Charleston Civil War Naval & Maritime Operations

Part of Civil War @ Charleston Website

This page gathers the rapidly expanding collection of information about the war on and beneath the waves in and around Charleston.

Charleston's Naval war is notable for the significant involvement of the Navy in operations against the Harbor defenses including the first large scale use of ironclad vessels in an assualt on forts, the first submarine attack and extensive blockade running activities. The navy figures in virtually every military operation by either side undertaken here.

War at Flood Tide, May 9-11, 1997

This major living history event at Patriots Point and On Charleston Harbor will present a Lantern Tour to benefit the Hunley with nine scenes from the War on Charleston Harbor, will reactivate Castle Pinckney as a Harbor Fort, have battles on land and sea, reestablish the Civil War harbor signal network and much more. See all the details on the War at Flood Tide Web Page

Charleston's War on the Water

• Russel Tucker's Naval War at Charleston pages. These elaborate and colorful pages have lavish graphics and take some time to load, but your patience will be rewarded. Tucker's great great Grandfather was Captian of the Ironclad C.S.S. Chicora that drove the Federal Blockade squadron out to sea. The details of that story and others are here.
  • Images and history of Charleston's Ironclad Gunboats
  • Charleston's Ironclads drive the Federal Blockading Fleet out to Sea, Jan. 31, 1963
  • Salvaging the Federal Tinclad Keokuks Dahlgrens for the Defense of Charleston, May 1863. The massive cannon of the experimental vessel are pulled from beneath the waves under cover of night with a narrow escape.
  • The Little Hatie Runs the Blockade, so close to the turret of the Monitor its crew can hear the commands to the Federal Gunners within.
• The Trenholm Company- Charleston's largest blockade running firm.
• Cpt. Wilson of the Trenholm Company Blockade Runner Emily St.Pierre recaptures his ship from his federal captors.
• The April 7, 1863 Ironclad Attack against Ft. Sumter.
• The H. L. Hunley. The first submarine to sink an enemy vessel in combat has a page here.
• A link to Charleston's Confederate Marine Reenactor's Group.
• USS Ottawa, a "90 day gunboat" that participated in the shelling of Battery Wagner and the blockade. Read a general history of the vessel.

Other Information on Naval and Maritime Operations in the Civil War

• Blockade Runners, a Wilmington, NC Video Project.