- Joined
- Nov 27, 2018
- Location
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
I found this report in the Official Records of the Army, Series 1, Volume 35, Part II, page 289.
It comes from a confederate deserter, Charles Harris, who swam to Morris Island from the gun-boat Chicora. Pertinent facts follow:
CSN Chicora- 60 men and officers on board. T. T. Hunter, commander. Four guns, 2 9-inch Dahlgren and 2 7-inch Brooke rifles. The men are armed with rifles, pistols, revolvers, swords &c. The Chicora has 4 rowboats. It can [sail?] about 3 mph. It lays up on the Cooper River a little below the receiving ship.
CSN Palmetto State; ironclad, four guns, 2 9-inch Dahlgren, 2 7-inch Brooke rifles. Boilers are out of order, very slow.
CSN Charleston; ironclad, six guns, two 7-inch pivot guns, the rest unknown caliber. Flagship, fastest, can steam about 4 mph.
CSN Columbia; ironclad, pierced for eight guns, not ready for sea. Built so long that her bow and stern settle in the water and leave her middle high up.
All three boats lay up the Cooper River nearly opposite the Northeastern Railroad Depot. One of these goes on picket every night between the city and Fort Johnson.
Receiving Ship; 150 North Carolina conscripts on board.
Blockade Runners; 4-{Stag, Fox, Druid, Syren}.
Torpedo Boats-8; these are 8 feet in diameter and 50 feet long; they come to a point at either end, and propelled by steam. These boats all have torpedoes, some 15 or 16 feet in front of the bow.
The 4 ironclads all have torpedoes, with between 60 and 150 pounds of powder in each, placed in front of their bows. They carry 4 or 5 to each boat and are kept in the magazines, which is forward near the bow. The plating is of 2-inch plates all over except the deck, which is one half-inch thick.
Gunboat; reported to be up near Columbus, Georgia, which they are trying to fit out.
Lubliner.
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