© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - 610

On Friday, July 10, 1863 Union troops landed on the south end of Morris Island near Charlestown, South Carolina.  This constituted the first step of a siege that would last until September; Federal troops first had to subdue Fort Wagner, one of the main defenses protecting Charlestown Harbor, if Charlestown was to be taken. 

A concerned Jefferson Davis, writing earlier to General Joseph Johnston, urged that the enemy “may yet be crushed and the late disaster be repaired by a concentration of all forces.” 

But given the recent reverses suffered by his armies and their subsequent weaknesses and the sheer size of the Confederacy which they had to defend, it virtually was too late to reverse the fortunes of war.  Yet Davis blindly continued to expect successes from his beleaguered generals.