Combat· American Civil War
Atlantic Coast Operations
A grouping of the Marine actions along the Atlantic seaboard from North Carolina to Florida, the work of the blockading squadrons.
The category spans the amphibious seizures that gave the Union its footholds on the Southern coast, Hatteras Inlet, Port Royal, Roanoke Island, Fernandina, and the harder fighting off Charleston, where Marines took part in the failed boat assault on Fort Sumter and the operations around Fort Wagner. It includes the dramatic loss of the Cumberland at Hampton Roads, rammed by the ironclad Virginia, where nine of her Marines were killed at their guns; the defense against Confederate torpedo attack; and the climactic storming of Fort Fisher in January 1865 that closed the Confederacy's last port. The South Atlantic Blockading Squadron's long, grinding work of blockade and coastal raid dominated the theater, and the Marines' ships' guards shared in all of it.
Engagements in this conflict (29) Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 393