Unexploded Shell Found at Fort McAllister-- Part 2

Just the Facts, Sir!!

** The USS Patapsco was a 1335-ton Passaic-class monitor built in Wilmington, Delaware, commissioned Jan. 1863, and assigned to the South Atlantic Blockading Fleet.

** 241-feet long, 46 feet wide, 6 knots, 105 officers and men, single turret, Armament: 1 X 15-inch smoothbore, 1 X 8-inch Parrott rifle (the found-shell would have been fired by this one).

** It bombarded Fort McAlister March 3, 1863.

** In April 1863, hit 47 times by Confederate shells in an attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

** January 14, 1865, struck a Confederate mine in Charleston Harbor and sank in less than a minute with 62 deaths.

More to Come. --Old B-R'er