Chapter VII: Department of the South (1)

The appearance of the negro in the Union army altered the state of affairs very much. The policy of the general Government was changed, and the one question which Mr. Lincoln had tried to avoid became _the_ question of the war. General Butler, first at Fortress Monroe and then at New Orleans, had defined the status of the slave, "contraband" and then "soldiers," in advance of the Emancipation Proclamation. General Hunter, in command at the South, as stated in a previous chapter, had taken an early opportunity to strike the rebellion in its most vital part, by arming negroes in his Department, after declaring them free.

Notwithstanding the President revoked Hunter's order, a considerable force was organized and equipped as early as December, 1862; in fact a regiment of blacks was under arms when the President issued the Emancipation Proclamation. This regiment, the 1st South Carolina, was in command of Colonel T. W. Higginson, who with a portion of his command ascended the St. Mary's river on transports, visited Florida and Georgia, and had several engagements with the enemy. After an absence of ten or more days, the expedition returned to South Carolina without the loss of a man.

Had there been but one army in the field, and the fighting confined to one locality, the Phalanx would have been mobilized, but as there were several armies it was distributed among the several forces, and its conduct in battle, camp, march and bivouac, was spoken of by the commanders of the various armies in terms which any class of soldiers, of any race, might well be proud of.

General Grant, on the 24th of July, following the capture of Vicksburg, wrote to the Adjutant-General:

"The negro troops are easier to preserve discipline among
than are our white troops, and I doubt not will prove
equally good for garrison duty. All that have been tried
have fought bravely."

This was six days after the unsurpassed bravery of the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers--representing the North in the black Phalanx--had planted its bloodstained banner on the ramparts of Fort Wagner. It was the Southern negroes, who, up to this time, had reddened the waters of the Mississippi. It was the freedman's blood that had moistened the soil, and if ignorance could be so intrepid still greater daring might be expected on the part of the more intelligent men of the race.

The assault on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863, was one of the most heroic of the whole four years' war. A very graphic account of the entire movement is given in the following article:

"At daylight, on the morning of the 12th of July a strong
column of our troops advanced swiftly to the attack of Fort
Wagner. The rebels were well prepared, and swept with their
guns every foot of the approach to the fort, but our
soldiers pressed on, and gained a foothold on the parapet;
but, not being supported by other troops, nor aided by the
guns of the fleet, which quietly looked on, they were forced
to retreat, leaving many of their comrades in the hands of
the enemy.

"It is the opinion of many that if the fleet had moved up at
the same time, and raked the fort with their guns, our
troops would have succeeded in taking it; but the naval
captains said in their defence that they knew nothing of the
movement, and would have gladly assisted in the attack had
they been notified.

"This, unfortunately, was not the only instance of a want of
harmony or co-operation between the land and naval forces
operating against Charleston. Had they been under the
control of one mind, the sacrifice of life in the siege of
Forts Wagner and Sumter would have been far less. We will
not assume to say which side was at fault, but by far the
greater majority lay the blame upon the naval officers.
Warfare kindles up the latent germs of jealousy in the human
breast, and the late rebellion furnished many cruel examples
of its effects, both among the rebels and among the
patriots. We have had the misfortune to witness them in
more than one campaign, and upon more than one bloody and
disastrous field.

"By the failure of this attack, it was evident that the guns
of Wagner must be silenced before a successful assault with
infantry could be made; and, in order to accomplish this, a
siege of greater or less duration was required. Therefore
earthworks were immediately thrown up at the distance of
about a thousand yards from the fort, and the guns and
mortars from Folly Island brought over to be placed in
position.

"This Morris Island is nothing but a narrow bed of sand,
about three miles in length, with a breadth variable from a
few hundred yards to a few feet. Along the central portion
of the lower end a ridge of white sand hills appear, washed
on one side by the tidal waves, and sloping on the other
into broad marshes, more than two miles in width, and
intersected by numerous deep creeks. Upon the extreme
northern end, Battery Gregg, which the rebels used in
reducing Fort Sumter in 1861, had been strengthened, and
mounted with five heavy guns, which threw their shot more
than half way down the island. A few hundred yards farther
down the island, and at its narrowest portion, a strong fort
had been erected, and armed with seventeen guns and mortars.
This was the famous Fort Wagner; and, as its cannon
prevented any farther progress up the island, it was
necessary to reduce it before our forces could approach
nearer to Fort Sumter.

"It was thought by our engineers that a continuous
bombardment of a few days by our siege batteries and the
fleet might dismount the rebel cannon, and demoralize the
garrison, so that our brave boys, by a sudden rush, might
gain possession of the works. Accordingly our siege train
was brought over from Folly Island, and a parallel commenced
about a thousand yards from Wagner. Our men worked with such
energy that nearly thirty cannon and mortars were in
position on the 17th of July. On the 18th of July the
bombardment commenced. The land batteries poured a tempest
of shot into the south side of Wagner, while the fleet moved
up to within short range, and battered the east side with
their great guns. In the mean time the rebels were not
silent, but gallantly stood to their guns, returning shot
for shot with great precision. But, after a few hours, their
fire slackened; gun after gun became silent, as the men were
disabled, and, when the clock struck four in the afternoon,
Wagner no longer responded to the furious cannonade of the
Federal forces. Even the men had taken shelter beneath the
bomb-proofs, and no sign of life was visible about the grim
and battered fortress.

