The Privateer Judah-- Part 3: A Firefight, Burning and Spiking

The four longboats commanded by Lt. John Henry Russell successfully floated past the first two lookout posts, but were spotted while passing the third one.  This was the one nearest to the harbor.

Raising the alarm, shots were fired between the guards and the Marines on the last Union boat.  Two, possibly three Marines were killed in the shooting and an equal number of Confederates  also died in the firefight.  But, in the poor light at the time, most of the fatalities were more by misfortune than accurately aimed shots.

Taking advantage of the melee behind them, Marines from the first two boats boarded the mostly deserted Judah and, under increasing danger from gunfire ashore, set her hull on fire.  Marines from the third boat meanwhile, landed  and spiked four 10-inch Columbiad cannons on the nearest shore battery manned by Confederate Marines of Company B commanded by Captain Alfred Van Benthuysen, before they too were forced back by Confederate gunfire.  (Alfred Van Benthuysen was later at Fort Fisher.)

--Old B-Runner

Fort Zachary Taylor-- Part 4: All Those Buried Cannons

Then, the former  marine and civil service engineer Howard England began to unearth  Civil War cannons  buried within the walls of Fort Taylor.  In 1899, when  Army engineers removed the top two levels of he fort in order to build the Osceola and Adair Batteries, they built the batteries over the casemates (gun emplacements).

Nearly 200 Rodman, Columbiad and Parrot cannons  were buried with in the battery walls.  Many were excavated and are on display today, but others are still buried, some of them are embedded and some are partially visible in the stone walls of the batteries.

Howard England is the man responsible for the preservation of Fort Zachary Taylor, for his continued work over a ten year period that uncovered the largest collection of Civil War armaments in the United States, including cannons, guns, a desalinization plat and thousands of cannonballs and projectiles.

This earned Fort Zachary Taylor the protection of the U.S. government as a National  Historic Landmark in 1973.

Thanks Mr. England.  --Old B-Runner

Confederate Defenses on Sullivan's Island in November 1863, Charleston, SC

From the November 23, 2013 To the Sound of Guns Blog by Craig Swain. Mr. Swain made a great map showing all the Confederate positions on the island and said these batteries benefited from the relocation of guns from Fort Sumter during the summer.

Of interest, I found that BATTERY BEE had five 10-inch Columbiads and one 8-inch Columbiad in March 1863. By November, one of the 10-inch Columbiads was replaced by an XI-inch gun taken from the monitor USS Keokuk which had sunk.

FORT MOULTRIE's armament by November had increased to four 10-inch Columbiads, two 8-inch seacoast howitzers, two 8-inch rifle and banded Columbiads, three 32-pdr. rifles, four 24-pdr smoothbores, and two 10-inch seacoast mortars. Two other 32-pdr smoothbores were at the fort, but not mounted.

Other batteries on Sullivan's Island were, Marion, Brooke, Rutledge, Beauregard, Marshall. Mr. Swain tells the armament of all of these batteries.

--Old B-Runner