The Fall of Satan's Kingdom "[T]he crowning act of this war ought to be by the navy...I pray you give us Charleston if possible...for the Fall of Charleston is the fall of Satan's Kingdom." - Asst. Navy Secretary Gustavus Fox to Admiral Samuel F. DuPont, June 3, 1862 Since the first shells burst over Ft. Sumter in the early morning of April 12, 1861, irrevocably igniting the Civil War, the Lincoln administration longed for an opportunity to retake Charleston. While the city held only modest strategic advantage - Union vessels had maintained a fairly effective blockade of the harbor since May 1861 - the happy effect on the American public of recapturing the fort and city could not be overestimated. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles confessed about Charleston in his diary that ..."[T]here is no city so culpable, or against which there is so much animosity." Charleston indeed was the epicenter of the rebellion. In July 1860, the national Democratic Convention met in Charleston to nominate a presidential candidate, and dozens of Southern leaders stormed out of the hall after the convention refused to adopt an explicitly pro-slavery platform. After 57 contentious ballots, the convention adjourned, unable to reach the needed two-thirds vote for a single candidate. Steven Douglas eventually became the Democratic nominee two months later in a reconvened convention in Baltimore, but Southern "fire eaters" in protest convened their own impromptu convention, and nominated Kentucky Senator John Breckenridge as the true Southern candidate. That very vocal faction thus achieved a philosophical victory, but one that virtually guaranteed the election of the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln. In December 1860, almost three months before President-elect Lincoln assumed office, "secessionist fever" continued to race through Charleston's population, but no vaccine could be found. The South Carolina legislature appointed a Secession Convention to meet in Charleston, and on Dec. 20 that body unanimously passed a Secession Ordinance announcing the severance of South Carolina's relationship with the Union. The fuse now was lit. Charleston in 1860 was a thriving seaport and fishery, blessed with Southern charm, natural beauty and abundant resources. It was protected from Atlantic storms by barrier islands and sandbars, yet possessed of a broad harbor and comfortable anchorages for hundreds of ships, large and small. A shipload of "King Cotton" could race across the Atlantic in just a few weeks from Charleston's harbor. Marshes, rivers and lowland sandy spits buffered Charleston from invasion by land, and her military defenses against a naval attack were formidable. Since having been attacked by the British in 1776, Charleston's defenses had been enlarged and rebuilt. Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter jealously guarded the entrance from the sea, while batteries on Sullivan's Island, Morris Island, and at Castle Pickney, Fort Johnson and Fort Ripley waited to confront any ship successfully running the gantlet into the inner harbor. By early 1863, confederates had hundreds of large-caliber guns from all compass points trained on the main channel into Charleston. The Confederate States recognized Charleston's preeminence, and in August 1862, Jefferson Davis - in spite of his own strained personal relations with the general - appointed Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard as Commander of the combined forces at Charleston and the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. At this early stage in the war, Beauregard, the hero of Fort Sumter and the First Bull Run, had achieved victories as celebrated as those of Robert E. Lee. So at the risk of "wasting" Beauregard's skills in a protracted defensive siege, Davis committed this top soldier to Charleston. As he hurriedly tried to organize the city's defenses, Beauregard noted in an Oct. 17, 1862, letter that "A gentleman who brings good credentials has just arrived from Baltimore; he reports that a Cabinet meeting was held in Washington on the 7th instant, at which it was ordered that Commodore DuPont should attack Charleston within the ensuing two weeks....We shall endeavor to give Commodore DuPont as warm a welcome as circumstances will permit." President Lincoln and Navy Secretary Welles, equally impressed with the significance of Charleston, may have wished Beauregard's sources were correct. Anxious for a signal Atlantic naval victory, Welles appointed senior Union Admiral Samuel F. DuPont to the task of taking Charleston. Although close to retirement after an illustrious 44-year naval career, DuPont perhaps wanted one final victory to cement his legacy. Admiral Andrew Hull Foote gingerly suggested to DuPont that perhaps Captain John Dahlgren, a Lincoln favorite, might be appointed to lead the assault on Charleston, allowing DuPont to retire with well-deserved honors. DuPont was offended by the suggestion, and insisted that only he could command the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, whose principal mission would be the capture of Charleston. Dahlgren, Chief of the Bureau of Ordinance, desperately wanted a sea command as a step to the cherished admiral's flag, and he had lobbied the Navy Department for the plum opportunity. DuPont knew his colleague's ambitions only too well, complaining to Secretary Fox in a letter that Dahlgren had intentionally chosen a non-sea-duty career: Dahlgren is a diseased man on the subject of