"Many of our officers were now so elated with the apparent
result of demolition, that they urged General Gillmore to
allow them to assault the fort as soon as it became dark.
General Gillmore yielded to the solicitations of the
officers, but very reluctantly, for he was not convinced
that the proper time had arrived; but the order was finally
given for the attack to take place just after dark. Fatal
error as to time, for our troops in the daytime would have
been successful, since they would not have collided with
each other; they could have seen their foes, and the arena
of combat, and the fleet could have assisted them with their
guns, and prevented the landing of the re-enforcements from
Charleston.

"It was a beautiful and calm evening when the troops who
were to form the assaulting column moved out on to the broad
and smooth beach left by the receding tide.

"The last rays of the setting sun illumined the grim walls
and shattered mounds of Wagner with a flood of crimson
light, too soon, alas! to be deeper dyed with the red blood
of struggling men.

"Our men halted, and formed their ranks upon the beach, a
mile and more away from the deadly breach. Quietly they
stood leaning upon their guns, and awaiting the signal of
attack. There stood, side by side, the hunter of the far
West, the farmer of the North, the stout lumber-man from the
forests of Maine, and the black Phalanx Massachusetts had
armed and sent to the field.

"In this hour of peril there was no jealousy, no contention.
The black Phalanx were to lead the forlorn hope. And they
were proud of their position, and conscious of its danger.
Although we had seen many of the famous regiments of the
English, French, and Austrian armies, we were never more
impressed with the fury and majesty of war than when we
looked upon the solid mass of the thousand black men, as
they stood, like giant statues of marble, upon the
snow-white sands of the beach, waiting the order to advance.
And little did we think, as we gazed with admiration upon
that splendid column of four thousand brave men, that ere an
hour had passed, half of them would be swept away, maimed or
crushed in the gathering whirlwind of death! Time passed
quickly, and twilight was fast deepening into the darkness
of night, when the signal was given. Onward moved the chosen
and ill-fated band, making the earth tremble under the heavy
and monotonous tread of the dense mass of thousands of men.
Wagner lay black and grim in the distance, and silent. Not a
glimmer of light was seen. Not a gun replied to the bombs
which our mortars still constantly hurled into the fort. Not
a shot was returned to the terrific volleys of the giant
frigate Ironsides, whose shells, ever and anon, plunged into
the earthworks, illuminating their recesses for an instant
in the glare of their explosion, but revealing no signs of
life.

"Were the rebels all dead? Had they fled from the pitiless
storm which our batteries had poured down upon them for so
many hours? Where were they?

"Down deep beneath the sand heaps were excavated great
caverns, whose floors were level with the tide, and whose
roofs were formed of huge trunks of trees laid in double
rows. Still above these massive beams sand was heaped so
deeply that even our enormous shells could not penetrate the
roofs, though they fell from the skies above. In these dark
subterranean retreats two thousand men lay hid, like
panthers in a swamp, waiting to leap forth in fury upon
their prey.

"The signal given, our forces advanced rapidly towards the
fort, while our mortars in the rear tossed their bombs over
their heads. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts [Phalanx
Regiment] led the attack, supported by the 6th Conn., 48th
N. Y., 3rd N. H., 76th Penn. and the 9th Maine Regiments.
Onward swept the immense mass of men, swiftly and silently,
in the dark shadows of night. Not a flash of light was seen
in the distance! No sentinel hoarsely challenged the
approaching foe! All was still save the footsteps of the
soldiers, which sounded like the roar of the distant surf,
as it beats upon the rock-bound coast.

Desperate charge of the 54th Mass. Vols. in the assault on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863.]

"Ah, what is this! The silent and shattered walls of Wagner
all at once burst forth into a blinding sheet of vivid
light, as though they had suddenly been transformed by some
magic power into the living, seething crater of a volcano!
Down came the whirlwind of destruction along the beach with
the swiftness of lightning! How fearfully the hissing shot,
the shrieking bombs, the whistling bars of iron, and the
whispering bullet struck and crushed through the dense
masses of our brave men! I never shall forget the terrible
sound of that awful blast of death, which swept down,
shattered or dead, a thousand of our men. Not a shot had
missed its aim. Every bolt of steel, every globe of iron and
lead, tasted of human blood.

"'Forward!' shouted the undaunted Putnam, as the column
wavered and staggered like a giant stricken with death.

"'Steady, my boys!' murmured the brave leader, General
Strong, as a cannon-shot dashed him, maimed and bleeding,
into the sand.

"In a moment the column recovered itself, like a gallant
ship at sea when buried for an instant under an immense
wave.

"The ditch is reached; a thousand men leap into it, clamber
up the shattered ramparts, and grapple with the foe, which
yields and falls back to the rear of the fort. Our men swarm
over the walls, bayoneting the desperate rebel cannoneers.
Hurrah! the fort is ours!

"But now came another blinding blast from concealed guns in
the rear of the fort, and our men went down by scores. Now
the rebels rally, and, re-enforced by thousands of the
chivalry, who have landed on the beach under cover of
darkness, unmolested by the guns of the fleet. They hurl
themselves with fury upon the remnant of our brave band. The
struggle is terrific. Our supports hurry up to the aid of
their comrades, but as they reach the ramparts they fire a
volley which strikes down many of our men. Fatal mistake!
Our men rally once more; but, in spite of an heroic
resistance, they are forced back again to the edge of the
ditch. Here the brave Shaw, with scores of his black
warriors went down, fighting desperately. Here Putnam met
his death wound, while cheering and urging on the
overpowered Phalanx men.

"What fighting, and what fearful carnage! Hand to hand,
breast to breast! Here, on this little strip of land, scarce
bigger than the human hand, dense masses of men struggled
with fury in the darkness; and so fierce was the contest
that the sands were reddened and soaked with human gore.

