Actually HR585 was a request for an additional Federal appropriation to lower the bar in Charleston harbor. I'd hate to think that Federal represntatives from South Carolina were trying to appropriate additional money they didn't actually need.
Your statement "I expect the City of Charleston and the State of South Carolina did not fund the project" is just flat out wrong...
No it isn't, your reading between the lines however is.
The City of Charleston was a sub-contracter to the Federal government. They spent money to buy a dredgeboat so they could bill the Federal govenement for the work the boat did. According to your own sources in 1857 the General Moultrie pumped 190,00 cubic yards of silt @ 66cents per yard. Thats roughly $125,000 dollars, more than enough to offset the cost of the dredgeboat.
-btw Federal appropriations for improvements to the Charleston Harbor have a long and illustrious history. A quick visit to Lindsey Graham's website reveals $5,000,000 appropriated for that purpose this year.
"Actually HR585 was a request for an additional Federal appropriation to lower the bar in Charleston harbor. I'd hate to think that Federal represntatives from South Carolina were trying to appropriate additional money they didn't actually need."
It appears from the Congressional Record that this appropriation was not approved by this Congress.
It originated in the House as H.R.585, and after passage, became S. 618 in the Senate. But it looks as if it never received final approval and therefore your opinion is exposed as incorrect.
Link:
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llhj&fileName=050/llhj050.db&recNum=651&itemLink=r%3Fammem%2Fhlaw%3A@field%28DOCID%2B@lit%28hj0501%29%29%3A%230500001&linkText=1
So it appears that it is you who is not only reading between the lines, but making it up as you go along.
"The City of Charleston was a sub-contracter to the Federal government. They spent money to buy a dredgeboat so they could bill the Federal govenement for the work the boat did."
Again wrong. You are just making things up as you go.
You will find in the "History of the Waterways of the Atlantic Coast of the United States" that projects remained unfunded until after the war.
Located here:
http://www.usace.army.mil/inet/usace-docs/misc/nws83-10/
"The act of 1852 failed to restore an ongoing program of
navigation improvement. The Democrats won the election, and
with the party opposed to internal improvements in power for the rest of the decade, Congress did not pass another general rivers and harbors bill until after the Civil War.
"Through special acts it authorized four works in the interior and three in the East, and passed five of these bills over the vetoes of President Pierce.
"The three eastern projects allowed the Corps to continue
work on the Savannah and Cape Fear rivers and to deepen the
Patapsco River to make Baltimore Harbor accessible to steam
frigates and other vessels of the United States Navy.
"When these appropriations and those of 1852 ran out, river and harbor improvement by the federal government again came to a halt, with many projects still uncompleted.
Except of course the dredging project in Charleston Harbor that was completed in 1860, and financed by the City of Charleston.