Tag: Battery Hays (Morris Island SC)

Wikipedia says: Morris Island is an 840-acre (3.4 km²) uninhabited island in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, accessible only by boat. The island lies in the outer reaches of the harbor and was thus a strategic location in the American Civil War. The island is part of the cities of Charleston and Folly Beach, in Charleston County.

Morris Island was heavily fortified to defend Charleston Harbor, with the fortifications centered on Fort Wagner. On January 9, 1861, the first shots of the American Civil War were fired from cannons by cadets of The Citadel at the Star of the West as the ship tried to resupply Fort Sumter.

It was the scene of heavy fighting during the Union Army’s campaign to capture Charleston, and is perhaps best known today as the scene of the ill-fated assault by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, an African-American regiment. The regiment and this assault, where it suffered over 50% casualties, was immortalized in the film Glory.

After the Confederates abandoned Morris Island in 1863 the Union occupied it. In the next year they transferred 600 Confederate officers from Fort Delaware to Morris Island; 50 of whom were quickly exchanged. The others were utilized as human shields in an attempt to silence the Confederate artillery at Fort Sumter; in reaction to what the Confederacy did with POWs in Charleston to deter Union ships from firing on the city. None of these men were killed by artillery fire though several died of sickness. They soon became known in the South as the Immortal Six Hundred.

Beach erosion has destroyed a great deal of the old fortifications on the island, including some parts of Fort Wagner.

Morris Island is also the site of the Morris Island Light, a lighthouse that stands on the southern side of the entrance to Charleston Harbor, north of the town of Folly Beach.