"But resistance was vain. The assailants were forced back
again to the beach, and the rebels trained their recovered
cannon anew upon the retreating survivors.

"What a fearful night was that, as we gathered up our
wounded heroes, and bore them to a place of shelter! And
what a mournful morning, as the sun rose with his clear
beams, and revealed our terrible losses! What a rich harvest
Death had gathered to himself during the short struggle!
Nearly two thousand of our men had fallen. More than six
hundred of our brave boys lay dead on the ramparts of the
fatal fort, in its broad ditch, and along the beach at its
base. A flag of truce party went out to bury our dead, but
General Beauregard they found had already buried them, where
they fell, in broad, deep trenches."

Colonel Shaw, the young and gallant commander of the 54th Regiment, was formerly a member of the famous 7th N. Y. Regiment. He was of high, social and influential standing, and in his death won distinction. The confederates added to his fame and glory, though unintentionally, by burying him with his soldiers, or as a confederate Major expressed the information, when a request for the Colonel's body was made, "we have buried him with his niggers!"

A poet has immortalized the occurrence and the gallant Shaw thus:

'They buried him with his niggers!'
Together they fought and died.
There was room for them all where they laid him,
(The grave was deep and wide).
For his beauty and youth and valor,
Their patience and love and pain;
And at the last together
They shall be found again.

'They buried him with his niggers!'
Earth holds no prouder grave;
There is not a mausoleum
In the world beyond the wave,
That a nobler tale has hallowed,
Or a purer glory crowned,
Than the nameless trench where they buried
The brave so faithful found.

'They buried him with his niggers!'
A wide grave should it be;
They buried more in that shallow trench
Than human eye could see.
Aye, all the shames and sorrows
Of more than a hundred years
Lie under the weight of that Southern soil
Despite those cruel sneers.

'They buried him with his niggers!'
But the glorious souls set free
Are leading the van of the army
That fights for liberty.
Brothers in death, in glory
The same palm branches bear;
And the crown is as bright o'er the sable brows
As over the golden hair.

* * * *

Buried with a band of brothers
Who for him would fain have died;
Buried with the gallant fellows
Who fell fighting by his side;

Buried with the men God gave him,
Those whom he was sent to save;
Buried with the martyr heroes,
He has found an honored grave.

Buried where his dust so precious
Makes the soil a hallowed spot;
Buried where by Christian patriot,
He shall never be forgot.

Buried in the ground accursed,
Which man's fettered feet have trod;
Buried where his voice still speaketh,
Appealing for the slave to God;

Fare thee well, thou noble warrior,
Who in youthful beauty went
On a high and holy mission,
By the God of battles sent.

Chosen of him, 'elect and precious,'
Well didst thou fulfil thy part;
When thy country 'counts her jewels,'
She shall wear thee on her heart.

The heroic courage displayed by the gallant Phalanx at the assault upon Fort Wagner was not surpassed by the Old Guard at Moscow. Major-General Taliaferro gives this confederate account of the fight, which is especially interesting as it shows the condition of affairs inside the fort:

"On the night of the 14th the monster iron-plated frigate
New Ironsides, crossed the bar and added her formidable and
ponderous battery to those destined for the great effort of
reducing the sullen earthwork which barred the Federal
advance. There were now five monitors, the Ironsides and a
fleet of gunboats and monster hulks grouped together and
only waiting the signal to unite with the land batteries
when the engineers should pronounce them ready to form a
cordon of flame around the devoted work. The Confederates
were prepared for the ordeal. For fear that communications
with the city and the mainland, which was had by steamboat
at night to Cummings' Point should be interrupted, rations
and ordnance stores had been accumulated, but there was
trouble about water. Some was sent from Charleston and wells
had been dug in the sand inside and outside the fort, but it
was not good. Sand bags had been provided and trenching
tools supplied sufficient for any supposed requirement.

"The excitement of the enemy in front after the 10th was
manifest to the Confederates and announced an 'impending
crisis.' It became evident that some extraordinary movement
was at hand. The Federal forces on James Island had been
attacked on the morning of the 16th by General Hagood and
caused to retire, Hagood occupying the abandoned positions,
and on the 17th the enemy's troops were transferred to
Little Folly and Morris Islands. It has been stated that the
key to the signals employed by the Federals was in
possession of General Taliaferro at this time, and he was
thus made acquainted with the intended movement and put upon
his guard. That is a mistake. He had no such direct
information, although it is true that afterwards the key was
discovered and the signals interpreted with as much ease as
by the Federals themselves. The 18th of July was the day
determined upon by the Federal commanders for the grand
attempt which, if successful, would level the arrogant
fortress and confuse it by the mighty power of their giant
artillery with the general mass of surrounding sand hills,
annihilate its garrison or drive them into the relentless
ocean, or else consign them to the misery of hostile
prisons.

