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One complete nonsense post. The Harriet Lane fired on the Nashville. The Nashville stopped....all in the O. R.

You do not know anything about "low light", and there is nothing in the O. R. about your contention.

And the "only seizure" is seizure.

You can prattle on and on. Union ships were there, firing, seizing, and threatening.........all in the official records. And nothing you are saying changes that.

So prattle on, and waste energy trying to be right. But you won't be no matter what you post.

One complete nonsense post. The Harriet Lane fired on the Nashville. The Nashville stopped....all in the O. R.

Where? There's actually nothing in the OR about the Nashville/Harriet Lane matter, except Fox's report that the Nashville and other merchant ships were laying off the bar "awaiting the results o fthe bombardment."

What I do find in the OR is a letter from Commander Harstene saying that "I have just made out the vessels off. They are the Pawnee, Harriet Lane, Nashville, Atlantic (Baltic), and a merchant schooner. They cannot enter in their vessels. With a good lookout (for a lookout stationed here, and a boat in the channel, together with their fire hulks, which are still floating in a line around Fort Sumter) I think you have no fear of an entrance here."

Sounds to me like it's the rebels who are insuring that the ships are unable to proceed.

Then, of course, there's the gale blowing the whole time, and the heavy seas, and the tricky channel entrance into Charleston, and the fact that there's a major artillery barrage going on. But none of those things have anything to do with the ships waiting off the bar. It's because the Harriet Lane fired a shot across the bow of the Nashville. Fine. Believe what you want. Believe that it makes no difference that the ice schooner was seized before or after the firing on Sumter began. Believe that the rebels firing on the Star of the West months earlier doesn't count as the "first shot of the war." Or the firing on the Rhoda H. Shannon. And speaking of the Rhoda H. Shannon, here's an interesting bit, " When the Shannon was fired upon, the vessel's master raised the American flag thinking he was being asked to show his colors! Continuing into the harbor, more shots were fired, the ship was struck, and it turned back to sea." Hmm. Shots fired, the ships raises its colors and proceeds. Where have I seen that before? Of course, unlike the Harriet Lane, the rebels continued to fire on the ice schooner.

Now, if you want to talk seizures, let's talk about the confederate seizure of the US ships Isabella, Henry Dodge, Washington and others, all long before any expedition to relieve Sumter.