The Weehawken and the Atlanta.
From a wood-cut.
On June 17, 1863, she came down the Wilmington River, where the Weehawken and the Nahant were waiting for her. Several excursion steamers brought big loads of people to see her whip the monitors.
She opened fire on the Weehawken at a range of a mile and a half, and fired, in all, eight shots, of which not one hit the monitor. The Weehawken replied when at a range of 300 yards. The shot pierced the Atlanta’s casemate, and wounded sixteen men with splinters. The next shot from the monitor struck the Atlanta’s pilot-house, wounding both pilots and both wheelsmen. Three more shots were fired with less effect, but it was seen that the two monitors could shoot her to pieces, and Webb hauled down his flag. The action had lasted fifteen minutes.
John A. B. Dahlgren.
From a photograph.
Admiral John A. B. Dahlgren, whose name is familiar as a designer of great guns, relieved Dupont on July 6, 1863. The Union forces under General Gillmore were landed on the lower end of Morris Island, and Gillmore and Dahlgren planned a combined attack on Fort Wagner. It was made on the 10th. “At 9.30 the monitors opened on the work. The Admiral desired to get within grape-shot range, but was not able to get closer than about 1,200 yards, by reason of shoal water. The fire was promptly and vigorously returned till noon, when the monitors dropped down to allow the men to have dinner, after which they re-occupied their position and continued firing until 6 P.M., and then withdrew, the men having been fourteen hours employed. The weather was excessively hot. Five hundred and thirty-four shell and shrapnel were fired during the day.”
There were then ten or twelve guns on the seaward side of Wagner; but as Ammen says of Dupont’s attack on Sumter, “the effect of the fire of the vessels on the fort was not so observable as that of the enemy on the vessels.” The troops were also repulsed. On August 17, 1863, Gillmore was able to open on Sumter from land batteries, and Dahlgren, with four monitors and the New Ironsides, attacked Wagner, while seven gunboats used their pivots on the fort at long range. Late in the day Dahlgren, with the Passaic and Patapsco (monitors), went within 2,000 yards of Sumter. Wagner was silenced, but Fort Gregg kept up a steady fire. Commander George W. Rodgers, a favorite in the navy, was killed on the Catskill in this fight. The walls of Sumter were damaged somewhat by the monitor fire.