"The day broke beautifully, a gentle breeze slightly
agitated the balmy atmosphere, and with rippling dimples
beautified the bosom of the placid sea. All nature was
serene and the profoundest peace held dominion over all the
elements. The sun, rising with the early splendors of his
midsummer glory, burnished with golden tints the awakening
ocean, and flashed his reflected light back from the spires
of the beleaguered city into the eyes of those who stood
pausing to gather strength to spring upon her, and of those
who stood at bay to battle for her safety. Yet the profound
repose was undisturbed; the early hours of that fair morning
hoisted a flag of truce between the combatants which was
respected by both. But the tempest of fire which was
destined to break the charm of nature, with human thunders
then unsurpassed in war, was gathering in the south. At
about half-past 7 o'clock the ships of war moved from their
moorings, the iron leviathan the Ironsides, an Agamemnon
among ships, leading and directing their movements, then
monitor after monitor, and then wooden flagships. Steadily
and majestically they marched; marched as columns of men
would march, obedient to commands, independent of waves and
winds, mobilized by steam and science to turn on a pivot and
manoeuvre as the directing mind required them; they halted
in front of the fort; they did not anchor as Sir Peter
Parker's ships had done near a hundred years before in front
of Moultrie, which was hard by and frowning still at her
ancient enemies of the ocean. They halted and waited for
word of command to belch their consuming lightnings out upon
the foe. On the land, engineering skill was satisfied and
the deadly exposure for details for labor was ended; the
time for retaliation had arrived when the defiant shots of
the rebel batteries would be answered; the batteries were
unmasked; the cordon of fire was complete by land and by
sea; the doomed fort was encircled by guns.

"The Confederates watched from the ramparts the approach of
the fleet and the unmasking of the guns, and they knew that
the moment had arrived in which the problem of the capacity
of the resistant power of earth and sand to the forces to
which science so far developed in war could subject them was
to be solved and that Battery Wagner was to be that day the
subject of the crucial test. The small armament of the fort
was really inappreciable in the contest about to be
inaugurated. There was but one gun which could be expected
to be of much avail against the formidable naval power which
would assail it and on the land side few which could reach
the enemy's batteries. When these guns were knocked to
pieces and silenced there was nothing left but passive
resistance, but the Confederates, from the preliminary tests
which had been applied, had considerable faith in the
capacity of sand and earth for passive resistance.

"The fort was in good condition, having been materially
strengthened since the former assault by the indefatigable
exertions of Colonel David Harris, chief engineer, and his
valuable assistant, Captain Barnwell. Colonel Harris was a
Virginian, ex-officer of the army of the United States and a
graduate of West Point, who had some years before retired
from the service to prosecute the profession of civil
engineering. Under a tempest of shells he landed during the
fiercest period of the bombardment at Cummings' Point, and
made his way through the field of fire to the beleaguered
fort to inspect its condition and to inspire the garrison by
his heroic courage and his confidence in its strength.
Escaping all the dangers of war, he fell a victim to yellow
fever in Charleston, beloved and honored by all who had
ever known him. The heavy work imposed upon the garrison in
repairs and construction, as well as the strain upon the
system by constant exposure to the enemy's fire, had induced
General Beauregard to adopt the plan of relieving the
garrison every few days by fresh troops. The objection to
this was that the new men had to be instructed and
familiarized with their duties; but still it was wise and
necessary, for the same set of officers and men, if retained
any length of time, would have been broken down by the
arduous service required of them. The relief was sent by
regiments and detachments, so there was never an entirely
new body of men in the works.

"The garrison was estimated at one thousand seven hundred
aggregate. The staff of General Taliaferro consisted of
Captain Twiggs, Quartermaster General; Captain W. T.
Taliaferro, Adjutant General; Lieutenants H. C. Cunningham
and Magyck, Ordnance Officers; Lieutenants Meade and Stoney,
Aides-de-Camp; Major Holcombe; Captain Burke, Quartermaster,
and Habersham, Surgeon-in-Chief; Private Stockman, of
McEnery's Louisiana Battalion, who had been detailed as
clerk because of his incapacity for other duty, from most
honorable wounds, acted also in capacity of aid.

"The Charleston Battalion was assigned to that part of the
work which extended from the Sally port or Lighthouse Inlet
creek around to the left until it occupied part of the face
to the south, including the western bastion; the Fifty-first
North Carolina connected with these troops on the left and
extended to the southeast bastion; the rest of the work was
to be occupied by the Thirty-first North Carolina Regiment,
and a small force from that regiment was detailed as a
reserve, and two companies of the Charleston Battalion were
to occupy outside of the fort the covered way spoken of and
some sand-hills by the seashore; the artillery was
distributed among the several gun-chambers and the light
pieces posted on a traverse outside so as to sweep to sea
face and the right approach. The positions to be occupied
were well known to every officer and man and had been
verified repeatedly by day and night, so there was no fear
of confusion, mistake or delay in the event of an assault.
The troops of course were not ordered to these positions
when at 6 o'clock it was evident a furious bombardment was
impending, but, on the contrary, to the shelter of the
bomb-proofs, sand-hills and parapet; a few sentinels or
videttes were detailed and the gun detachments only ordered
to their pieces.

"The Charleston Battalion preferred the freer air of the
open work to the stifling atmosphere of the bomb-proofs and
were permitted to shelter themselves under the parapet and
traverses. Not one of that heroic band entered the opening
of a bomb-proof during that frightful day. The immense
superiority of the enemy's artillery was well understood and
appreciated by the Confederate commander, and it was clear
to him that his policy was to husband his resources and
preserve them as best he could for the assault, which it was
reasonable to expect would occur during the day. He
recognized the fact that his guns were only defensive and
he had little or no offensive power with which to contend
with his adversaries. Acting on this conviction he had the
light guns dismounted and covered with sand bags, and the
same precaution was adopted to preserve some of the shell
guns or fixed carriages. The propriety of this determination
was abundantly demonstrated in the end.

