On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1864, Charleston Harbor became the site of a world first. The Confederate submarine CSS Hunley approached the Union warship USS Housatonic under the cover of night. A spar torpedo struck, sending the Housatonic to the bottom of the harbor and proving that submarines could change the course of war. The Hunley never returned, but the attack marked the beginning of submarine warfare and remains one of the most dramatic moments in Civil War naval history.

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