preferment & position - As I told [Admiral] Foote, he chose one line in the walk of his profession, while F[oote] & I chose another; he was licking cream as we were eating dirt & living on the pay of our rank. Now he wants all the honors belonging to the other but without having encountered its joltings - it is a disease & nothing else. So despite personal misgivings about the likelihood of success of a purely naval attack on Charleston - Secretary Fox had insisted on a navy-only operation - DuPont was unwilling that any other officer should have his opportunity. He dropped hints to Welles and Fox about the risks of the operation, but never told his superiors that he felt Charleston could not be taken by the sea. Instead, he asked for more and more men and munitions. Welles and Lincoln watched in exasperation as DuPont took 10 months to collect himself and his ships for the anticipated assault. Brand new Passaic class ironclads - nine in all - were placed at his disposal, causing Welles to observe that "we have furnished DuPont the best material of men and ships that were ever placed under the command of any officer on this continent, and, as regards officers, unequalled anywhere or at any time." DuPont's continued requisitions reminded Lincoln and Welles of their recalcitrant Union General George McClellan, for whom there were never enough troops or supplies to counter real or imagined Confederate superiority. Fearing the worst, Welles confessed, "These great and long-delayed preparations weigh heavily upon me. As a general thing, such immense expeditions are failures. Providence delights to humble man and prostrate his strength. General Beauregard took full advantage of the protracted delay. He convened a summit of his top army and navy officers on Sept. 29, 1862, and identified two principal goals for improving Charleston's defenses. First, he must quickly expand and refine the heavy artillery capability of Charleston's defenses. Only guns over 32 pounds would suffice as "heavy" artillery, and those guns and their crews must be trained and well supplied with powder and shell. The only hope for Charleston against attacking ironclads, Beauregard noted, was "the concentration of the metal that can be brought to bear upon them..." Beauregard and his staff foresaw the Union's strategy likely would be to quickly sail its ironclad fleet straight past Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie into the more lightly guarded inner harbor. So slowing the enemy fleet's progress was a priority. Thus, improving existing underwater obstructions was Beauregard's second goal. The underwater obstructions ran across the main channel from Fort Sumter to Fort Moultrie. They included lengths of hemp rope that could foul a ship's propeller, and floating "booms" of pine logs and bar and railroad iron connected in segments, all designed to slow an enemy fleet, thus allowing Confederate heavy artillery to pour tons of shell on the fleet before it could penetrate the obstructions. Interspersed randomly in this underwater web were fixed torpedoes, set to explode when contacted by the hull of a ship. Beauregard understood that once enemy ships breached the outside harbor defenses, the odds changed drastically in favor of the Union. If ironclads pass the forts and batteries at the gorge, or throat, of [the] harbor, then the guns at Forts Ripley and Johnson and Castle Pinckney would be no avail to check them...The city could not be saved from bombardment by any number of batteries along the city fronts if the enemy reach the interior harbor with ironclads. It can then only be defended by infantry against landing of troops. Confederate artillery crews used the extra time to sharpen their aim by placing buoys in the main channel at precisely measured distances from the heavy guns of Sumter and Moultrie. This target practice would prove critical to any hopes the Confederates had of repulsing the expected Union attack. Finally, on April 7, 1863, Admiral DuPont was ready to move. Almost exactly two years before, rebel troops had shelled Fort Sumter into submission. The Union navy, confident in the power of its ironclad fleet, now sought to return the favor. The fleet had all gone over the bar the day before, and lay at anchor in line of battle off Morris Island in the main ship channel. According to a witness, at 12:30 p.m., the hour at which Fort Sumter was to be attacked, "the mist of the morning had almost become a fog, and it was not until 2:00 that the weather became clear enough to advance." Just after 2 p.m., the ironclad Weehawken began the slow procession of nine union ironclads and supporting ships confidently heading down the main channel toward Fort Sumter. The Weehawken pushed ahead of it a "torpedo raft" designed to penetrate and destroy any underwater obstructions, only to find the raft severely hampered its speed and steering, threatening to disable the Weehawken. Confederate batteries held their fire until the monitors approached less than a mile from Fort Sumter. A New York Times reporter embedded with Union sailors recorded the scene: This period of suspense is again interrupted by the report of a heavy gun from Moultrie, at precisely 5 minutes before 3, and the fall of the shot is marked by a column of water that shoots upward beside the Weehawken, and two other spray fountains which appear for an instant as the missile skips onward in the direction of the Passaic and Montauk. In a moment after, the enemy commences in earnest. Spiteful flashes burst