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Sketch of the Union Naval Attack on Charleston Harbor

(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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On April 7, 1863, a squadron of Union ironclad vessels attempted to enter the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The Confederate forts defending the city easily repulsed the attack, making it obvious that Charleston could not be taken by sea. Ephraim Williams, Jr. (b. 1837) of Deerfield, Massachusetts, a soldier in the 27th Massachusetts Regiment, witnessed the attack and drew this sketch. Williams drew and named each of the Union ships that participated in the attack, and noted the Confederates forts, including Ft. Sumter, which he misspelled. Drawings such as this one give us insights that we now depend upon the camera to provide for us.

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