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Charges on Fort Wagner.The following graphic aceoant of the infantry chargee upon Fort Wagner, we Snd in the N. Y. Tribune's Morris Island correspondence:For eight hours the Monitors and the Ironsides have kept up a continuous fire, and Fort Wagner has not yet surrendered. For eight hours fifty-four guns from the land batteries have hurled their shot and sheii within her walk, sod still she flaunts the red battle flag in our face.“Something must be done, and that too, quickly, or in a few days we shall have the whole army iri Virginia upon us,” said an officer high in command. “We must storm the fort- to-night and carry it at the point of the bayonet 1”In a few moments signals are made from the top of the lookout, and soon Generals and Colonels commanding divisions and brigades were seen galloping to the headquarters of the commanding General. A few words in consultation, and Gens. Seymour, Strong, Stevenson, and Cols. Putnam and Montgomery, are seen hastening back to their respective commands. Oi-fieers shout, bugles sound, the word of command is given, and soon the soldiers around opoit and under the sand hills of Morris Island spring from their hiding places, fall into line, march tu the beach, are organized into ne« brigades, and in solid column stand ready to move to the deadly assault.Notin widely extended battle line, with cavalry and artillery at supporting distances but in solid regimental column, on the hard ocean beach, for half a mile before reaching the fort, in plain sight of the enemy did these three brigades move to their appointed work.Gen. Strong, who has so frequently since his arrival in this department, braved death in its many forms of attack, was assigned to the command of ihe l»i brigade Col Putnam, of the 7th New Hampshire, who, although ot the regular army, and considered one of the best officers in this Department, had never led his men into battle nor been under fire, took command of the 2d.and Gen. Stevenson the 3d. cori-sintuting the reserve. The 54th Ma.-aa-chusetts, (colored regiment.) Col. Shaw, was the advanced regiment in the 1st brig ade, and the 2d South Carolina, (colored) Col Montgomery, was the last regiment of tke reserve. The selectioo of the 54ih Massachusetts to lead the charge, was undoubtedly m.tde on account ot the good fighting qualifies it had displayed a few day-* before on James I-Iand,These brigades, as I have remarked before, were formed tor this express duty.— Many of the regiments had never seen iheir hrigude commanders before: soma of them had never been uoder fire, sad, with the exception of three regiments in the let brigade, none i.f ihcm had ever been engaged in this form of attack. All had freshl theiri thehad met on the .nominjr of tho 1 lth inst. For two years the Department of the South had been in existence, and until the storming of the batteries on the south end of Morris Island, the army had won rio victory [airlv acknowledged by the enemy.Just as darkness began to cluster in upon the eeene of the afternoon and the evening, Gen. Strong rode to the front and ordered' his brigade, consisting of the 54th Mass., Col. Shaw (colored regiment ) the 6th Conn., Col. Chatfield, the 48;h New York, Col. Barton, the 3d New Hampshire, Col. Jackson, the 76cH Pennsylvania, and the 9. ft Maine, Col. Emery, to advance to the assault. At the instant, the line was seen slowly advancing in the dusk toward the fort, and before a double quick had been ordered, a tremendous fire from the barbette guns on Fort Sumter, from the batteries on Cummings' Point, and from ail the guns on Fort Wagner, opened upon it. The guns from Wagner swept the beach and those from Sumter and Cummings' Point enfiladed it on the left. In the midst of this terrible shower of sliot and shell they pu.-hed their way, reached the fort, portions of the 54th Massachusetts, the 6th Connecticut and the 48th New York daahed through the ditches, gained the t; parapet, and engaged in a hand to hand fiiiht with the enemy, and for nearly hall j- an hour held their ground, arid did not fall back until nearly every commissioned of Beer was shot down. As on the morning uf the assault of the 11th instant, these brave men were exposed to a mo3t galling fire of grape and canister, from howitzers, raking the ditches from the bastions of the Tort, from hand grenades, and from almost every other modern implement of warfare. The rebels fought with the utmtst des-peratiou, and so did tho larger portion of Gen. Strong's brigade, as lung as there was an officer to command it.When the brigade made the assault Gen. Strong eaUamty rode at its head. When it fell back, broken, torn ac.d bleeding, Major Plimpton of the 3d New Hampshire was the highest commissioned officer to command it. Gen. Strong, Col. Shaw. Col Obatfteld, Col. Barton, Col. Green, Colonel Jackson all had fallen; and the list I send you will tell how many other brave officers fell with them. Stories are flying about that this regiment and that regiment broke and run j but that lor the frightened 54ih Massachusetts (negro) we would have carried the fort; that the 9th Maine did not reflect much credit upon the gallant State she represents, and a thousand other reasons which I care not to enumerate. 