1) WELCOME TO THE NEW HUNLEY NEWSLETTER
2) SINKING THEORIES: FACTS AND HYPOTHESIS
3) “Fort Johnson is the key of Charleston” THE HUNLEY AND THE ETIWAN
4) IN CASE YOU MISSED IT-REINTERMENT NEWS -NEW ANNOUNCEMENT
5) E-MAIL 
6) FROM THE GUEST BOOK
7) OUR PURPOSE AND GOALS  

 

1) WELCOME TO THE NEW HUNLEY NEWSLETTER

A special welcome to all the new subscribers. This newsletter is published every two weeks so no one is bombarded with mail.  This issue contains a mid-poll follow-up of the results of the Sinking Theories Poll we started last week, also an article on Fort Johnson described as the "Key of Charleston" during the Civil War about the Hunley's first sinking and the "Etiwan"

The First Confederate Flag

Photography:

 

Confederate Submarine H L Hunley with plates removed.
As work was completed the submarine was lowered back into its tank to reduce further corrosion.. 

Commander Lt. George E. Dixon's legs are removed from the forward section of the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley.  

SINKING THEORIES

Last newsletter we asked everyone to vote on their favorite or most logical and acceptable theory on the sinking of the Hunley.  The final result will be given in the next newsletter, we have had a great response Click to Vote your own Theory or to view others

Here are some examples of what we have received:

  "I think the explosion blew a hole in the forward hatch"

"With the forward hatch found to be latched, but not tightened, and the calcium formed in the air locked compartment would suggest that Dixon was caught off guard do to the result of the explosion, the resultant wave, and huge void of water, the Hunley took on water due to the combination of the heavy sea, the wave from the explosion, and the resultant turbulence.  It is possible that Hunley took on an excessive amount of water, incapacitating some of the crew, and not affording the bilge pumps to work properly. When the Hunley rested on the floor of the ocean, the pressure shut the hatch. After the years of laying upright, and with the possibility of later rolling onto the starboard side, the hatch may have been forced open a bit due to the residual air bubble. The rudder may have been weakened by the explosion, and with the tide motion, been caught under the hull. Damage to the hull could have been by a dragging anchor, or shrapnel from the Housatonic. Thank you. Peter Joy."

"Concussion could have caused unconsciousness. Dixon out longer than the rest of the crew, lesser sailor in charge. Sailed out from shore by mistake, then Dixon regains consciousness, believing they have been making for shore he decides to check. Finds they are on the wrong side of the Housatonic. They decide to rest and wait it out on bottom. Having endured great stress they are at a reduced capacity and would more susceptible to anoxia.!? "

"How does the combination of elements sound? Lt. Dixon making a mistake, along with equipment failure, the propeller being fouled and attempting to wait out the rescue operations. Bill Snyder "

Press conference Friday, May 16, 2003.

Scientist working on the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley announced that it will take up to three more years of study to determine substantially the cause of the sinking of the Hunley.

The final determination will be made by the scientific combination of the forensics, the archaeology and geology which includes sedimentation of the interior. Officials are saying that they will be able to come up with a theory with a high degree of certainty as to the last minutes of the Hunley.

Last newsletter we discussed the basic nine theories of sinking and readers have since added a few more. The theories, in form of a survey that readers could vote on, run from Dixon’s miscalculations to waiting it out and running out of air. The survey  which is still available on line at www.thehunley.com will be completed by time the next newsletter comes out on May 30^th.
 

 

“Fort Johnson is the key of Charleston”

FORT JOHNSON - WAR IS OVER AND THE UNION FLAG IS AT HALF-MAST

Excerpt from Report of Commander Marchand, U.S. Navy, commanding U.S.S. James Adger, proposing a method of attack on the defenses of Charleston, S.C.

U. S. S. JAMES ADGER,
Off Charleston, May 19, 1862.

SIR: In a conversation I had the honor to hold with you this morning, it is possible that I had not conveyed my ideas with regard to the reduction of Charleston so as to be understood, and hence I will repeat:

I deem that Fort Johnson is the key of Charleston. An army movement toward that place, either across Stono River or from Stono Inlet, will accomplish its reduction.

