the fourth struck a port stopper in the centre, 

 breaking it in two and driving the iron frag- 

 ments through the port. The first and third 

 shots decided the battle, the former, as Captain 

 Eodgers observed, having taken away the desire 

 to fight, and the latter the ability to get away. 

 The captured prisoners amounted to 145, ofB- 

 iers and men, and the hull of the Atlanta was 

 little injured that in a short time she was 

 enabled to take her place among vessels of her 

 class in the United States navy. 

 The combat was characterized by the Secre- 

 cy of the Navy as " the most marked and 

 extraordinary in the service during the year, 

 and in some respects one of the most significant 

 and instructive naval battles of the war." 

 hatever opinions may have been entertained 

 of the efficacy of ironclads against forts of 

 masonry or sand, few could doubt after this 

 that when ironclads were pitted against iron- 



rclads their execution could be of the most de- 

 cisive character. The Monitor class of vessels, 

 which had fallen into temporary disfavor after 

 the attack on Fort Sumter, became again pop- 

 ular, and were recognized as likely to be of 

 the highest value in harbor or coast defence. 

 The brevity of the conflict and the complete 

 disabling of the Atlanta also reconciled many 

 to the heavy ordnance carried by these vessels, 

 the efficacy of which had been a subject of 

 some dispute among professional men. 



Notwithstanding the failure of the attack of 

 April 7th, the Government was unwilling to 

 relinquish further efforts against Charleston, 

 ,nd as the tone of Admiral Dupont's letters 



dicated that he was opposed to a renewed 

 .ttack upon the forts, it was determined to re- 

 lieve him by the appointment of Eear- Admiral 

 Foote. That officer dying in New York before 

 his departure, Eear-Admiral Dahlgren was 

 appointed to the command of the squadron, 

 and entered upon his duties on July 6th. Pre- 

 vious to this date the demonstrations against 

 Charleston had been exclusively naval, but 

 with the arrival of General Gillmore as com- 

 mander-in-chief of the military department of 

 the South, arrangements were made for com- 

 bined operations by the land forces and the 



onclads. 



On July 10th, the Catskill, Montauk, Nahant, 

 and Weehawken cooperated with the land at- 

 tack upon the rebel works on Morris Island, 



.d during the greater part of the day main- 



ined a vigorous fire upon Fort Wagner. The 

 Catskill, which was selected as a special mark 

 by the enemy, was struck 60 times, but came 



I out of action in good working order. The 

 other ironclads escaped with trifling injury. 

 A few days later the New Ironsides was 

 brought over the bar, and on the 18th she 

 with the four vessels above mentioned and the 

 Patapsco was laid abreast of Fort Wagner, to 

 cooperate in the intended assault by the troops. 

 The fort was completely silenced during the 

 day, but darkness having come on before the 

 assault was made, Admiral Dahlgren was 



NAVY, U. S., OPERATIONS OF. 



677 



obliged to discontinue his fire, not being able 

 to distinguish whether it took effect on friend 

 'or .foe. The enemy were in consequence en- 

 abled to return to their guns, and the assault 

 was repelled with great slaughter. On the 

 16th an attack was made by shore batteries 

 on the gunboats Pawnee and Marblehead, in 

 the Stono river, but was repulsed after an 

 animated contest. 



For upward of a month after this no impor- 

 tant action took place. General Gillmore was 

 engaged in pushing his intrenchments toward 

 Fort Wagner, and the navy was unable to ef- 

 fect anything without cooperation from the 

 land forces. Every day two or three of the 

 ironclads bombarded Fort Wagner nd Battery 

 Gregg, on Cumming's Point, to divert the at- 

 tention of the enemy, but escaped any serious 

 casualty. The Ironsides was struck repeatedly 

 by 10-inch shot, at a distance of 1,200 to 1,400 

 yards, without material impression. Early on 

 the morning of August 17th, General Gillmore 

 opened all his batteries upon Fort Sumter, 

 firing over Fort Wagner and the intervening 

 space ; and about the same time Admiral 

 Dahlgren brought the Ironsides, Weehawken, 

 Catskill, Nahant, and Montauk abreast of Fort 

 Wagner, which was effectually silenced by them 

 during that day. The Passaic and Patapsco, 

 having rifled guns, took a position about 2,000 

 yards from Sumter, and cooperated with the 

 shore batteries in the attack upon it. No ma- 

 terial damage was done to the ironclads, but 

 the navy suffered a severe loss in Capt. George 

 W. Kodgers, of the Catskill, chief of staff to 

 Admiral Dahlgren, who was killed while in 

 the pilot house by a flying piece of fractured 

 plating. Shortly before dawn, on the morning 

 of the 23d, five ironclads opened fire upon 

 Sumter at a distance of about 800 yards, but 

 retired at about 6 A. M., after inflicting consid- 

 erable damage upon the fort. By the 1st of 

 September Sumter was almost entirely dis- 

 abled, and with a view of removing the ob- 

 structions between it and Fort Moultrie, the 

 ironclads were on that night brought up to 

 within 500 yards of the former work, and for 

 several hours a steady fire was maintained, 

 which was answered by Fort Moultrie and the 

 batteries on Sullivan's Island. The ebb tide 

 setting in before daylight, the ironclads re- 

 tired. 



On the night of September 6th the enemy 

 evacuated Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg, 

 and on the succeeding day Admiral Dahlgren 

 sent a demand to Gen. Beauregard for the sur- 

 render of Fort Sumter. Eeceiving no reply 

 he put in operation a plan to capture the fort, 

 by sending the Weehawken in by a narrow 

 channel winding about Cumming's Point to 

 cut off all communications in that direction. 

 In making this movement she got hard aground, 

 and so remained for many hours. Late in the 

 day the admiral with the remaining ironclads 

 moved up to feel and, if possible, to pass the 

 obstructions between Forts Moultrie and Sum- 



