Battery Ramsay

George Barnard took this photograph about March 14, 1865. It looks north from the southernmost corner of the Battery, past Louis DeSaussure’s mansion and up East Battery Street. The big gun to the left is one of the two 11-inch Dahlgren smoothbores that were salvaged by Confederates from the wreck of USS Keokuk, which had been sunk in the Federal naval attack of April 7, 1863. The twin 11-inch Dahlgren from the wreck is located on the Battery today. The tube is identified by the cut down muzzle rims sides so that it could be run out of the Keokuk turret. The fortification was named for Maj. David Ramsay of the Charleston Battalion, who fell in the Union assault on Fort Wagner. His gravestone in the yard of Circular Congregational Church reads: He fell mortally wounded Gallantly fighting in the Defence Of Battery Wagner on Morris Island On the 18th day of July 1863. He died on the 4th day of August ensuing. Aged 32 years 11 months and 10 days. Quis Desiderio Sit Pudor Aut Modus Tam Cari Capitis. The Latin is a famous line from Horace’s Carmina: “What limit can there be in our grief for a man so beloved?”

This is the caption as printed in 100 Significant Civil War Photographs: Charleston in the War. It has not yet been through this site’s research and fact-checking pass.