Abstract
Geomorphology dictated Union strategy during the Federal campaign to reduce Fort Sumter and capture Charleston, South Carolina during 1862. After the Union army captured Stono Inlet, they had several approaches to Charleston available across the Modern, Holocene, and Late-Pleistocene barrier-island complexes south of the city. The first Federal attempt to breach the Confederate defensive lines around the city was stymied when an assault against a Confederate sand fortification, which was positioned across an ancient beach ridge and flanked by marshes, failed miserably. A year later another more massive assault failed on a much younger barrier-island beach in an identical manner. Quincy Gillmore’s land-based artillery, along with naval support, relentlessly bombard Confederate Battery Wagner before a 6000-man strong infantry assault attempted to captured the fortification. Battery Wagner was sited on the narrowest part of Morris Island, and it spanned from ocean to marsh, perpendicular to the waterfront and facing the only viable approach for the Union infantry. Marsh mud prohibited attack from the west, and the Atlantic Ocean barred attack from the east. As a result, the Union direction of attack was entirely predictable, and would have to take place across a narrow beach with no cover. Gillmore’s massive preemptory bombardment proved effectively useless against the sand fortification, and his infantry assault was cut to pieces as it crossed the thin neck of sediment in front of the Battery. More than any significant engagement of the Civil War, geology benefited the defense, and Confederacy, on almost every scale during the Union attempts to capture Morris Island and during the siege of Charleston.
“The fort is now as silent as a natural sand bank, which, indeed, it much resembles”
—Major T.B. Brooks, Assistant Engineer, describing Battery Wagner after the Union bombardments of August, 1863.
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Notes
- 1.
Union studies of the northernmost channel, Maffit’s Channel, indicated that the path of the deepest water changed from year to year by as much as 50 m during the 1850s. Deep-draft ships, even during peacetime, were constantly in danger of running aground in the narrow channels.
- 2.
These same strong currents sandblasted and mechanically eroded the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley after it sank in 1864. Later, shifting currents and sediment diverted by the construction of harbor jetties buried the submarine until it was discovered and raised 125 years later.
- 3.
The origin of the name “Secessionville” is somewhat controversial. The name has been attributed to the secession of several James Island farmers from the town of Johnsonville long before the Civil War. However, more recent research has indicated that the name was not used until very soon after December 20, 1860 (Cote 1985; Trinkley and Hacker 1997). The proximity to Fort Sumter and the timing of the first use of the name certainly suggests a link to the Rebel cause.
- 4.
Nevertheless, the “citadel” was only lightly guarded by the Union as he formulated his plans.
- 5.
Geologically, this isn’t far-fetched. Imagine, for example, if the diabase outcrops in Devil’s Den covered a larger, somewhat linear area with a single pathway possible through the rugged rocks.
- 6.
Atkins (2008) estimates that Longstreet suffered around 4400 of the 6000 casualties on the Confederate right on July 2, and the Union Army lost around 9000 men.
- 7.
An attack from south towards Charleston Harbor was favorable because of the capture of first Port Royal (to the south) and Stono Inlet (to the south). An approach from the north on Isle of Palms or Sullivan’s Island offered even fewer options for maneuver.
- 8.
Although brick rubble on Fort Sumter proved surprisingly effective at shielding Confederate infantry and artillery after the fort had been repeatedly bombarded and reduced. The brick fragments became, in essence, irregularly-shaped cobbles that could be piled and formed into rudimentary earthworks.
- 9.
It is not entirely clear if this sand was piled by engineers with the intent to add protection to the masonry walls or if it had been deposited through natural (storm) processes. Either way it was left in place to protect against incoming naval gunfire.
- 10.
Quartz has a hardness of seven on the Moh’s scale of mineral hardness, making it harder than feldspar and almost as hard as gemstones like topaz or corundum (ruby or sapphire).
- 11.
Some of this diverted sediment almost certainly helped to bury and hide the missing Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley.
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Catton, B. (1960). The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (630p). Rockville, MD: American Heritage Publishing.
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McPherson, J. M. (1988). Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (905p). New York: Ballantine Books.
Nosworthy, B. (2003). The bloody crucible of courage: Fighting methods and combat experience of the Civil War (753p). New York: Carroll and Graf.
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Hippensteel, S. (2019). Morris Island. In: Rocks and Rifles. Advances in Military Geosciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00877-2_12
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