el had just been launched at Charleston. She was
a casemate iron-clad, with armor four inches in thickness, and carried
a battery of two nine-inch smooth-bore shell guns, and two six-inch
Brooks rifles, throwing a projectile weighing sixty pounds. Flag
Officer Duncan N. Ingraham commanded the Charleston squadron, and flew
his flag on board the _Palmetto State_, Lieutenant Commanding John
Rutledge. The _Palmetto State_ was an iron-clad, similar to the
_Chicora_ in build and armor, carrying a battery of one seven-inch
rifled gun forward, one six-inch rifled gun aft, and one eight-inch
shell gun on each broadside.

On the night of January 31st, 1863, the two Confederate iron-clads
made a successful attack on the Federal blockading squadron off
Charleston. Passing the bar of Charleston harbor at early dawn, the
Confederate iron-clads quickly drove the blockading vessels out to
sea, and the blockade was broken, at least for some hours. In his
official report of this action Flag Officer Ingraham says, "I cannot
speak in too high terms of the conduct of Commander Tucker and
Lieutenant Commanding Rutledge; the former handled his vessel in a
beautiful manner and did the enemy much damage. I refer you to his
official report."

The official report to which Flag Officer Ingraham refers the
Confederate Secretary of the Navy is as follows:

"CONFEDERATE STATES STEAMER _Chicora_,
"January 31st, 1863.

"_Sir_--In obedience to your order, I got under way at 11.30
P.M. yesterday, and stood down the harbor in company with the
Confederate States steamer _Palmetto State_, bearing your
flag. We crossed the bar at 4.40 A.M., and commenced the
action at 5.20 A.M. by firing into a schooner-rigged
propeller, which we set on fire and have every reason to
believe sunk, as she was nowhere to be seen at daylight. We
then engaged a large sidewheel steamer, twice our length from
us on the port bow, firing three shots into her with telling
effect, when she made a run for it. This vessel was supposed
to be the _Quaker City_. We then engaged a schooner-rigged
propeller and a large sidewheel steamer, partially crippling
both, and setting the latter on fire, causing her to strike
her flag; at this time the latter vessel, supposed to be the
_Keystone State_, was completely at my mercy, I having taken
position astern, distant some two hundred yards