The Sinking of USS Housatonic on 17 February 1864 during the American Civil War was an important turning point in naval warfare. The Confederate States Navy submarine, H.L. Hunley made her first and only attack on a Union Navy warship when she staged a clandestine night attack on the USS Housatonic in Charleston harbor. The Hunley approached just under the surface, avoiding detection until the last moments, then embedded and remotely detonated a spar torpedo that rapidly sank the 1,260 ton sloop-of-war with the loss of five Union sailors. Although the victory was Pyrrhic and short-lived, since the Hunley herself was sunk during the attack with the loss of all eight Confederate crewmen, the H. L. Hunley became renowned as the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy vessel in combat an