Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker

by James Henry Rochelle

The blockade of Charleston harbor was soon, indeed immediately, re-established, and kept up by the armored frigate New Ironsides and a number of heavy "Monitors." There was, from the end of this battle to the evacuation of Charleston by the Confederates, no time when there would have been the least probability of the success of another dash by the Confederate vessels in the harbor upon the Federal squadron blockading.

In the month of February, 1863, Tucker was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Provisional Navy of the Confederate States, and in March following was appointed Flag Officer of the Confederate Forces Afloat at Charleston, the Chicora bearing his flag.

On the 7th of April, 1863, Admiral Dupont made his attack on Charleston, with a squadron consisting of the armored frigate New Ironsides and eight "Monitors." Tucker, with his usual good judgment, held the Chicora and Palmetto State, aided by a number of rowboats armed with torpedoes, ready to make a desperate and final assault upon the Federal squadron if it should succeed in passing the Confederate forts guarding the entrance to the harbor. Admiral Dupont's squadron was repulsed by the forts, and the Confederate squadron was not engaged.

The Confederate naval forces afloat at Charleston did not possess either the strength or swiftness necessary for an attack on the Federal blockading squadron with any reasonable prospect of success, and Tucker therefore turned his attention to attacks by means of torpedo-boats fitted out from his squadron. On the 5th of October, 1863, Lieutenant W.T. Glassell, with a small double-ender steam torpedo-boat, made an attempt to sink the New Ironsides, lying off Morris' Island. The New Ironsides was not sunk, but she was seriously damaged and was sent North for repairs. The torpedo-boat was filled with water, and her commander, pilot, and engineer, all that were on board of her, were thrown overboard by the shock of the striking and exploding of the torpedo against the bottom of the iron-clad. The torpedo-boat was finally taken back into Charleston harbor by the pilot and engineer, but Lieutenant Glassell was made prisoner after having been in the water about an hour. A torpedo-boat commanded by Lieutenant Dixon of the Confederate Army, and manned by six volunteers from Tucker's squadron and one from the army, attacked and sunk, on the night of February 17th, 1864, the United States steamer Housatonic lying in the North Channel. The torpedo-boat with all on board went to the bottom, but most of the crew of the Housatonic were saved by taking refuge in the rigging, which was not submerged when the vessel rested on the bottom.

The boat attack on Fort Sumter, made by the Federals on September 8th, 1863, was easily repulsed, and the Charleston squadron materially aided in the repulse.

A battalion of sailors from the recruits on board the receiving-ship Indian Chief, under the command of Lieutenant Commanding William Galliard Dozier, was detached by Tucker to co-operate with the army on James' Island in August, 1864. This battalion rendered good service, and upon its return to the squadron was kept organized and ready to respond whenever a call for assistance was made upon the Navy by the Army.

Early in 1864 some changes were made in the commanding officers of the squadron; Commander Isaac Newton Brown was ordered to the Charleston, Commander Thomas T. Hunter to the Chicora, and Lieutenant Commanding James Henry Rochelle to the Palmetto State. No other changes were made in the commands of the squadron while it existed.

The three iron-clads under Tucker's command at Charleston were all slow vessels, with imperfect engines, which required frequent repairing; for that day, and considering the paucity of naval resources in the South, they were fairly officered, manned and armed. All of them were clad with armor four inches thick, and they were all of the type of the Virginia, or Merrimac, as that vessel is frequently but erroneously called. The commander of the vessels were all formerly officers of the United States Navy, who were citizens of the Southern States and had resigned their commissions in the Federal service when their States seceded from the Union. The lieutenants and other officers were appointed from civil life, but they were competent to perform the duties required of them, and conducted themselves well at all times and under all circumstances. The crews of each vessel numbered from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and sixty men, some of them able-seamen, and most of them efficient and reliable men. Each vessel carried a torpedo, fitted to the end of a spar some fifteen or twenty feet long projecting from the bows in a line with the keel, and so arranged that it could be carried either triced up clear of the water or submerged five or six feet below the surface. The squadron was in a good state of discipline and drill, and, so far as the personnel was concerned, in a very efficient condition.

Every night one or two of the iron-clads anchored in the channel near Fort Sumter for the purpose of resisting a night attack on that place or a dash into the harbor by the Federal squadron.

Not long before the evacuation of Charleston an iron-clad named the Columbia was launched there. She had a thickness of six inches of iron on her casemate, and was otherwise superior to the other three iron-clads of the squadron. Unfortunately, she was run aground whilst coming out of dock, and so much injured as not to be able to render any service whatever.