1 is absurd to say that these men did not fly hi and were nut exposed to perhaps the mo*t deadly fire of the war, when so many of the rank and file were killed It must i be remembered, too, that this assault was made in the night—a very dark night-even ihe liaht of the stars was rb-cured by the blackness of a heavy thunder st«.rm and the enemy could be distinguished fir m our own men only by the light of the bursting shell nod the flash of the Imwuzer and the mu-ket, The 64th JVl tesaehuseu* (negro) whom copperhead office*a would have called cowardly if they had stormed and earned the gate-* of hell, went bold ly into battle, for the second time,'command ed by their brave Colonel, but came out of it led by no higher officer than the boy, Lieut Higainson.The 1st Brigade, under the lead of Gen. Strong, failed to take tho fort. It was now the turn of Col. Futnam, commanding the 2d Brigaie, composed of the 7th New Hampshire, the 62d Ohio, Col. Steele, ihe 67th Ohio, Col Vnrhees. and the 100th N. Y., Col. Donely, to make the attempt.— But alas 1 the task was loo much for hiT*. Through the same terrible fire, he led his men to, over and into the fort, and for an hour held one half of it, fighting every moment of the time, and as with the let Brigade, it was not until he himself fell killed and nearly all of bis officers wounded, and no reinforcements arriving, that his men fell back, and the lebel sliout and cheer of victory was heard above the roar of Sumter a:d the guns from Cutnmiog’s Point.In this second assault by Cal. Putnam’s brigade, Col. Turner, of Gen Gilmore’S staff, stood at the side of Coi. Putnam when he fell, and with his voice and sword urged on the thinned ranks to the final charge. But it was too late. The Third Brigade, Gen. Stevenson's, was not on hand, it was madness for the 2d to remain longer under so deadly a fire, and the thought of surrendering in a body to the enemy could not for a moment be entertained. To fight their way back to the intrencbments was all that could be dor.e,from our own fire. The darkness was so intense.:the roar of artillery so loud, the flight of grape and canister shot so rapid and destructive, that it was absolutely impossible to preserve order in the ranks of individual companies, to say nothing of the regiments.More than half the time we were in the fort, the fight was simply a hand to hand one, u the wounds received by wany clearly indicate. Some have Bword-ihiusts some are hacked on the head, some ate stabbed with bayonets, and a few were knocked down with the butt end of their muskets, but recovered in time to go away with swollen heads. There was terrible fighting to get into the fort, and terrible fighting to get out of it. The cowardly stood no better chance for their lives than the fearless. Even if they surrendered, the shell of-Sumter were thickly falling around them in the darkness, and as prisoners, they could not be safe, until victory, decisive and questioned, rested with one or the other belligerent.The battle is over ; it is midnight; the ocean beach is crowded with the dead, the dying and the wounded. It is with difficulty you can urge your horse through Lighthouse Inlet. Faint lights are glimmering in the sand holes and rifle pits to the right, as you pass down the beach.— In these holes many a poor wounded and bleeding soldier has laid down to his last sleep. Friends are bending over them lo staunch their wounds, or bind op their shattered limbs, but the deathly glare from sunken cyeS'tells that their kind services are all in vain.In Ibis night assault, and from its commencement to its close, Gen. Gilmore, his staff, and bis volunteer aids, consisting oi Col. Littlefield, of the 4th S. C., ana Majors Banister and Stryker, of the Paymaster’s Department, were constantly under fire and doing all in their power to sustain the courage of the troops and urge on reinforcements. All that human power could do to carry ibis formidable earthwork, seems to have been done. No one would have imagined in the morning that so fierce a cannonade from both the navy and ihe batteries on shore, could fail to destroy every bomb proof the rebels had erected. But the moment our mlt;-n touched the parapets of the fort. I 300 rebel streamed from their safe hiding place, where they had been concealed during the day, and fresh and strong were prepared to drive us back. We then found to our sorrow that the 15 inch shot from the Monitors, even when fired at a distance of but
Newspaper Details
Beaver Dam Argus
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Aug 05, 1863
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Gettysburg C.
PA, USA 12 Mar 2025
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