Should Fort Johnson be taken, the obstructions in the harbor would prevent communication by water between Charleston and Forts Sumter and Moultrie and the batteries on Sullivan s and Morris islands.

Having at present, with the naval forces under my charge, the virtual possession of Stono Inlet, from which a forward movement of the army toward Fort Johnson can at any moment be made, I have daily hopes of getting some of the gunboats across the bar into Stono Inlet. Should that be unsuccessful, the light-draft steamers you promised will enable me to remove the obstructions in the Stono River a sufficient distance beyond the marshy ground to permit the army to cross that river from North Edisto, and possibly, by an interior communication pointed out to-day by Mr. Boutelle from Stono Inlet, another detachment of the army may be landed on hard ground between the Stono River (where it is surmised the main body of the army will cross that narrow stream) and Fort Johnson.

Permit me again to repeat that Fort Johnson is the key of Charleston and its defenses at the present time.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

 J. B. MARCHAND,

 James Island played a major role in the defense of Charleston and the saga of the Confederate Submarine H L Hunley during the Civil War. With approximately 4 ¼ nautical miles of Charleston Harbor frontage the sparsely populated James Island was vital to the defense and protection of the City of Charleston.  As a second line of defense against the Northern Aggression the Confederate Batteries on the Island protected the City both from land and sea attack.   The Stono River on the west and Southwest side and the harbor entrance and Ashley River on the North and Northeast were vulnerable.  The mouth of Charleston harbor was primarily protected by two islands, Sullivan’s Island with Fort Moultrie and its batteries to the north and Battery Gregg, Wagner, and Star of the West at Cummings Point at the tip of Morris Island to the south. Further south down the coast was Folly Island which separated James Island from the Atlantic Ocean. Directly behind Battery Gregg close to the middle of the Harbor entrance was Fort Sumter that took the blunt of all the Federal attacks toward Charleston. Battery Simkins was in a line of defense between Fort Johnson directly west of Fort Sumter less than 1000 yards away. Hiding in the shadows of Fort Sumter little over a nautical mile away was Fort Johnson out of view of the Northern Blockading fleet and Ironclad ships.

Fort Johnson provided a reasonably secure oasis from bombardment and spying operations of the Yankee fleet patrolling the harbor entrance.

Four days after Union Major Robert Anderson’s secret mission to move to Fort Sumter on December 26, 1860 and only three days after the take over of Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie by Confederate troops another fort had to be considered. Fort Johnson on James Island abandoned by the Union was calculated as too dilapidated and in need of repair to be useful to the Federal troops.  However, the South Carolinians knew there was value to be had. For one, Fort Johnson was a fuel dump of coal and wood, something the Federal troops would desperately have needed on Fort Sumter. Within three months, the South built and erected two mortar batteries and an additional battery of three guns, one of which was originally aimed at Fort Sumter. This east mortar battery consisted of two guns, one of which was believed to be the gun that fired the opening shot of the Civil War.

At 4:30 a.m. April 12, 1861, a signal shell exploded over the parade ground in the center of the Fort Sumter.  On Fort Johnson, Lt. Stephen D. Lee issued the order allow the firing of the first shot by Captain George S. James of South Carolina. The 10-inch mortar conveyed flame, smoke and a round shell when a lanyard was pulled. The lanyard launched a fiery ball that arched across the harbor with its fuse dragging a tail like a comet.  When it exploded, it illuminated the brick fort in the black of night while cheers could be heard from the rooftops of many of the homes along the Battery. Confederate guns from the surrounding forts responded to the signal shot with shot and shell of their own. The War of Rebellion had begun.

Over the next three years, Fort Johnson’s status was re-enforced to include turning it into an entrenched camp of substantial power with over 26 guns and mortars.