from the fortifications on Sullivan's Island, and the batteries at Cumming's Point belch out their wicked fire. It is soon evident that the rebels are determined to attack the Monitors in detail, in the hope of sinking them by the tons of metal that can be directed upon them at a single discharge. At first, therefore, the awful tempest bursts upon the Weehawken, and she seems is devoted to destruction. It was a moment of thrilling excitement to all of us when she entirely disappeared from view beneath the volumes of water in which she is buried turret-deep, by the plunging shot. But again we see her, as, nobly withstanding the shock, she presses on, letting slip a 15-inch solid shot upon Fort Sumter. While exciting, the "noble" Union attack soon bogged down. The improved - and widely publicized - obstructions in the channel successfully occupied the Weehawken and her sister ironclads. DuPont's original battle plan and orders were to sail directly past Fort Sumter without engaging the fort, until arriving at the more lightly guarded inner harbor, where the Union guns could demand the surrender of the town. But fear of the underwater obstructions and torpedoes helped to foil that plan. As the confused Union monitors moved ahead warily, the full weight of the Confederates" scores of heavy guns rained tons of iron upon the union vessels. Almost 1,000 shells were fired in a space of about 30 minutes, and while the Union ironclads bravely resisted the fire, they met with only limited offensive success. According to joint battle statistics, Confederate guns fired over 2,200 rounds, and over 500 of them found their mark, remarkable accuracy for such small moving targets. The new ironclad Keokuk, closing to within several hundred yards of Fort Sumter, suffered the most grievous wounds. Targeted by the startlingly accurate Confederate fire, the Keokuk took more than 100 shells, some of which opened large fissures in her armored sides. Almost disabled, the Keokuk after 30 minutes retired from the battle and anchored near the bar. Taking on water, the Keokuk sank in shallow water the next morning, providing a rich salvage prize for Confederate forces. Symbolic of the futility of the Union attack, DuPont's flagship New Ironsides suffered the indignity of running into two of its own ironclads, and due to the immense size of the ship in the relatively narrow channel - and now buffeted by an ebbing tide - DuPont had to actually anchor in the channel to avoid being driven ashore. New Ironsides, possessing some of the largest Union guns, was unable to effectively join the battle, and soon retired. At about 5:30 p.m., after two and a half hours of constant bombardment from the well placed and trained Confederate artillery units, DuPont ordered his fleet to withdraw. Despite the loss of only one sailor, and after assessing his fleet's condition that evening, DuPont ordered its final withdrawal, with no plans to reengage. The Union humiliation - and Confederate triumph - was complete. Still, information of the disaster was slow reaching Washington. Upon receiving his first reliable information of the repulse of DuPont's fleet, Lincoln hurriedly telegraphed the admiral on April 13, ordering him to "Hold your position inside the bar, or if you shall have left it, return to it, and hold it till further orders." DuPont's fleet had already retired down coast to Port Royal, however, and he was unable to obey the president's command. What had been hoped as a laurel wreath to crown a long career became a national indignity, and an anchor around DuPont's neck. A Baltimore newspaper wrote a scathing article criticizing DuPont, and the administration quietly refused to come to his defense. Deeply disappointed in their admiral's efforts, Welles (with Lincoln's approval) relieved DuPont of his command only three months later. And in a final irony, DuPont's successor, appointed after the untimely death of original replacement Admiral Foote, was ... Bureau of Ordinance Chief John A. Dahlgren. As things developed, Dahlgren had not much better luck than DuPont. DuPont's post battle prediction that Charleston could never be taken by sea proved true, as Charleston survived continued episodic Union bombardment until March 1865, when Gen. William T. Sherman's army forced the final evacuation of the city only weeks before Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Charleston's glorious and stubborn defense had come at a price, though. It was once the jewel city of the South, but Sidney Andrews, a Northern reporter in Charleston at war's end described it thus: "We never again can have the Charleston of the decade previous to the war...A city of ruins, of desolation, of vacant houses, of widowed women, of rotting wharves, of deserted warehouses, of weed-wild gardens, of miles of grass-grown streets...The beauty and pride of the city are as dead as the glories of Athens." It would be many decades before Charleston would regain its earlier grandeur. SOURCES: The New York Times April 15, 1863; Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Naval History Society (De Vinne Press), New York 1918; Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York 1911; Charleston Mercury April 11, 1863; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion; Series I - Vol. 13, 14; The South Since the War: as shown by Fourteen Weeks of Travel and Observation in Georgia and the Carolinas, Sidney Andrews, Ticknor and Fields, Boston, 1866 Jed Morrison is a lawyer and Civil War enthusiast in San Antonio.