The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-10 00:00:00

THE ATTACK ON FORT WAGNER.

The following is an account of the attack on
Fort Wagner, supplied by the Charleston Mercury
of Monday, July the 20th :
" Saturday was a day which will be for ever me-
morable in the history of Charleston. About eight
o'clock the desultory cannonade with which the
experience of a week had made our community
familiar was again heard. For nearly three hours
the enemy's fire was maintained with the usual de-
liberation; but about 11 o'clock it was noticed that
the reports came in far more rapid succession. By
noon it became well understood that the foe was re-
solved to subject our position to an ordeal much
more severe than any which up to that time it had
encountered. At that hour, as we learn by accounts
from Morris Island, the converging fire of the
enemy had become truly fearful. Five Monitors,
the frigate Ironsides, seven wooden gunboats, with
the land batteries which the Yankees had thrown
up on the lower part of the island, kept up a con-
stant rain of shot and shell into our works.: No
less than 65 heavy guns and eight mortars are
known to have been in play against us. At one
time, so rapid was the fire, that the reports ave-
raged 27 per minute. One of the Monitors lay
and two to the
with the Ironsides,
neeourtthh--eeeasett, ofw hßilaettethrye Wagner,rthere,
kept a position nearly opposite the sea face of the
battery. The wooden gunboats manoeuvred at
some distance outside the line of turreted monsters,
relying chiefly upon their long-range rifled siege
guns. There were two Yankee batteries on Morris
Island—one, consisting of two guns and a mortar,
was
,locatedbattery at
ry ; Craig'she
other
liill within about 800 yards
ofwas beyond Graham's
t
our att e
House, and had an armament of eight rifled shell
guns. It is estimated that during
the day no
less than 9,000 shells were fired at the battery.
For eleven consecutive hours the bombardment
raged with more or lees violence. About dusk
the fire, which during the afternoon had been
incessant (probably with the design of de-
moralising our men and unfitting them for the
expected night's work), began to slacken consi-
derably, and at dark ceased almost entirely. The
results thus far had been of a character to give us
good cause for encouragement and gratulation.
The damage to our battery was insignificant, and
of a kind easily and speedily reparable. The bomb-
proofs had afforded efficient protection to a large
portion of the garrison, and our casualties at seven
o'clock p.m. were but four killed and fourteen
wounded. Of the enemy's losses from our fire, if
any, we have, of course, no trustworthy account.
Fort Sumter, which bore a part in the action, sent
several shells into Craig-hill batteries, and also into
the camp of the enemy, about three and a quarter
miles distant, it is believed with good effect. At a
few minutes before eight o'clock our pickets gave
notice that the enemy in heavy force was moving to
the assault. The attack was not unexpected, and
our men, though much jaded by the fatigues and
exposure of the day, sprang to their places with zeal
and alacrity. The enemy advanced in two columns
of about three thousand men each, the whole under
command of Brigadier- General Strong. The
column which our attacked right was composed
partially of negro troops, who were put in the ad-
vance. On our left, the other column advanced
with spirit, under a severe fire from the Dahlgreen
guns and columbiads from Fort Sumter. As the
column advanced at the double quick, the guns of
Battery Wagner also opened. When the enemy
had reached a point about sixty yards distant our
infantry, posted behind
the parapet, poured a
galling fire into the moving masses; the Yankees,
nevertheless, in considerable force, succeeded in
gaining the trench, and began to clamber up the
sides of the battery. At this moment Lieutenant
Waties, of Blake's battery, who was in charge of
two brass howitzers (belonging to a detachment of
artillery under Capt. De Pass, of White's battalion)
opened a raking fire which trench, play-
ing-- swept the
terrific havoc in the ranks of the assailants,
The howitzers had been •
assigned to this position,
which they occupied so advantageously for us,
at the instance of Colonel Harris, of the engineers,
all the horses belonging to the section having
been put hors de during combat
the enemy was driven back at this part of
our works (the left) and €he trench filled with the
enemy's dead attests the severity of the conflict
there. On the right, negro troops were met with
a terrible cross fire of musketry. Here were posted,
among other troops, the Charleston battalion, and
these gallant men behaved in a manner worthy the
fame their organisation had so dearly won at Seces-
sionville. The second assault was still more des-
perate than the first ; but it was met and repelled
in the same gallant style by the brave troops, Geor-
gians, North Carolinians, and sons of our own city,
who stood shoulder to shoulder
in the fight. In the
centre of our lines a small body
of
the enemy suc-
ceeded in gaining a lodgment in l-
a sa lent, theiguns
of which had been disabled. Here they maintained
their position for more than an hour. A gallant
but unsuccessful attempt was made to dislodge them
in which Capt. Ryan fell, and it was not until a
small force of Georgians had ascended the magazine
and thus gained a position to command the salient,
that the audacious Yankees surrendered. At the
time that this occurred the firing elsewhere had
ceased, and the Georgians accomplished their pur-
pose without firing a gun. The movement by
which this was effected was undertaken at the sug-
gestion of Co'
.. Harris. The fight lasted from eight
until eleven p.m., and was of a desperate character
throughout. The enemy's losses were very heavy.
His killed and wounded must have been at least
1,500. The number of the dead left on the field and
buried by us yesterday exceeded 600. We captured
over 200 prisoners, including a few of the negro
troops. Our own losses were comparatively light.
It is estimated that our killed and wounded will not
exceed 100."
Subjoined are some f, latest" particulars of the
tracted from the same
attack on Morris Island, ex

