Combat· American Civil War
Morris Island Artillery
A Marine contribution to the long Union siege of Charleston.
As the Federal forces tightened their grip on the harbor, a detachment of Marines from the warships, drawn from the Wabash and the ironclad New Ironsides, was put ashore on Morris Island to establish and man artillery positions among the siege batteries. The guns there helped press the slow reduction of the Confederate harbor defenses, supporting the naval and land operations against the forts that guarded the approaches to the city. The duty was static and grinding, the work of siege gunners rather than a battle, and it cost no casualties. It was part of the protracted effort against Charleston, the cradle of secession and one of the most stubbornly defended points in the Confederacy, which the Union would besiege for nearly two years without taking the city itself by storm.
Podcast episodes on American Civil War
Record no. 417