Fort Wagner.

jessgettysburg1863

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 3, 2012
Location
Living in Kilmore in Victoria Australia
Fort-Wagner-001.jpg

http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/Charleston-vicinity-Carolina-parapet.htm

Interior-Fort-Wagner-2.jpg

http://54th-mass.org/about/ft-wagner-assault-images-and-maps/

Fort-Wagner-mounting-guard.jpg

http://54th-mass.org/about/ft-wagner-assault-images-and-maps/

Interior-Wagner.jpg

http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/Interior-Wagner-April-Fort.htm

image_resize.jpg

http://popartmachine.com/art/LOC+10...WAGNER-IN-APRIL,-1865.-CHARLESTON-HARBOR,-S.C....
 
Did you ever notice that in the movie "Glory" when the 54th was assaulting Battery Wagner that they were attacking from the wrong direction. Union forces attacked Wagner from the southern end of of Morris Island not the northern end as the movie depicted.
Good catch, I didn't know it till you mentioned it.
 
Unfortunately the site of Wagner has since been reclaimed by the Atlantic

Much like Fort Ripley in the inner harbor on Middle Ground Shoal. I havent been able to find any period photographs or paintings but heres a sketch of what Ripley looked like during the war and then a photo of what Fort Ripley looks like today.

chas-hbr_ftripley.png

Fort Ripley during the Civil War era


chas-hbr_ftripleybricks.png

What's left of Fort Ripley today during low tide.
 
Much like Fort Ripley in the inner harbor on Middle Ground Shoal. I havent been able to find any period photographs or paintings but heres a sketch of what Ripley looked like during the war and then a photo of what Fort Ripley looks like today.

View attachment 6804
Fort Ripley during the Civil War era


View attachment 6805
What's left of Fort Ripley today during low tide.

Thanks for posting the pictures, much appreciated.
 
Great serie
Even went out and googled ya'll a map haha

Great series of images. A learning experience. Liked this very much. I was not aware the fort was armed so heavily and with such a variety of artillery. Impressive. Some big stuff. They sure had to keep a lotta different size and types of artillery ordinance on hand. Wonder if that posed a problem? Were those 32 pounder Carronade's taken from ships?
 
Great serie


Great series of images. A learning experience. Liked this very much. I was not aware the fort was armed so heavily and with such a variety of artillery. Impressive. Some big stuff. They sure had to keep a lotta different size and types of artillery ordinance on hand. Wonder if that posed a problem? Were those 32 pounder Carronade's taken from ships?

Dugger you may want to ask Mark Jenkins in the Naval Forum, he would know if the cannons
came from Naval vessels.
 
Yeah, I've been railing against the sea-on-the-wrong-side error in Glory since the movie came out. :banghead: I don't understand how they could have made so fundamental an error. I've concluded that they wanted to make sure the North was coming in from the North so as not to confuse the poor ignorant audience. Grumble.

RE the armament of Battery/Fort Wagner, is the question about how the Confederate battery was armed, or how the Union fort was armed?
 
Yeah, I've been railing against the sea-on-the-wrong-side error in Glory since the movie came out. :banghead: I don't understand how they could have made so fundamental an error. I've concluded that they wanted to make sure the North was coming in from the North so as not to confuse the poor ignorant audience. Grumble.

RE the armament of Battery/Fort Wagner, is the question about how the Confederate battery was armed, or how the Union fort was armed?

They could have also had a short scene where they were all looking at a map, planning, so as to also educate the audience that they were in S Carolina.:D

How was the Confederate battery armed? Were some of those guns taken off ships?
 
I'll have to check Stephen R. Wise's Gate of Hell to address individual pieces, but if there were 32-pounder cannon, one of the most likely sources was the store of naval cannon captured at the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk VA. That windfall armed many a Confederate fort and battery throughout the war.... something on the order of 1,500 - 2,000 cannon of various calibers.
 
The carronades were probably found in some shipyard or arsenal. They were almost exclusively naval weapons, I can't think of another instance of them being used on land, and by the 1850s they had mostly been withdrawn from naval service. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905 lists just one of the smaller US Navy gunboats as of 1860 still carrying carronades, six 32pdrs. So my guess is the Confederates found a few old, disused carronades somewhere and decided to put them to use.
 
Back
Top