Second Battle of Charleston Harbor

Other Names: Battery Gregg, Fort Wagner, Morris Island, Fort Sumter

Location: Charleston, South Carolina

Campaign: Operations against Defenses of Charleston (1863)

Date: September 7-8, 1863

Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Quincy Gillmore [US]; Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard [CS]

Forces Engaged: Regiments: total unknown (US 413; CS unknown)

Casualties and losses: (US 117; CS unknown)

Result(s): Inconclusive

Brief Description:

During the night of September 6-7, Confederate forces evacuated Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg pressured by advancing Federal siegeworks. Federal troops then occupied all of Morris Island. On September 8, a storming party of about 400 marines and sailors attempted to surprise Fort Sumter. The attack was repulsed. Fort Wagner had withstood 60 days of constant bombing and held off a much larger Union army. Yet the Union army and navy had captured an important position at the mouth of Charleston Harbor and reduced its most formidable fortress to rubble. Despite this, the city of Charleston and Fort Sumter itself would remain in Confederate control until William T. Sherman's armies marched through South Carolina in 1865.