South Carolina

RIGHT A contemporary artist’s reconstruction of the bombardment of Fort Sumter by Union ironclads on 7 April 1863. Image: WikiCommons

The charge of the Iron Fleet

Charleston, 7 April 1863. It was the place where the American Civil War had started. Two years on, with a revolution in naval warfare far advanced, a fleet of Union ironclads attacked Confederate defences at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Michael Laramie describes the action.