Dahlgren Calls for a Calcium Light

From the July 31, 1863, Civil War Naval Chronology.

Rear Admiral Dahlgren, at Charleston, SC, engaged in the capture of Fort Wagner on Morris Island, in a report to Navy Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles mentioned that one of the "many little things" which would assist him would be "the electric light which Professor Way exhibited here, and which Professor Henry (Smithsonian Institution) knows of; it would either illuminate at night, if needed, or would serve to signal....

" As a man of science as well as an operational commander, the admiral was quick to seek the advantages offered by new developments (although as early as June 1861, General Butler had such a light tested near Fortress Monroe, Virginia).

The calcium light was brought down and enormously assisted in the capture of Fort Wagner by slowing down and halting Confederate repairs to the fort which previously had been made during the cover of the night.

--Old B-R'er