paper :
" Daring the early portion of yesterday morning
all was comparatively quiet on Morris Island. About
eleven o'clock the laud batteries opened on Fort
Wagner, and the Monitors and the Ironsides
again approached and
o' opened a severe
when the bom-
fire. This
continued until two clock,
bardment became furiow, the reports being heard
in quite as rapid succession as on Saturday.
This furious cannonade lasted for about an hour and
a half, Fort Sumter and Battery Wagner replying
slowly. Also fire was opened from a new battery
OR James Island. Fort Sumter got the ;an of
the Ironsides, and a little before four o'clock she

withdrew. The Monitors also hauled off, and for
the remainder of the evening the firing was at long
and irregular intervals, coming chiefly from the
enemy's land batteries. Some shots were fixed at
Fort Johnson and at the Shell Point Battery. The
casualties in Battery Wagner yesterday were four
killed and 11 wounded. A mortar fire was kept up
on Battery Wagner every few minutes during the
night from the battery near Graham's House. On
Sunday morning the enemy sent in a flag of truce
to ask permission to bury their dead, whose bodies
lay thickly strewn in the trench and elsewhere in
front of our works. As it was supposed that the
chief object of this request on the part of the Yankee
commander was to gain an opportunity to recon-
noitre our position, the proposition was declined,
and the duty of burying the dead devolved upon our
own men, and on Sunday no firing occurred. The
number of bodies buried previous to the renewal of
the cannonade yesterday was 800-600 by our men
and some 200 and odd beyond our lines by the
enemy. Including those still unburied and the
wounded who have since died, the enemy's loss in
killed alone must have been nearly or quite one
thousand. The number of prisoners taken by our
troops (including wounded) was two hundred and
seventy-six. Judging from these figures, and re-
membering the well-known habit which the Yankees
have of carrying off their wounded, it seems quite
reasonable to believe that their total loss in killed,
wounded, and prisoners could not have been less
than two thousand."