"About a quarter past 8 o'clock the storm broke, ship after
ship and battery after battery, and then apparently all
together, vomited forth their horrid flames and the
atmosphere was filled with deadly missiles. It is impossible
for any pen to describe or for anyone who was not an
eye-witness to conceive the frightful grandeur of the
spectacle. The writer has never had the fortune to read any
official Federal report or any other account of the
operations of this day except an extract from the graphic
and eloquent address of the Rev. Mr. Dennison, a chaplain of
one of the Northern regiments, delivered on its nineteenth
anniversary at Providence, R. I. He says: 'Words cannot
depict the thunder, the smoke, the lifted sand and the
general havoc which characterized that hot summer day. What
a storm of iron fell on that island; the roar of the guns
was incessant; how the shots ploughed the sand banks and the
marshes; how the splinters flew from the Beacon House; how
the whole island smoked like a furnace and trembled as from
an earthquake.'

"If that was true outside of Wagner it is easy to conceive
how intensified the situation was within its narrow limits
towards which every hostile gun was pointed. The sand came
down in avalanches; huge vertical shells and those rolled
over by the ricochet shots from the ships, buried themselves
and then exploded, rending the earth and forming great
craters, out of which the sand and iron fragments flew high
in the air. It was a fierce sirocco freighted with iron as
well as sand. The sand flew over from the seashore, from the
glacis, from the exterior slope, from the parapet, as it was
ploughed up and lifted and driven by resistless force now in
spray and now almost in waves over into the work, the men
sometimes half buried by the moving mass. The chief anxiety
was about the magazines. The profile of the fort might be
destroyed, the ditch filled up, the traverses and bomb-proof
barracks knocked out of shape, but the protecting banks of
sand would still afford their shelter; but if the coverings
of the magazines were blown away and they became exposed,
the explosion that would ensue would lift fort and garrison
into the air and annihilate all in general chaos. They were
carefully watched and reports of their condition required to
be made at short intervals during the day.

"Wagner replied to the enemy, her 10-inch columbiad alone to
the ships, deliberately at intervals of fifteen minutes, the
other guns to the land batteries whenever in range, as long
as they were serviceable. The 32-pounder rifled gun was soon
rendered useless by bursting and within two hours many other
guns had been dismounted and their carriages destroyed.
Sumter, Colonel Alfred Rhett in command, and Gregg, under
charge of Captain Sesesne, with the Sullivan and James
Island batteries at long range, threw all the power of their
available metal at the assailants and added their thunders
to the universal din; the harbor of Charleston was a
volcano. The want of water was felt, but now again
unconsciously the enemy came to the assistance of the
garrison, for water was actually scooped from the craters
made in the sand by the exploded shells. The city of
Charleston was alive and aflame with excitement; the bay,
the wharves, the steeples and streets filled with anxious
spectators looking across the water at their defenders, whom
they could not succor.

"At 2 o'clock the flag halliards were cut by a shot and the
Confederate garrison flag was blown over into the fort;
there was an instant race for its recovery through the storm
of missiles, over the broken earth and shells and splinters
which lined the parade. Major Ramsey, Sergeant Shelton and
private Flinn, of the Charleston Battalion, and Lieutenant
Riddick, of the Sixty-third Georgia, first reached it and
bore it back in triumph to the flagstaff, and at the same
moment Captain Barnwell, of the engineers, seized a
battle-flag, and leaping on the ramparts, drove the staff
into the sand. This flag was again shot away, but was again
replaced by Private Gaillard, of the Charleston Battalion.
These intrepid actions, emulating in a higher degree the
conduct of Sergeant Jasper at Moultrie during the
Revolution, were cheered by the command and inspired them
with renewed courage.

"The day wore on; thousands upon thousands of shells and
round shot, shells loaded with balls, shells of guns and
shells of mortars, percussion shells, exploding upon impact,
shells with graded fuses--every kind apparently known to the
arsenals of war leaped into and around the doomed fort, yet
there was no cessation; the sun seemed to stand still and
the long midsummer day to know no night. Some men were dead
and no scratch appeared on their bodies; the concussion had
forced the breath from their lungs and collapsed them into
corpses. Captain Twiggs, of the staff, in executing some
orders was found apparently dead. He was untouched, but
lifeless, and only strong restoratives brought him back to
animation, and the commanding officer was buried knee-deep
in sand and had to be rescued by spades from his
imprisonment. The day wore on, hours followed hours of
anxiety and grim endurance, but no respite ensued. At last
night came; not however, to herald a cessation of the
strife, but to usher in a conflict still more terrible. More
than eleven hours had passed. The fort was torn and
mutilated; to the outside observer it was apparently
powerless, knocked to pieces and pounded out of shape, the
outline changed, the exterior slope full of gaping wounds,
the ditch half filled up, but the interior still preserved
its form and its integrity; scarred and defaced it was yet a
citadel which, although not offensive, was defiant.

"It was nearly eight o'clock at night, but still twilight,
when a calm came and the blazing circle ceased to glow with
flame. The ominous pause was understood; it required no
signals to be read by those to whom they were not directed
to inform them that the supreme moment to test the value of
the day's achievements was now at hand. It meant nothing but
assault. Dr. Dennison says the assault was intended to be a
surprise. He over-estimates the equanimity of the
Confederate commander if he supposes that that bombardment,
which would have waked the dead, had lulled him into
security and repose. The buried cannon were at once exhumed,
the guns remounted and the garrison ordered to their
appointed posts. The Charleston Battalion were already
formed and in position; they had nestled under the parapet
and stood ready in their places. The other troops with the
exception of part of one regiment, responded to the summons
with extraordinary celerity, and the echoes of the Federal
guns had hardly died away before more than three-fourths of
the ramparts were lined with troops; one gap remained
unfilled; the demoralized men who should have filled it
clung to the bomb-proofs and stayed there. The gallant
Colonel Simpkins called his men to the gun-chambers wherever
guns existed. De Pass, with his light artillery on the
traverse to the left, his guns remounted and untouched,
stood ready, and Colonel Harris moved a howitzer outside the
fort to the right to deliver an enfilade fire upon the
assailants.

