Defending the Inland Waterways

Defending the Inland Waterways. Oyster Point. The inland waterways north of Charleston became critically important during the Civil War. By November 1861, the Union navy began a blockade of not just Charleston harbor, but all of the navigable inlets and waterways between Charleston and Georgetown. Blockade runners leaving Charleston sailed through the inland waterways north of the city and used Dewees Inlet, Capers Inlet, Price's Inlet, and Bull's Bay to reach the ocean. ,
USS Flambeau, Lodona, South Carolina, Winona, and Canandaigua, were too large to navigate the inland waterways, but patrolled at the mouth of the inlets looking for blockade runners. While many blockade runners were captured, Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren noted in one 1864 report, “The new light-draft and fast-sailing blockade runners are arriving and escaping Charleston with better prospects than before...”, The smaller Union ships that served as picket boats or tugboats did prober the inlets, often performing a reconnaissance mission, but also providing cover for foraging parties that landed on Dewees Island, Caper's Island, or Bull's Island., Dewees Inlet was only twelve feet deep at mean high tide and seven feet deep at low tide, but that was enough water for light draft ships like the USS Gladiolus, Mary Sanford, Azalea, Amaranthus, or Restless. These tugboats carried sufficient armament to pose a threat. The Union army and navy also performed joint missions to probe the waterways. In September 1864, the Union navy used two launches, armed with howitzers, to accompany seven troop transports used by the army for a mission at Dewees Inlet. They were supported by the firepower of the armed tugboats USS Amaranthus, Azalea, and Gladiolus., Fort Palmetto, overlooking the Copahee Sound and Dewees Inlet, was strategically located to keep Federal ships from running the inland waterway to land troops near Mount Pleasant or navigate toward Charleston. During the war, there was never a successful mission by Union ships to reach the inland waterway via Dewees Inlet., This observation tower, like the parapet of Fort Palmetto, provides an excellent view of the inland waterway and Dewees Inlet. The height of the tower replicated the height advantage that Confederate pickets had in watching the waterway and inlet for any signs of enemy activity., (captions) , A portion of an 1863 map produced by the U.S. Coast Survey , The USS Winona, a heavily armed Unadilla-class side-wheel gunboat, that patrolled the South Carolina coast in 1864. , The USS South Carolina, a screw-propelled steamship, armed with four 8-inch guns and one 32-pound gun. , Confederate soldiers in Christ Church Parish posing with their field artillery.