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Lot 42
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Unique Hand-drawn Civil War Map of Charleston, South Carolina Harbor, Undated, Probably 1863
Unique Hand-drawn Civil War Map of Charleston, South Carolina Harbor, Undated, Probably 1863
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Description:

Civil War



 Unique Hand-drawn Civil War Map of Charleston, South Carolina Harbor, Undated, Probably 1863


This 8" x 5" map shows Charleston Harbor with surrounding mainland and island fortifications, including Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinkney, the Charleston “Battery”, and the breastworks at Old Fort Johnson on Morris Island. It is unknown whether this is an official report made for Jefferson Davis who visited Charleston in November 1863,  It is more likely a knowledgeable private analysis rather than an official report. The  map and “Remarks” on the reverse summarize, however, the readiness for an attack by Union naval and ground forces.


Of importance is the notation on the use of slave labor to build a major bridge in a short period of time. The reverse “Remarks” summarize the status of the Harbor with distances from Fort Sumter and extols the use of “1500 Negroes....this is making the institution defend itself.” :


About 3 1/2 miles from Fort Sumter to Charleston   

“.       2 1/2.     “.              “.                 Castle Pinkney   

“.       1 1/2.     “.              “.                 Fort Moultrie  

“.       1 1/2.     “.              “.                 Fort Johnson  

“.          3/4.     “.              “.                 Morris Island


There is a narrow channel between Morris &

James Islands by which [vessels] of smaller size

can enter the harbor. It can be easily commanded

by our men, however.


The water is shallow between Fort Sumter, Morris 

Island & between Sullivan’s and the Mainland.

They speak of sinking old vessels in the Main Ship Channel

in case of an attack on the City.


Our Battery is a capital forti?cation itself

You see how e?ectively Fort Sumter commands the

main entrance of the Harbor


The Breastworks at Old Fort Johnson, on Morris Island,

and the Bridge between Sullivan’s Island & the

Mainland have been built within a few days by about 1500

Negroes. + our soldiers.

This is making the institution defend itself.”

 
By 1863, many port cities of the Confederacy had been closed off by the Union blockade. Charleston had become an important center for blockade running. Repeated attempts by the Union Navy to take Charleston and/or simply batter its defenses proved fruitless, including the use of old whaling ships filled with stones and sunk, the so-called “Stone Fleet”. One such fleet was sunk to block the south channel of Morris Island, and the other to block the north channel near Rattlesnake Shoals off the present day Isle of Palms, (not depicted on the map) in what proved to be failed efforts to block access the main shipping channels into Charleston Harbor. The city, however,  resisted military occupation for the majority of the war's four years.


However, in 1863, the Union began an offensive campaign against the defenses of Charleston Harbor, beginning with a combined sea-land engagement. The naval bombardment accomplished little however, and the land forces were never put ashore. By summer of 1863, the Union turned its attention to Battery Wagner on Morris Island, which guarded the harbor entrance from the southwest. In the First and Second battles of Fort Wagner in July of 1863, Union forces suffered heavy losses, including African American soldiers from Massachusetts, in a failed attempt to capture the fort. A siege however resulted in Confederate abandonment of Fort Wagner by September of that year. An attempt to recapture Fort Sumter in the Second Battle Of Fort Sumter in September 1863 by a Union naval raiding party also failed badly, but Ft. Sumter was gradually reduced to rubble via bombardment from shore batteries, after the capture of Morris Island.


With the development of newer, longer-range artillery available to Union forces were able to place effective batteries even closer to the city. In November 1863, Jefferson Davis visited the city and noted it was better the city be reduced to "a heap of ruins" than surrender. The bombardment that began in late 1863 continued on and o? for 587 days. This bombardment would destroy much of the city that had survived there.

A coordinated series of attacks on the city were launched in early July 1864, including an amphibious assault on Fort Johnson and an invasion of Johns Island. These attacks failed, but they continued to wear down the city's defenders. The defenders were ?nally beaten back and the Union was able to capture the city, only a month and a half before the war ended.


Charleston Harbor was also the site of the ?rst successful submarine attack in history on February 17, 1864, when the H.L. Hunley made a daring night attack on the USS Housatonic. Although the Hunley survived the attack, she foundered and sank while returning from her mission, thus ending the threat to the Union blockade.


As Gen. Sherman marched through South Carolina, the situation for Charleston became tenuous. On February 15, 1865, Gen. Beauregard ordered the evacuation of remaining Confederate forces. On February 18, the mayor surrendered the city to General Alexander Schimmelfennig; and Union troops ?nally moved in, taking control of key sites. The ?rst soldiers to enter the city were members of the 21st Infantry Regiment of the US Colored Troops and the 55th Massachusetts Infantry, another Black regiment.


The “institution” of slavery derives from the euphemistic term, “peculiar institution” that pre- civil war white southerners used for slavery. John C. Calhoun defended the "peculiar labor" of the South in 1828 and the "peculiar domestick institution" in 1830. The term came into general use in the 1830s when the abolitionist followers of William Lloyd Garrison began to attack slavery. The implicit message Calhoun delivered was that slavery in the U.S. South was di?erent from the very harsh slave systems existing in other countries and that southern slavery had no impact on those living in northern states.


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