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Browsing named entities in The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 5: Forts and Artillery. (ed. Francis Trevelyan Miller). You can also browse the collection for August 17th, 1863 AD or search for August 17th, 1863 AD in all documents.

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The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 5: Forts and Artillery. (ed. Francis Trevelyan Miller), Attack and defense at Charleston (search)
n their weight, they sat on the plank and pushed it forward between their legs. The mud was twenty feet deep, and men on such a plank could start waves rippling across the oozy surface by jumping up and down. It is said that one of the officers detailed for the construction of the plat-forms called for twenty men, eighteen feet long! In spite of these difficulties piles were driven in the marsh at a point that commanded the city of Charleston and a platform at length laid upon it. On August 17, 1863, an 8-inch, 200-pounder Parrott rifle was skidded across the marsh and mounted behind the sandbag parapet. On the night of August 21st, after warning had been sent to the Confederate commander, General Beauregard, the gun was fired so that the missiles should fall in the heart of Charleston. Sixteen shells filled with Greek fire were sent that night. On August 23d, at the thirty-sixth discharge, the breech of the gun was blown out and the barrel thereby thrown upon the sand-bag parap