Fort Johnson at the end of the Civil War and Today

August 1863 was an important month for Fort Johnson.  Duels between Federal ironclads and Ft. Moultrie and Sumter were beginning to be a daily occurrence now that parts of Morris Island were in Federal hands. We know that on August 12, 1863 a Confederate submersible was mounted on two railroad cars and transported from Mobile, Alabama to downtown Charleston where it was off loaded at the Calhoun Street Railroad station.  Within the next couple of weeks, while E.C. Singer was designing and building the explosive devices to be used, the civilian owners and crew were testing their new secret weapon around the inner harbor.

Horace L. Hunley was in Charleston on August 21 and ordered Confederate Uniforms for his civilian crew who were feeling the pressure of the increased bombing of the forts at the harbor entrance. But practice was all the civilian crew did.

On the night of August 21-22 at 1:30 AM the citizens of Charleston were awakened by the tremendous explosion of a 200 pound shell. Before daylight, 14 more shells would land directly in the city. The intent was to kill, maim and discourage the citizens of the city of Charleston and force surrender.

The Union had constructed a marsh battery off Bass Creek behind Morris Island upon which they mounted a gun nicknamed the “Swamp Angel”, a huge 8 inch Parrot which could throw a 200 lb shell the distance of 4 1/2 miles. The next day, August 23, 1863, one week before the Confederate Submarine H L Hunley was secretly moved to Fort Johnson, the “Swamp Angel” fired 21 more shells into the City before bursting. 
 

Order of Rear-Admiral Dahlgren, U. S. Navy, enjoining vigilance against surprise from the enemy.

FLAG-STEAMER DINSMORE,
Off Morris Island, August 5, 1863.

It is rumored that the enemy have a ram near Fort Johnson and have removed a line of buoys in the harbor. Whether the suspicion be correct or not, it is proper to guard against any surprise.

Therefore the utmost vigilance must be used to detect any movement and the vessels kept ready for attack at the first notice of the enemy's approach.

The advance monitor should be underway or ready to slip and the picket boats feel well around so as to detect the least move.

 J. A. DAHLGREN,
Rear-Admiral, Comdg. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron.

-----

 With the escalated siege against Charleston and the lack of aggressive measures by her civilian crew, the Confederate Navy was ordered to take command of the Hunley and by August 26 the South’s secret weapon was assigned a volunteer naval crew. This new crew immediately started practice diving and surfacing around the harbor earning it the title of “The Porpoise”, when they were ordered to Fort Johnson to prepare for a night attack against the Union blockading fleet.

 It was Saturday the 29th day of August 1863, the now Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley, formerly the top secret privateer submersible, was docked at Fort Johnson. Lieutenant John Payne, with the Confederate States Navy, was commissioned as commander of the H. L. Hunley, after General Beauregard took custody of her.  Lt. Payne had already recruited volunteers from the Confederate Rams, the Chicora and the Palmetto State. Lt. Charles Hasker was recruited that day to sit in for Charles Stanton who had other duties on the Chicora. Lt. Hasker was to take the second position behind Commander Payne. Another four crewmen, Frank Doyle, John Kelly, Michael Cane, and Nicholas Davis were volunteers from the Chicora; Absolum Williams was on board from the Palmetto State. The Number 8 crewman’s name is still unknown. 

It was late afternoon and the entire crew was on board and in position when Commander Payne was climbing into the forward hatch as he took a last look around.  The Confederate Steamer Etiwan was approaching to dock.

The Hunley with its black paint, weighted down and balanced, was ready for her first stealth mission. The lead ballast forward and stern, iron blocks, and the detachable keel added with the weight of eight men left only her turrets showing. She was engineered to ride low in the water with only the 150 pound hatch covers and the turrets showing above sea level. Suddenly the wake from the Etiwan rocked the Hunley knocking Lt. Payne off the boat. As the Hunley healed over at a 60 degree angle, water started gushing into the open hatches. The thirty-two year old, Lt. Charles Hasker, the old man of the crew, had grown up on the water and had been in the Navy half his life. He had already survived the duel between the Monitor and the Virginia at Hampton Roads. Hasker was in position below when he felt the ship rock and saw the gushing water. He heard the gasp of the six men behind him and realized this was not a good thing. Instinct took over and he immediately started climbing over the metal axel which connected the fins, then through the waterfall, into the forward tower and up when the forward hatch closed down on him like a crab claw.  Lt. Hasker was dragged the full 42 feet down to the muddy bottom before he was able to break loose from the trap and swim to the surface.  During all of this the Unknown Soldier was able to escape out of the open rear hatch before it was slammed closed by the ocean. The other five crewmen drowned in the metal coffin.

