening shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter to the confrontation at Hampton Roads between the ironclads Monitor and Merrimac, both historic events in Civil War history that Gustavus Fox personally witnessed. To DuPont's heroic capture of Port Royal. This book chronicles the events and the personalities that led to the Union Navy fiasco at Charleston Harbor. A fiasco driven by the pride and ego of powerful men who blindly planned an attack on Charleston Harbor for the wrong reasons. An ambitious, overreaching plan, born of flawed men and their motives and destined to fail from untested and untried technology. History has long told the story of what happened to the Union Navy at Charleston Harbor that day in April 1863. This book goes a step further and explains why the fiasco at Charleston Harbor happened. This book takes a fresh look at a long ago battle at Charleston Harbor, a mission that was attempted to end the war with a Union victory but instead exemplified Confederate resolve.

107 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2015