Chapter III: Part 3

Early on the morning of April 10th it began. A mortar at one of the batteries gave the signal, and the rest chimed in, one after another, as fast as the gunners could get their range. By ten o'clock all were in operation, mortars, columbiads, and rifled guns throwing their shells at the parapet or into the interior of the work, or battering its nearest wall, at the rate of four discharges per minute. They were answered with equal activity by the guns of the fort. This kept up all day long; the volumes of white smoke rolling out from both sides, and the reports, mellowed a little by the distance, following each other across the river in almost uninterrupted succession till nightfall. Then the heavy cannonading was suspended; but every five minutes a shell from one of the mortar batteries was sent into the fort, to keep its defenders uneasy and prevent their repairing the damages of the day.

From our point of observation we could not tell what effect had been produced thus far on the walls or parapets of either side; but neither the fire of the fort nor that of the batteries appeared seriously impaired. It seemed likely that several days might pass before a decisive result, and we waited patiently to see what the morrow would bring forth. We could not cross directly to Tybee island without coming under the guns of the fort, and could only get there by the circuitous route of Hilton Head, which would take far too much time, and would not, after all, give us so good a view of both sides as we already had. Moreover, a new mortar battery was to be established that night, from General Viele's command, on an island above the fort, to bombard it from the rear.

Next morning the music of the great guns began again. Neither side seemed disabled or disheartened, and the cannonading went on much as it had done the day before. But we had our own duties to perform, and however interesting the spectacle we could not watch it continuously. Early in the afternoon I was at a little distance from the house, when I missed all at once the sound of the guns. One five minutes passed by, and then another, but the silence continued. What did it mean? Were the batteries silenced, and the game played out and lost? That was hardly likely, because then the fort would no doubt become the attacking party and keep on worrying the batteries till they could be abandoned at nightfall. Still this was only a surmise, and we knew not what reason there might be against it. Hastily regaining our observatory on the roof, every available telescope was leveled at the parapet of the fort, where a white flag was visible in place of the rebel ensign. Pulaski had surrendered.

I do not think any one expected the end so soon. The fire of the fort had been nearly as vigorous the second day as the first. Its means of active defense were evidently far from exhausted; and yet it had given up the fight, as it were on a sudden, while still able to hold its own and perhaps tire out the enemy at last. But there was a reason for this, which we learned soon afterward on our visit to the place.

Of course every one was anxious to see the captured fort. On the following day General Viele with his staff went on board a small steamer and started for the trip. This time we were no longer obliged to take the crooked route through Wall's Cut and around Jones' island, but steamed directly down into the Savannah river opposite the fort. As we approached this frowning stronghold that had so long held us at bay, its effect was something to be remembered. Its massive walls covering five or six acres of ground, and its double row of heavy guns, seemed well able to repel intruders. For nearly three months we had looked at it with a mingled feeling of desire and dread. It would have been dangerous at any time to show ourselves within a mile of it; and it would have been a prison to any who should venture within a few hundred yards. Now we could tie up at the steamboat landing, and walk over the long pathway to its gorge, unchallenged by any but our own sentries. Inside, it was a strange sight; the parade ground was scored with deep trenches to receive the falling shells, and the interior walls were fenced with great blindages of square hewn timbers at an angle of forty-five degrees. For the garrison had been at work on their side, almost as hard as the besiegers. In many places the blindages were splintered by shot and shell, and the passage-ways beneath obstructed with the torn fragments.

The main effect of the cannonading was to be seen at the southeast angle of the fort. The outer wall was crumbled and ruined to such a degree that two of the casemates were open at the front and their guns half buried in the fallen débris; and the ditch, forty-eight feet wide, was partly filled with a confused heap of shattered masonry. Here it was that Captain Gillmore had concentrated the fire of his breaching batteries. As an army engineer, he was acquainted with the construction of Fort Pulaski; and he knew that the powder magazine was located at its northwest angle. This would bring it, after the breaching of the opposite wall, in the direct line of fire; and when the shells from his rifled guns began to pass through the opening and strike the defenses of the magazine, no choice was left to the garrison but surrender. They found themselves in momentary danger of explosion, and wisely lost no time in bringing the contest to an end.

The siege of Fort Pulaski was a very different affair from the battle of Port Royal. One was a naval, the other a military victory. At Hilton Head the troops could not have landed anywhere except under the protection of the navy; and after the reduction of the forts there was no longer any enemy to oppose them. At Pulaski the troops took possession of Tybee island, which the rebel commander had neglected or thought it unnecessary to protect, and planted their batteries on the only ground from which the fort could be attacked. Some valuable assistance was rendered by the gunboats in patrolling the neighboring sounds and inlets, but the main part of the work throughout was that of the artillerist and engineer.

I do not know why the enemy failed to interrupt this work by shelling the narrow strip of land, more than a mile in length, over which all the material for the batteries had to be transported. They must have known that something of this kind was the sole purpose for which our forces had occupied Tybee island; and their elaborate preparations for defense inside the fort showed that they were fully aware from what direction the attack would come. Perhaps after the fort was invested from above, they wished to economize their ammunition for the final struggle. Still one would think that a few shells expended while the batteries were in progress would be of more service than an equal number after their completion.

But perhaps the enemy were not very well acquainted with Tybee island, and supposed that our troops could reach the front by some other route than the one they were really compelled to follow. Notwithstanding the proximity of the island, it is possible that the rebel commander did not know its important features for military operations. In General Barnard's Report on the Defences of Washington in 1861, it appears that at that time the engineer corps of the regular army had no accurate surveys of the region south of the Potomac river opposite the national capital; so that the proper location for a number of the defensive works could not be fixed upon until after our troops were in possession of the ground. He even says that many of our engineer officers were more familiar with the military topography of the neighborhood of Paris than with that surrounding the city of Washington. If the defenders of Fort Pulaski in 1862 were equally ignorant of Tybee island, it might account for their apparent inactivity during the siege operations.