Lt. John Payne was swept away by the speeding currents and later rescued by the Etiwan swearing he would never go near a submarine again. Lt. Hasker after a number of years testified that the Hunley sank for more than a few reasons, the wake from the Etiwan in combination with the hatches being open and assisted by Lt. Payne’s clumsiness.  He stated that as Payne was climbing in and getting settled his foot pushed the joystick controlling the diving fins putting the sub into an immediate dive mode.  The wake alone rocking the Hunley would not have sunk her and Lt. Hasker was so glad to be alive he was not willing to make issue of it.  Hasker is quoted truthfully as saying, “I was the only man that went to the bottom with the ‘Fish Boat’ and came up to tell the tale.” It had taken the Confederate military only one week to sink the Hunley and Horace L. Hunley wanted his boat back. The Hunley Submarine was raised by September 14, 1863 and towed back to the railroad dock in the City where she originally entered Charleston; the five trapped bodies had to be surgically removed due to bloating, a gruesome task and a smell to match. Horace applied for soap and brushes but could not entirely remove the smell of death that would haunt the submarine forever.

Because the Hunley was a top secret mission the only item of news ran in the Charleston Daily Courier on August 31, 1863:

 "On Saturday last, while Lts. Payne and Hasker, of the C.S. Navy, were experimenting with a boat in the harbor, she parted from her moorings and became suddenly submerged, carry down with her five seamen, who were drowned.  The boat and bodies had not been recovered up to a late hour on Sunday.  Four of the men belonged to the gunboat Chicora and were named, Frank Doyle, John Kelly, Michael Cane, and Nicholas Davis.  The fifth man, whose name we did not learn, was attached to the Palmetto State."

NOTE: We now know that the 5th crewman was Absolum Williams - the only Afro-American crewman to die associated with the Hunley. His name was never inscribed on the Hunley Memorial Monument at South Battery, White Point Gardens at the end of Meeting Street, Charleston, S.C.


 

• Fort Johnson earned its keep during the major action of July 3, 1864, four months after the final sinking of the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley, when the Southern troops defeated a Union advance from Morris Island. Fort Johnson was evacuated along with the other Charleston Forts during the night of February 17-18, 1865.

"Lt. George E. Dixon's
remains may go to his last-known hometown, Mobile, Ala., for a
recognition there."

 

APRIL17, 2004 IS THE PROJECTED DATE FOR THE REINTERMENT OF THE LAST CREW FROM THE CONFEDERATE SUBMARINE H.L. HUNLEY

The final crew of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley will be laid to rest in
Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery next April.
It will have taken 140 years to finally lay to rest the last crew of the submarine. All eight crewmen will be interred with military honors and with the dignity and honor they deserve.

Friends of the Hunley, Inc. officials expect the funeral to have a major financial impact on
Charleston as Civil War re-enactors, submarine veterans from around the world and history
enthusiast  from all parts will be scrambling to attend. Charleston could be flooded with over 40,000 people vying for hotel rooms, parking and souvenirs. As much as officials will try to maintain a certain dignity to the event, things are sure to get out of hand.

"The attraction is that it truly may be the last Confederate burial,"
said Warren Lasch, chairman of Friends of the Hunley.

Other Civil War graves may be uncovered from locations around the
country, Lasch said, but this may be the last time in the nation's
history that victims killed in the war are laid to rest from off the
battlefield.

Hunley Officials are planning a Friday press conference to announce the details of the funeral and the exact target date. The burial will include a period march through Charleston. That's what happened in 1999 and 2000 when the remains of about 30 Civil War
soldiers, Marines and earlier Hunley sailors were buried.