"The dark masses of the enemies columns, brigade after
brigade, were seen in the fading twilight to approach; line
after line was formed and then came the rush. A small creek
made in on the right of the fort and intercepted the enemy's
left attack; they did not know it, or did not estimate it.
Orders were given to Gaillard to hold his fire and deliver
no direct shot. It was believed the obstacle presented by
the creek would confuse the assailants, cause them to
incline to the right and mingle their masses at the head of
the obstacle and thus their movements would be obstructed.
It seemed to have the anticipated effect and the assaulting
columns apparently jumbled together at this point were met
by the withering volleys of McKethan's direct and Gaillard's
cross-fire and by the direct discharge of the shell guns,
supplemented by the frightful enfilading discharges of the
lighter guns upon the right and left. It was terrible, but
with an unsurpassed gallantry the Federal soldiers breasted
the storm and rushed onward to the glacis.

"The Confederates, not fourteen hundred strong, with the
tenacity of bull dogs and a fierce courage which was roused
to madness by the frightful inaction to which they had been
subjected, poured from the ramparts and embrasures sheets of
flame and a tempest of lead and iron, yet their intrepid
assailants rushed on like the waves of the sea by whose
shore they fought. They fell by hundreds, but they pushed
on, reeling under the frightful blasts that almost blew them
to pieces, some up to the Confederate bayonets. The
southeast bastion was weakly defended, and into it a
considerable body of the enemy made their way but they were
caught in a trap, for they could not leave it. The fight
continued; but it was impossible to stem the torrent of
deadly missiles which poured out from the fort, the reflux
of that terrible tide which had poured in all day, and the
Federals retreated, leaving near a thousand dead around the
fort.

"There was no cessation of the Confederate fire. Sumter and
Gregg threw their shells along with those of Wagner upon the
retiring foe; nor was the conflict over in the fort itself.
The party which had gained access by the salient next the
sea could not escape. It was certain death to attempt to
pass the line of concentrated fire which swept the faces of
the work, and they did not attempt it; but they would not
surrender, and in desperation kept up a constant fire upon
the main body of the fort. The Confederates called for
volunteers to dislodge them--a summons which was promptly
responded to by Major McDonald, of the Fifty-first North
Carolina, and by Captain Rion, of the Charleston Battalion,
with the requisite number of men. Rion's company was
selected, and the gallant Irishman, at the head of his
company, dashed at the reckless and insane men, who seemed
to insist upon immolation. The tables were now singularly
turned; the assailants had become the assailed and they held
a fort within the fort, and were protected by the traverses
and gun chambers, behind which they fought. Rion rushed at
them, but he fell, shot outright, with several of his men,
and the rest recoiled. At this time General Hagood reported
to General Taliaferro with Colonel Harrison's splendid
regiment, the Thirty-second Georgia, sent over by Beauregard
to his assistance as soon as a landing could be effected at
Cummings' Point. These troops were ordered to move along on
the traverses and bomb-proofs, and to plunge their
concentrated fire over the stronghold. Still, for a time,
the enemy held out, but at last they cried out and
surrendered.

"The carnage was frightful. It is believed the Federals lost
more men on that eventful night than twice the entire
strength of the Confederate garrison. The Confederates lost
eight killed and twenty wounded by the bombardment and about
fifty killed and one hundred and fifty wounded altogether
from the bombardment and assault. Among the killed were
those gallant officers, Lieutenant Colonel Simkins and Major
Ramsey and among the wounded Captains DePass and Twiggs, of
the staff, and Lieutenants Storey (Aide-de-Camp), Power and
Watties. According to the statement of Chaplain Dennison the
assaulting columns in two brigades, commanded by General
Strong and Colonel Putnam (the division under General
Seymour), consisted of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, Third
and Seventh New Hampshire, Sixth Connecticut and One
Hundredth New York, with a reserve brigade commanded by
General Stephenson. One of the assaulting regiments was
composed of negroes (the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts) and to
it was assigned the honor of leading the white columns to
the charge. It was a dearly purchased compliment. Their
Colonel (Shaw) was killed upon the parapet and the regiment
almost annihilated, although the Confederates in the
darkness could not tell the color of their assailants. Both
the brigade commanders were killed as well as Colonel
Chatfield.

"The same account says: 'We lost 55 officers and 585 men, a
total of 640, one of the choicest martyr rolls of the war.'
By 'lost,' 'killed' is supposed to be meant, but still that
number greatly falls short of the number reported by the
Confederates to have been buried on the 19th by them and by
their own friends under a flag of truce. These reports show
that 800 were buried, and as a number were taken prisoners,
and it is fair to estimate that three were wounded to one
killed, the total loss of the Federals exceeded 3,000. The
writer's official report estimates the Federal loss at not
less than 2,000; General Beauregard's at 3,000. The Federal
official reports have not been seen.

"The limits prescribed for this paper would be exceeded if
any account of the remaining forty-eight days of the heroic
strife on Morris Island were attempted. It closes with the
repulse of the second assault, and it is a fit conclusion to
render the homage due to the gallantry of the contestants by
quoting and adopting the language of Dr. Dennison's address:
'The truest courage and determination was manifested on both
sides on that crimson day at that great slaughter-house,
Wagner.'"