Captain Gillmore did not rest satisfied with the reduction of Fort Pulaski. He made it the means of further information in gunnery and military engineering. His records showed the number of shots fired from each gun and mortar during the bombardment, the percentage of those which were effective or failed to reach the mark, and the depth of penetration of the different kinds of projectiles in the walls of the fort; and he compared the results with those given by the best military authorities. It was the first time that rifled cannon had been used in actual warfare against masonry walls; and he found that they could do more execution at longer range and with less weight of metal, than any of the older forms of artillery. He showed that, with such guns, walls of solid brickwork, over seven feet thick, could be breached at the distance of nearly one mile; more than twice as far as it had ever before been thought practicable. Had it not been for his confident and steady persistence in this design, it is likely that the occupation of Tybee island would have been a useless enterprise.

After the fall of Fort Pulaski the troops on Daufuskie island were released for other duty. General Viele was ordered north, and became the military governor of Norfolk on its recapture from the enemy early in May. Before the end of that month, I was again at Hilton Head, acting as medical director for the troops at that point.

* * * * *

[Here the manuscript ends, unfinished.]

_After Surgeon Dalton's service with the Seventh Regiment of Infantry of The National Guard of the State of New York, he was commissioned by President Lincoln, August 3, 1861, Brigade Surgeon of Volunteers (afterwards Surgeon United States Volunteers); served as Surgeon in Chief to General Viele's command in South Carolina; as Medical Inspector of the Department of the South; and as Chief Medical officer on Morris Island, South Carolina._

_His health became seriously impaired by his long continued service in the malarial regions of the South, so as to incapacitate him for duty, and he consequently resigned from the Army, March 5, 1864._

_As soon as his health, never fully restored, permitted, he resumed his work as Professor of Physiology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York; resigned in 1883; was elected President of the College in 1884, and so continued until his death, which occurred in New York, February 12, 1889, at the age of sixty-four years and ten days._

MILITARY HISTORY OF JOHN CALL DALTON, M. D.

LATE SURGEON U. S. VOLS.,

_As shown by the records on file in the Office of the Surgeon General
U. S. Army, War Department, Washington, D. C._

August 3, 1861:

Appointed Brigade Surgeon of Volunteers from New York.

September 22, 1861:

Reports from New York as awaiting orders.

September 23, 1861:

Assigned to General McClellan's command, Headquarters Army of
Potomac, S. O. 257, A. G. O. September 23, 1861.

September 30, 1861:

Reports awaiting further orders. [Had asked to be assigned to
General Viele's command.]

October 8, 1861:

Reported at Headquarters, General Viele's Brigade, Sherman's
Division, Annapolis, Md., by orders from A. G. O. to November,
1861.

December 31, 1861:

Is reported at Hilton Head, S. C., with General Viele's command.

January 31, 1862:

Is reported sick at Washington, D. C.

February to June, 1862:

On duty at Daufuskie, S. C., and in South Carolina with Viele's
command.

July 2, 1862:

Transferred from Brigade Surgeon to Surgeon U. S. Vols.

July to August, 1862:

Acting Medical Director at Hilton Head, S. C.

September 8, 1862:

To report to Medical Director in New York. S. O. 228, War
Department, September 8, 1862.

September 20, 1862:

Reports from Boston, Mass., as being on sick leave of absence.

September 30, 1862:

Still sick at Boston, Mass.

October 18, 1862:

Reports to Medical Director at New York city, and is assigned to
duty as Medical Director of Transportation to August, 1863.

August 26, 1863:

Ordered to report to the Department of the South by direction of
the Medical Director Department of the East, New York, August 26,
1863.

September 8, 1863:

Reports from Morris Island, S. C., that he has reported to Medical
Director of the Department of the South.

September 15, 1863:

Medical Director C. McDougall, Department of the East, requests
that Surgeon Dalton be returned to that Department as soon as the
public interest will permit.

September 30, 1863:

Dr. Dalton reports from Morris Island, S. C., as Chief Medical
Officer.

October 10, 1863:

Reports that he has been relieved from duty in the Department of
the South and ordered to report to Medical Director Department of
the East at New York.

October 15, 1863:

Reports at New York city.

October 24, 1863:

Forwards copy of order relieving him from duty in the Department
of the South and ordering him to report at New York city. [S. O.
558, dated Department of the South, Headquarters in Field, Folly
Island, S. C., 10th October, 1863.]

October 31, 1863:

Reports that he is stationed at New York city and assigned to duty
as Medical Attendant on Volunteer Officers, and Medical Director
of Transportation.

November 30, 1863:

Same as above.

December 31, 1863:

Same.

January 31, 1864:

Reports on duty at New York as Examining Surgeon of Recruits, and
Medical Director of Transportation.

February 29, 1864:

Same as above.

March 7, 1864:

Resignation accepted by the President; to take effect March 5, 1864.

Transcriber's Notes:
Page 20
regimeet would have carried _changed to_
regiment would have carried
Page 62
reconnaisance to the north _changed to_
reconnaissance to the north
Page 70
and their decendants _changed to_
and their descendants
Page 73
arrivals, reconnoisances, or projected _changed to_
arrivals, reconnoissances, or projected
Page 75
after a short reconnoisance _changed to_
after a short reconnoissance
Page 82
must be night reconnoisances _changed to_
must be night reconnoissances
Page 104
On duty at Dawfuskie _changed to_
On duty at Daufuskie
Page 104
with Veile's command _changed to_
with Viele's command

End of Project Gutenberg's John Call Dalton, M.D., U.S.V., by John Call Dalton