Those remains, which were recovered from beneath The Citadel's
football stadium, were carried through the city on horse-drawn carts
from The Battery to Magnolia Cemetery. Re-enactors and women in
mourning dress marched with them while thousands lined East Bay
Street to watch.

November of 2003 was the preliminary date to bury the crew,
but with only 4 of the 8 crews remains ready for burial the date had to be delayed. The faces of 4 of the crewmen are ready to be displayed.

The week of Feb. 17, 2004, the 140th anniversary of the sub's final mission -- was ruled out because of the  Southeastern Wildlife Exposition.

The Hunley was last seen on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, before it rammed an explosive charge into the hull of the USS Housatonic. It was discovered almost five miles from Fort Sumter by Dr. E. Lee Spence in 1970's and raised in August 2000.

Two previous crews from the Hunley  are already buried in Magnolia
Cemetery, including  Horace L. Hunley. The remains of
the final crew of the Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley  are being kept in a morgue at the Warren Lasch conservation lab in North Charleston.
 

The Post and Courier reports:
And, in unusually blunt language, a leading organizer of the Hunley
effort said that if anyone has a problem with the planned Confederate
burial, "tough."

"We have no apologies for who these people are," state Sen. Glenn
McConnell, R-Charleston, the chairman of the state Hunley Commission,
said at a news conference at Magnolia Cemetery. "If somebody doesn't
like it, that's tough.

"I would think that anybody with good taste would not engage in any
kind of disruption," he added.

As a warning to treasure hunters, no artifacts from the sub will be
buried with the remains, McConnell said, adding that they will be
covered by concrete after the interment to prevent tampering.

Organizers say the funeral will include a 4.5-mile march through
Charleston from The Battery to the cemetery, with thousands of re-
enactors taking part.

Efforts are under way to identify descendents of all eight crewmen,
although organizers say details have been slow in coming.

"It may be that we don't know some of the families before we lay them
to rest," McConnell said.

The funeral will begin with a one-hour ceremony at the Confederate
monument at White Point Garden that will honor the men of the Hunley
and its victim, the Union blockade ship Housatonic.

Another effort is under way to have the crew lie in state inside the
South Carolina Statehouse, and sub commander Lt. George E. Dixon's
remains may go to his last-known hometown, Mobile, Ala., for a
recognition there.

The Hunley was lost the night of Feb. 17, 1864, after it rammed an
explosive charge the Housatonic. It was discovered four miles off
Sullivan's Island in late 1970 by Dr. E. Lee Spence and was raised in August 2000. Two previous crews from the Hunley that were lost during test missions around Charleston Harbor already are buried in Magnolia Cemetery, including sub benefactor Horace L. Hunley.

(Excerpts from the Post and Courier and Charleston.Net  with permission.)

5) E-MAIL

THE CSS ETIWAN NOTES

ETIWAN, ETWAN, ETOWAH, ETOWAN or HETIWAN, wooden hull side-wheel 132 ton steamer
 built 1834 at Charleston, S.C., operated in Charleston Harbor throughout the Civil War as a transport 
and cargo ship between the forts and city. Damaged by torpedo (mine) near Fort Johnson April 4, 1863 
and was run ashore to prevent her sinking. Repaired and resumed transport duties. Five months later 
ETIWAN was involved in the sinking at the wharf at Fort Johnson Confederate Submarine Torpedo Boat 
H. L. HUNLEY on 29 August 1863. ETIWAN was run ashore again June 7, 1864 and shelled by Union 
batteries on Morris Island.  Found wrecked in Charleston Harbor At the close of the Civil War. She was 
fitted for service to the Army Quartermaster Department engaged in clearing the harbor after the Civil War. April 1867 
became merchant steamer ST. HELENA   Institute of Nautical Archaeology

Is to provide specialized information to those who are interested in the recovery efforts and history of the Confederate Submarine H L Hunley. It is available free to anyone who might benefit from the information it contains, for example, students and history buffs. Our mailing list will always be kept private and will never be sold.

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The Navy Jack from 1863