It was no longer a question of doubt as to the valor of Northern negroes. The assault on Fort Wagner completely removed any prejudice that had been exhibited toward negro troops in the Department of the South. General Gillmore immediately issued an order forbidding any distinction to be made among troops in his command. So that while the black Phalanx had lost hundreds of its members, it nevertheless won equality in all things save the pay. The Government refused to place them on a footing even with their Southern brothers, who received $7 per month and the white troops $13. However, they were not fighting for pay, as "Stonewall" of Company C argued, but for the "_freedom of our kin_." Nobly did they do this, not only at Wagner, as we have seen, but in the battles on James Island, Honey Hill, Olustee and at Bodkin's Mill.

In the winter of 1864, the troops in the Department of the South lay encamped on the islands in and about Charleston harbor, resting from their endeavors to drive the confederates from their strongholds. The city was five miles away in the distance. Sumter, grim, hoary and in ruins, yet defying the National authority, was silent. General Gillmore was in command of the veteran legions of the 10th Army Corps, aided by a powerful fleet of ironclads and other war vessels. There laid the city of Charleston, for the time having a respite. General Gillmore was giving rest to his troops, before he began again to throw Greek fire into the city and batter the walls of its defences. The shattered ranks of the Phalanx soldiers rested in the midst of thousands of their white comrades-in-arms, to whom they nightly repeated the story of the late terrible struggle. The solemn sentry pacing the ramparts of Fort Wagner night and day, his bayonet glittering in the rays of the sun or in the moonlight, seemed to be guarding the sepulchre of Col. Shaw and those who fell beside him within the walls of that gory fort, and who were buried where they fell. Only those who have lived in such a camp can appreciate the stories of hair-breadth escapes from hand-to-hand fights.

The repose lasted until January, when an important movement took place for the permanent occupation of Florida. The following account, written by the author of this book, was published in "The Journal," of Toledo, O.:

"The twentieth day of February, 1864, was one of the most
disastrous to the Federal arms, and to the administration of
President Lincoln, in the annals of the war for the union.
Through private advice Mr. Lincoln had received information
which led him to believe that the people in the State of
Florida, a large number of them, at least, were ready and
anxious to identify the State with the cause of the Union,
and he readily approved of the Federal forces occupying the
State, then almost deserted by the rebels. Gen. Gillmore,
commanding the Department of the South had a large force
before Charleston, S. C., which had been engaged in the
capture of Fort Wagner and the bombardment of the city of
Charleston, and the reduction of Sumter.

"These objects being accomplished, the army having rested
several months, Gen. Gillmore asked for leave to undertake
such expeditions within his Department as he might think
proper. About the middle of December, 1863, the War
Department granted him his request, and immediately he began
making preparations for an expedition, collecting
transports, commissary stores, drilling troops, etc., etc.

"About the 1st of January, 1864, General Gillmore wrote to
the General-in-Chief, Halleck, that he was about to occupy
the west bank of St. Johns river, with the view (1st) to
open an outlet to cotton, lumber, etc., (2d) to destroy one
of the enemy's sources of supplies, (3d) to give the negroes
opportunity of enlisting in the army, (4th) to inaugurate
measures for the speedy restoration of Florida to the Union.

"In accordance with instructions from President Lincoln
received through the assistant Adjutant General, Major J. H.
Hay, who would accompany the expedition, on the 5th of
February the troops began to embark under the immediate
command of General Truman Seymour, on board of twenty
steamers and eight schooners, consisting of the following
regiments, numbering in all six thousand troops, and under
convoy of the gunboat Norwich:

"40th Massachusetts Mounted Infantry, Col. Guy V. Henry.

"7th Connecticut, Col. J. R. Hawley.

"7th New Hampshire, Col. Abbott.

"47th, 48th and 115th New York, Col. Barton's command.

"The Phalanx regiments were: 8th Pennsylvania, Col. Fribley;
1st North Carolina, Lt.-Col. Reed; 54th Massachusetts, Col.
Hallowell; 2d South Carolina, Col. Beecher; 55th
Massachusetts, Col. Hartwell, with three batteries of white
troops, Hamilton's, Elder's and Langdon's. Excepting the two
last named regiments, this force landed at Jacksonville on
the 7th of February, and pushed on, following the 40th
Massachusetts Mounted Infantry, which captured by a bold
dash Camp Finnigan, about seven miles from Jacksonville,
with its equipage, eight pieces of artillery, and a number
of prisoners. On the 10th, the whole force had reached
Baldwin, a railroad station twenty miles west of
Jacksonville. There the army encamped, except Col. Henry's
force, which continued its advance towards Tallahassee,
driving a small force of Gen. Finnegan's command before him.
This was at the time all the rebel force in east Florida. On
the 18th Gen. Seymour, induced by the successful advance of
Col. Henry, lead his troops from Baldwin with ten days'
rations in their haversacks, and started for the Suwanee
river, about a hundred and thirty miles from Baldwin
station, leaving the 2d South Carolina and the 55th
Massachusetts Phalanx regiments to follow. After a fatiguing
march the column, numbering about six thousand, reached
Barbour's Station, on the Florida Central Railroad, twenty
miles from Baldwin. Here the command halted and bivouaced,
the night of the 19th, in the woods bordering upon a wooded
ravine running off towards the river from the railroad
track.

"It is now nineteen years ago, and I write from memory of a
night long to be remembered. Around many a Grand Army
Camp-fire in the last fifteen years this bivouac has been
made the topic of an evening's talk. It was attended with no
particular hardship. The weather was such as is met with in
these latitudes, not cold, not hot, and though a thick
vapory cloud hid the full round moon from early eventide
until the last regiment filed into the woods, yet there was
a halo of light that brightened the white, sandy earth and
gave to the moss-laden limbs of the huge pines which stood
sentry-like on the roadside the appearance of a New England
grove on a frosty night, with a shelled road leading through
it.

