Combat· American Civil War
Failed Fort Sumter Assault
A botched night attack that was the Marines' most prominent failure off Charleston.
After the army's guns had battered Fort Sumter to rubble, Admiral Dahlgren resolved to take it by a boat assault and called on the Marines, Captain Edward McDonald Reynolds organizing three companies for the attempt. The operation depended on surprise and coordination and had neither. In the darkness the string of boats scattered, most never reaching the fort; one party of about twenty Marines under Lieutenant Pope did land at the base of the ruined wall but was promptly driven back by Confederate riflemen posted in the rubble. The rest milled about in confusion near the fort until the whole expedition was recalled. The attack accomplished nothing, the Confederates still held Sumter's ruins. Poor planning and the impossibility of keeping the boats together in the dark, more than enemy fire, defeated the assault.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 421