September 6, 1863 – Rebels Evacuate Battery Wagner

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, 

September 6, 1863 –   Rebels Evacuate Battery Wagner

            Historical Event:   On this day in 1863 Confederate General Pierre Toussaint Beauregard bowed to the inevitable and ordered the evacuation of Battery Wagner on Morris Island, long viewed by both sides as the key to his defense of Charleston.  The final decision was made following an intense close-in 36-hour bombardment by Union naval forces under Rear Admiral John Dahlgren. The fort’s commander reported that this “terrible bombardment” had killed more than 100 of the defenders and left “nearly all guns disabled.”  He added in his report to Beauregard that “repetition of today’s fire will make the fort almost a ruin,” and in an obvious plea for permission to withdraw asked “is it desirable to sacrifice the garrison?”

            Battery Wagner had withstood numerous previous bombardments and attacks – included the famous if ill-fated charge in July led by the 54^th Massachusetts, which was depicted in the movie Glory.    

            The fall of Morris Island emboldened Dahlgren to send the ironclads USS Weehawken and USS Patapsco to bombard nearby Sullivan’s Island and Fort Sumter – whose defenses had been so reduced by the Union Navy and siege batteries as it was left with but one working cannon – which was fired but once a day in salute at the morning flag raising.  On the night of September 8-9 Dahlgren sent a force of 500 sailors and marines in small boats to storm the ruins – but they were repulsed by 350 defenders.

            Game Connection:  As it was in the Civil War, Charleston is a vital port for Blockade Runners and is the lynchpin of the Confederacy’s Atlantic Coast in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas.  Confederate General Beauregard is represented in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas by CSN Card 88, and his engineering talents that proved so vital to defense of Charleston are depicted in the card’s ability to place an additional Battery free of charge on the turn the card is played.  His nemesis in 1863, Rear Admiral John Dahlgren, is represented by two cards: USN Card 31 – which bears his name, and USN Card 3 – “Yankee Guns,” homage to his talents in designing, producing and using the Union’s big guns – some of which also bore his name.

            Destroying Confederate Batteries in preparation for an Assault is one of the primary jobs of the Union Navy in the game, just as was in the war, and many of Dahlgren’s ships are represented in the game, perhaps most notable among them USN Card 26 the USS New Ironsides – first in a new class of warship, and one which historian Shelby Foote says at the time was “the most powerful battleship in the world.”

This day 150 years ago in Rebel Raiders’ History

-Dedicated to Civil War episodes, battles, people and ships that also appear in my game, GMT’s Rebel Raiders on the High Seas,  

July 18, 1863 – Glory: Admiral Dahlgren & the 54^th Mass. at Battery Wagner

            Historical Event:  The gallant charge of the 54^th Massachusetts, so poignantly portrayed in the movie Glory, took part on this day in 1863.  Rear Admiral John Dahlgren sent his ironclads and gunboats of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron close in to support the attack on Battery Wagner on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor.  His ships  at times came as he notes in his memoirs within 300 yards of the fort.   

            To support the attack Dahlgren sent in ten ships:  six ironclads (USS Montauk, USS Ironsides, USS Kaatskill, USS Nantucket, USS Weehawken and USS Patapsco) and four gunboats (USS Paul Jones, USS Ottawa, USS Wissahickon and USS Seneca).

            Here, from his Memoirs, is Admiral Dahlgren’s account of what he witnessed that day:

            “The ironclads battered Wanger almost out of shape, and in the afternoon of that day the flag monitor ‘Montauk’ lay only three hundred yards from the sea-face of the work; not a gun was fired from it; not a head visible to my glass as I stood with other officers outside, watching the first symptom of renewed resistance.

            “Our column came up, but it was too dark to discern objects from the vessels, and after a fierce and resolute effort the column fell back with a loss of 1,500 men.

            “The assault could derive no aid from the fire of our guns, because it was impossible to distinguish our troops from the enemy.”   (Italics are Dahlgren’s).

            Game Connection:    John Dahlgren, one of the first admirals ever created for the U.S. Navy, has his own card (USN Card 31) in Rebel Raiders on the High Seas, and the revolutionary weapons he created (among them the Dahlgren gun) are also represented (USN Card 3 – Yankee Guns).  Both are important cards for a Union player who will need to send his fleets of ironclads and gunboats to destroy the batteries at Charleston to help clear the way for an assault – hopefully one that will end more fortuitously than the gallant but doomed charge made by the 54^th on this day, 150 years ago.