SWAMP ANGEL
A Bad Eminence in History
Not a Footnote. An Episode.
The Union gun that fired across nearly five miles of darkness toward Charleston—and became one of the Civil War’s most contested relics.
Publishing August 21, 2026
The gun fired only thirty-six times. Its story did not end there.
In August 1863, Union forces hauled a massive 200-pounder Parrott rifle into a battery built deep in the marshes outside Charleston, South Carolina. From there, the gun known as the Swamp Angel hurled shells across nearly five miles of darkness toward a city filled with civilians.
It fired only thirty-six times before bursting, but those shots helped transform the bombardment of Charleston into one of the Civil War’s most controversial episodes. The book follows the men who built and served the Marsh Battery, the civilians beneath its shells, the inventors who competed to bring incendiary fire to the battlefield, and the shattered gun’s extraordinary afterlife in Trenton, New Jersey.
From the Research File
The story of the Swamp Angel survives in letters, newspapers, military reports, maps, photographs, artifacts, and the records left behind by the people who experienced it.
Some documents, artifacts, images, quotes, and odd survivals shape the research but cannot all fit neatly into the finished narrative. Others appear only briefly on the page, even though they helped me understand the larger world around the Swamp Angel.
From the Research File is a place for those pieces: newspaper items, handbills, letters, photographs, drawings, advertisements, printed ephemera, and small discoveries from years of research.
Not every item changed the course of the story. But each one adds texture. Together, they show that the Swamp Angel was not a single isolated event. It belonged to a larger web of invention, war, memory, argument, and survival.
About the Author
Charles D. Webster IV is a journalist, historian, researcher, and U.S. Army veteran. His work combines archival research with narrative history, drawing on newspapers, letters, military records, photographs, maps, and artifacts to recover overlooked episodes from the past.
Follow publication news, appearances, interviews, and new material from the research behind Swamp Angel: A Bad Eminence in History.