The ships, under command of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, attacked the Confederate defenses near the entrance to Charleston Harbor.

Navy Department officials in Washington hoped for a stunning success that would validate a new form of warfare, with armored warships mounting heavy guns reducing traditional forts.

A mood of war-weariness was evident throughout the North, and the fall elections, regarded as a referendum on the war, had shown a swing away from the Republican party.

The Lincoln Administration therefore began to apply great pressure on its field commanders to achieve some success that would lift the national spirit.

Its value as a port for blockade runners was not much greater than that of Mobile, Alabama or Savannah, Georgia, and all were eclipsed by Wilmington, North Carolina.

[5] The Navy Department supported the operation by assigning almost all of its armored vessels to the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, commanded by Rear Admiral Du Pont.

The Passaic class gunboats were designed as improved versions of the original USS Monitor; as they were commissioned, they were sent to South Carolina, so seven of them were able to participate in the attack.

Although they could withstand whatever punishment the coastal artillery of the day could mete out, their offensive capabilities were severely restricted.

As he had led the rebel forces at Charleston at the time of the bombardment of Fort Sumter that opened the war, he was intimately familiar with the fortifications surrounding the city.

A third ring, formed of several batteries on the Cooper and Ashley Rivers and in Charleston, was intended to protect against land assault on the city.

Formed of 20-foot (6.1 m) lengths of railroad iron floated by large timbers, bound together by chains, and anchored at intervals, this barrier also broke under the strain imposed by the tides.

Two armored gunboats, CSS Chicora and Palmetto State, were ready to fight if the invaders neared the city.

[16] He wrote to Governor Francis W. Pickens to state his position: "As I understand it is the wish of all, people and government, that the city shall be defended to the last extremity.

"[17] Du Pont chose to mount the attack in the early part of April, in order to take advantage of the spring tides brought by the full Moon.

Because of Du Pont's often-expressed fears of torpedoes in the harbor, the department had called on the man who designed the monitors, John Ericsson, to provide some means of defense.

In the event, the motion of the raft pounded his ship so severely that Rodgers decided to cast it loose before it had cleared any enemy torpedoes.

These were followed by the flagship, New Ironsides, commanded by Commodore Thomas Turner; also aboard were Rear Admiral Du Pont and his fleet captain, Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers.

[24] The waiting Rebels could not have chosen a better place for New Ironsides to anchor, as she was directly over a 3000-pound (1360 kg) electrically triggered torpedo that would be activated by closing a switch on shore.

The other holds that the wires were simply too long, so the electric current would not be great enough to create a spark and detonate the charge.

Weehawken had advanced to a line of buoys that Captain Rodgers thought might mark torpedoes, so he swerved from the channel and stopped to consider what to do next.

[27] Their armor protected the crews, but several ships suffered damage that impaired their fighting abilities, such as jammed turrets and gunport stoppers.

[28] Du Pont in his official report[29] asserted that he fully intended to renew the attack the next day, but his captains were unanimously opposed.

Keokuk sank during the night (with no loss of life), two or three of the monitors had sustained damage that would keep them out of further action for days if not weeks, and the captains agreed that nothing good could come from prolonging the battle.

Even if they could knock out Fort Sumter, the rest of the fortifications remained, and the fleet had not penetrated the first defensive ring.

The Union had lost one ironclad, and Fort Sumter had sustained mild damage that could be repaired in short order, though it was somewhat more than Du Pont realized.

The small casualty list, coupled with Du Pont's evident reluctance beforehand, led him to believe at first that the attack was not pressed with vigor.

[35] Drayton was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Navigation, which would have made him a rear admiral, but he died of a heart attack while awaiting Senate confirmation.

[36] The monitors and New Ironsides continued to take part in the blockade of Charleston that remained in force, but the former never again inspired such awe among the Rebels as they had before the attack.

He and his crew worked by night and were able to escape notice of the blockaders; Du Pont did not suspect their activity until it was announced in the Charleston Mercury.