6
built for the protection of Charleston harbor . That this appreciation was notexaggerated has been shown by many results accomplished at a subsequentdate by torpedo-boats in our own war and in naval encounters betweenforeign nations, notably during the late Franco-Chinese war. |
There were two Confederate gun-boats (iron-clad rams) at that time inCharleston, the Palmetto State and the Chicora. Lieutenant-Commander JohnRutledge, C. S. N., commanded the first, and Captain John R. Tucker , C. S. N.,
commanded the second. Besidesthese there were three small har-bor steamers, to be used as ten-ders for them. The PalmettoState and the Chicora were, un-fortunately, of too heavy adraught to be of much practicaluse in the defense of the harbor.They were also lacking in mo-tive power, consequently inspeed ; and their guns, on ac-count of the smallness of theport-holes, could not be suffi-ciently elevated, and were of but very short range. Ably officered andmanned as they were known to be, they proved of real service only onceduring the whole siege of Charleston .
While our work of armament and of general preparation was progress-ing on all points of the department, it occurred to me that our two gun-boats, inferior as they were in many respects, could, nevertheless, by abold night attack on the wooden fleet of the enemy, cause considerabledamage and compel it to leave its anchorage outside the bar; and thetime to do it, I suggested, was before the threatened arrival of the Fed-eral monitors.[I Commodore Ingraham\ agreed with me, and immediatelyordered the attack. It took place on the early morning of January 31st. ☆The Palmetto State , on board of which, for the occasion, was CommodoreIngraham himself, steamed out directly toward the Federal fleet, followed bythe Chicora , and fell upon and fired into the steamer Mercedita before thelatter had fully realized the peril she was in. Disabled and reported to be
CASTLE PINCKNEY, CHARLESTON HARBOR.
4 . It is "but simple justice to add that from thefirst experiments made, in April, 1861, againstPort Sumter with an iron-clad floating battery andan iron-clad land battery, the respective inven-tions of Captain John Randolph Hamilton, for-merly of the U. S. N. , and of Mr. C. H. Stevens,afterward brigadier-general in the Confederatearmy, and both from South Carolina , is attributa-ble also the revolution in naval architecture andarmaments by which iron-clad war vessels haveentirely superseded the now almost obsoletewooden men-of-war.— G. T. B.
j> The blockading-fleet off Charleston consisted,at this time, of the Powhatan, Canandaigua, I-Iousa-tonic, Unadilla, Mercedita, Keystone State, Memphis ,
Stettin, Ottawa, Flag, Quaker City, and Augusta .The Powhatan, Canandaigua, and Jfonsatonie werethe strongest vessels in the fleet.— Editors.
\Commodore Duncan N. Ingraham, formerly ofthe United States Navy . ITo was at one timeChief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrographyin the Navy Department, and was popularly knownfor his successful interference while in commandof the St. Louis , in the harbor of Smyrna, resultingin the release from a Turkish prison of MartinIvoszta, a Hungarian refugee who had declaredliis intention of becoming a citizen of the UnitedStates.— Editors.
•fc The Powhatan and Canandaigua were absentat the time, coaling, at Port Royal.— 'Editors.