The following details of the land attack upon
Fort Wagner are from Federal sources :
" Soon after four o'clock the firing from Fort
Wagner ceased. It was then known that
our brave fellows had succeeded in dismount-
ing one gun; and it was also pretty well
ascertained that another of the rebel pieces
had burst. These facts led to the supposition that
the enemy had evacuated the work; and it was de-
termined to attempt its occupation. For this pur-
pose two brigades, consisting of the 7th Connecticut
Regiment, the Third New Hampshire, the Ninth
Maine, the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and the
Forty-eighth New York, under Brigadier-General
Strong, and the Seventh New Hampshire, Sixth
Connecticut, Sixty-second Ohio, One Hundredth
New York, and Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, coloured,
under Colonel Putnam, who had been under arms all
day, screened from the enemy behind a range of
sand hills, in the rear of our works, were ordered for-
ward. This was at dusk, and both brigades were
formed in line on the beach, the regiment being dis-
posed in columns, expecting the coloured regiment,
which for some reason was given the post of extreme
honour and of danger in the advance, and was drawn
up in line of battle, exposing its full front to the
enemy. This movement of the troops was observed
by Sumter, and fire was at once opened upon them,
happily wit hout doing injury, as the shells went over
the heads of the men. General 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 the first brigade. Colonel Putnam,
of the 7th New Hampshire, who, although of the
regular army, and considered one of the best officers
in the department, never led his men into battle nor
been under fire, took command of the second, and
General Stevenson the third, constituting the re-
serve. The 54th Massachusetts (coloured regiment).
Colonel Shaw, was the advanced regiment in the first
brigade ; and the 2d South Carolina (negro), Colonel
Montgomery, was the last regiment of the reserve.
Tee selection of the 54th Massachusetts to lead the
charge was undoubtedly made on account of the
good fighting qualities it had displayed a few days
before on James Island. Just as darkness began to
close in upon the scene of the afternoon and the
evening, General Strong rode to the front, and
ordered his brigade, consisting of the 54th Massa,
chusetts, Colonel Shaw (coloured regiment) ; the 6th
Connecticut, Colonel Chatfield ; the 48th New
York, Col. Bartow ; the 3d New Hampshire, Col.
Jackson ; the 76th Pennsylvania and the 9th Maine,
Col. Emery, to advance to the assault. At the
instant the line was seen slowly advancing in the
dusk towards the fort, and before a double-quick
had been ordered, a tremendous fire from the
barbette guns on Fort Sumter, the batteries on
Cumming's Point, and from all the guns on Fort
Wagner, opened upon it. The guns from Wagner
swept the beach, and those from Sumter and Cum-
ming's Point enfiladed it on the left. In the midst
of this terrible shower of shot and shell they
pushed their way, reached the fort ; portions of
the 54th Massachusetts, the 6th Connecticut, and
the 48th New York, dashed through the ditches,
gained the parapet, and engaged in a hand-to-hand
fight with the enemy, and for nearly half an hour
held their ground, and did not fall back until nearly
every commissioned officer was shot down. As on
the morning of the assault of the 11th inst., these
brave men were exposed to a most galling fire of
grape and canister from howitzers, raking the
ditches from the bastions of the fort, from hand
grenades, and from almost every other implement
of warfare. The rebels fought with the utmost
desperation, and so did the larger portion of Gen.
Strong's brigade, as long as there was an officer to
command it. 'When the brigade made the assault,
General Strong gallantly rode at its head. When
it fell back, broken, torn, and bleeding, Major
Plimpton, of the Third New Hampshire, was the
highest commissioned officer to command it. The
first brigade, under the lead of General Strong,
failed to take the fort. It was now the turn of
Colonel Putnam, commanding the second brigade,
composed of the 7th New Hampshire, the 62d Ohio,
Col. Steele, the 67th Ohio, Col. Voorhees, and the
100th New York, Col. Danley, to make the
attempt. But, alas ! the task was too much for him.
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 that time with the
utmost desperation; and, as with the Ist Brigade,
it was not until he himself fell killed, and
nearly all his officers wounded, and no reinforce-
ments arriving, that his men fell back, and the rebel
shout and cheer of victory was heard above the roar
of Sumter and the guns from Cumming's Point. In
this second assault by Gen. Putnam's brigade Col.
Turner, of Gen. Gillmore's staff, stood at the side of
Col. 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 3d brigade, Gen.
Stevenson's, was not on hand. It was madness for
the second 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 intrenchments was all
that could be done, and in this retreat many a poor
man fell never to rise again. Without a doubt,
many of our men fell from our own fire. The dark-
ness was so intense, the roar of artillery so loud, the
flight of grape and canister shot so rapid and de-
structive, that it was absolutely impossible to pre-
serve 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
indicatedt o ha n d on; es,oa
ms teh
hade w wounds received
thrusts, bs
some
manym
e
a
on the head, some were stabbed with bayonets, and
a few were knocked down with the butt end of
mus-
kets, but recovered in time to get away withsw& swollen
f the
heads. There was terrible fighting to
get into
In this
fort, and terrible fighting to get out o it.
to its
close, Gen. Gillmore, his staff, and his volunteerrehacked
an
iidgsh, night as
consistingsau t assault,
on
fd
Col. fromL itstt
Littlefield,
commencement ctehrue tt h
South
Carolina, and Majors Bannister and Stryker, of the
clearly
i'aymaster's Department, were constantly under
fire, and doing all in their power to sustain the cou-
rage of the troops and urge on reinforcements. All
that human power could do to carry on this formid-
able earthwork seems to have been done. No one
would have imagined in the morning that so fierce
caraiouucle from both the navy and the batteries
on shore could fail to destroy everymboommeb;tproouort
the rebels had erected. But the