"It was well in the night when the two Phalanx regiments
filed out of the road into the woods, bringing up the rear
of the army, and took shelter under the trees from the
falling dew. Amid the appalling stillness that reigned
throughout the encampment, except the tramp of feet and an
occasional whickering of a battery horse, no sound broke the
deep silence. Commands were given in an undertone and
whispered along the long lines of weary troops that lay
among the trees and the underbrush of the pine forest. Each
soldier lay with his musket beside him, ready to spring to
his feet and in line for battle, for none knew the moment
the enemy, like a tiger, would pounce upon them. It was a
night of intense anxiety, shrouded in mystery as to what
to-morrow would bring. The white and black soldier in one
common bed lay in battle panoply, dreaming their common
dreams of home and loved ones.

"Here lay the heroic 54th picturing to themselves the
memorable nights of July 17 and 18, their bivouac on the
beach and their capture of Fort Wagner and the terrible fate
of their comrades. They were all veteran troops save the 8th
Pennsylvania, which upon many hard-fought fields had covered
themselves with gallant honor in defense of their country's
cause, from Malvern Hill to Morris Island.

"It was in the gray of the next morning that Gen. Seymour's
order aroused the command. The men partook of a hastily
prepared cup of coffee and meat and hard-tack from their
haversacks. At sunrise the troops took up the line of march,
following the railroad for Lake City. Col. Henry, with the
40th Massachusetts Mounted Infantry and Major Stevens'
independent battalion of Massachusetts cavalry, led the
column. About half-past one o'clock they reached a point
where the country road crossed the railroad, about two miles
east of Olustee, and six miles west of Sanderson, a station
through which the troops passed about half-past eleven
o'clock. As the head of the column reached the crossing the
rebel pickets fired and fell back upon a line of
skirmishers, pursued by Col. Henry's command. The enemy's
main force was supposed to be some miles distant from this
place, consequently General Seymour had not taken the
precaution to protect his flanks, though marching through an
enemy's country. Consequently he found his troops flanked on
either side.

"Col. Henry drove the skirmishers back upon their main
forces, which were strongly posted between two swamps. The
position was admirably chosen; their right rested upon a
low, slight earthwork, protected by rifle-pits, their center
was defended by an impassable swamp, and on their left was a
cavalry force drawn up on a small elevation behind the
shelter of a grove of pines. Their camp was intersected by
the railroad, on which was placed a battery capable of
operating against the center and left of the advancing
column, while a rifle gun, mounted on a railroad flat,
pointed down the road in front.

"Gen. Seymour, in order to attack this strongly fortified
position, had necessarily to place his troops between the
two swamps, one in his front, the other in the rear. The
Federal cavalry, following up the skirmishers, had attacked
the rebel right and were driven back, but were met by the
7th New Hampshire, 7th Connecticut, a regiment of the black
Phalanx (8th Pennsylvania), and Elder's battery of four and
Hamilton's of six pieces. This force was hurled against the
rebel right with such impetuosity that the batteries were
within one hundred yards of the rebel line of battle before
they knew it. However, they took position, and supported by
the Phalanx regiment, opened a vigorous fire upon the rebel
earthworks. The Phalanx regiment advanced within twenty or
thirty yards of the enemy's rifle-pits, and poured a volley
of minie balls into the very faces of those who did not fly
on their approach.

"The 7th Connecticut and the 7th New Hampshire, the latter
with their seven-shooters, Spencer repeaters, Col. Hawley,
commanding, had taken a stand further to the right of the
battery, and were hotly engaging the rebels. The Phalanx
regiment (8th), after dealing out two rounds from its
advanced position, finding the enemy's force in the center
preparing to charge upon them, fell back under cover of
Hamilton's battery, which was firing vigorously and
effectively into the rebel column. The 7th Connecticut and
New Hampshire about this time ran short of ammunition, and
Col. Hawley, finding the rebels outnumbered his force three
to one, was about ordering Col. Abbott to fall back and out
of the concentrated fire of the enemy pouring upon his men,
when he observed the rebels coming in for a down upon his
column.

"Here they come like tigers; the Federal column wavers a
little; it staggers and breaks, falling back in considerable
disorder! Col. Hawley now ordered Col. Fribley to take his
Phalanx Regiment, the 8th, to the right of the battery and
check the advancing rebel force. No time was to be lost, the
enemy's sharpshooters had already silenced two of Hamilton's
guns, dead and dying men and horses lay in a heap about
them, while at the remaining four guns a few brave
artillerists were loading and fixing their pieces, retarding
the enemy in his onward movement.

"Deficient in artillery, they had not been able to check the
Federal cavalry in its dash, but the concentrated fire from
right to center demoralized, and sent them galloping over
the field wildly. Col. Fribley gave the order by the right
flank, double quick! and the next moment the 8th Phalanx
swept away to the extreme right in support of the 7th New
Hampshire and the 7th Connecticut. The low, direct aim of
the enemy in the rifle-pits, his Indian sharpshooters up in
the trees, had ere now so thinned the ranks of Col. Hawley's
command that his line was gone, and the 8th Phalanx met the
remnant of his brigade as it was going to the rear in
complete disorder. The rebels ceased firing and halted as
the Phalanx took position between them and their fleeing
comrades. They halted not perforce, but apparently for
deliberation, when with one fell swoop in the next moment
they swept the field in their front.