34
The two operations left the admiral impressed with the great value of theresisting power of the monitors, but revealed some of their points of weak-ness, and satisfied him that their power had been overrated by the NavyDepartment, and that he should need as many of them as the departmentcould give him to take Charleston . He fully appreciated the great desire ofthe Government to repossess that city, and he addressed himself earnestlyand loyally to carry out his Government’s wish. He expressed no doubtseven to his most confidential officers, and did his best with the means sup-plied. The Assistant Secretary had written to him repeatedly that such ves-sels could steam into Charleston harbor and come out unharmed, that eventhe original monitor could do so; to use his own words, “can go all over theharbor and return with impunity. She is absolutely impregnable.” Hissanguine temperament had led him to imaginations that were not destinedto be fulfilled; for even after Admiral Du Pout’s brave and ambitious suc-cessor, Admiral Dalilgren, the foremost gunnery officer of the navy, hadsecured a greater number of monitors, and after the army had takenBattery Wagner by regular approaches, had captured all the batteries onMorris Island, and had reduced Port Sumter to a heap of ruins, no monitorever ventured to pass into the harbor and attempt to take Charleston by thepurely naval attack which Admiral Du Pont had declared impracticable.
It had always been the opinion of Admiral Du Pont that the attack onCharleston should be a combined effort by the army and the navy, and whenhe visited Washington, in the fall of 1862, lie stated to the Navy Department
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