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

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THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 10, 1863.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

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THE NAVY.

His Grace the Duke of Somerset and Captain
Drummond visited the building yard of Mr. J,
White, at West Cowes, ou Satunicy, and inspLei.td
her. Majesty's screw corvette Highflyer, which Mr.
White is repairing under contract with the Admi-
ralty. The Duke, Captain Drummond, and other
members of the Board afterwards embarked on
board the Admiralty yacht Enchantress and left for
Portland.

The Russian iron-clad battery Pervenitz left
Gravesend at six a.m. on Saturday for Cronstadt,
under steamer. On arriving off the Maplin Sands
she was tried at the measured mile, and realised a
mean speed of eight knots, with 80 revolutions of 1
her engines, their maximum number of revolutions
being 110. She completed a full circle in five
minutes 15 seconds, and was found to be under the
most perfect command of her helm. Immediately
on completing her trial at the measured mile the
Pervenitz was ordered by Admiral Boutakoff, who
has superintended her construction in this country
for the Russian Government, to proceed to Cren-
stadt under steam and canvass, the General Admi-
ral to accompany her under full steam, but not to
take her in tow. We are requested to state that
her departure from the Thames for the Baltic was
hurried forward for no other reason than simply to
get her over to Cronstadt previous to the rough
weather setting in. With regard to the armour-
plates not being bolted in their places on her bow
and stern, it was never intended to place them
there until after the arrival at Cronstadt, it being
determined, from the time of laying her keel, that
she should make her first voyage without them, and
with her extreme ends as light as possible.
In accordance with Admiralty instructions to
that effect received at Chatham, the mechanics
employed on the Achilles discontinued working
overtime on Saturday afternoon, and left the yard
at the usual hour, four o'clock. The cause of this
order .on the part of the Admiralty appears to
be that, although the mechanics employed on that
vessel have ostensibly been working for several
months past from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., with only short
intervals for meals, yet, in reality, there is not a
sufficient excess of work accomplished to justify
the continuance of the system.

The N3rwegian sailing corvette Ornen, 16, Capt.
H. Wedel Jarlsberg, 19 days from Quebec for
Christiana, arrived in Plymouth Sound yesterday

morning.
The following appointment and promotions were
made on Saturday at the Admiralty :—Walter H.
Brimfield, acting first class assist.-engineer, to the
Wye; David Wilson (acting), Kenneth M'Caskill,
Andrew Kennedy, Nicholas Baird, David Sharp
(acting), James M'Arthur (acting), Peter Foulis
(acting), John Muir, Ebenezer Bennett, John
Crichton, John Galbraith, Samuel M'Dougall,
Edward M‘Leish, and John Frazer, promoted assist.-
engineers of the first class.

vine service was conducted by the chaplain. On
Monday, shortly after noon, his Royal Fligbness
the Commander-in-Chief and Staff arrived from
London, accompanied by Lieut,-General Sir J. L.
Pennefather, commanding at Aldershott, and his
Shiff. After minutely invretinp each regiment in
turn, and going over the whole of the encampment,
a sham engagement took place, the camp being
supposed to be attacked by an enemy advancing
from Aldershot. The Field-Marshal expressed his
highest approval of the manner in which the pro-
ceedings were carried out, and returned to London
about 5 o'clock. On Tuesday morning the troops
marched out to Haslemere, a distance of five miles,
and returned in the afternoon. On Wednesday they
marched to Petersfield, a distance of about nine
miles, where they were temporarily encamped. On
Thursday the force of the column was further in-
creased by the arrival of the 13th Hussars and the
A battery, 4th brigade Royal Artillery. On Friday
another splendid field-day took place, in the presence
of the Duke of Cambridge, Sir John Pennefather,
and their staffs. The weather has been delightful
during the whole time that this column has been
oat, and the troops have greatly enjoyed the benefit
of the change.

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 filed at

'ort Johnson and at the Shell Point Battery. The

easuci !ties 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 Connecticu
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 obsera ed
by Sumter, and fire was at once opened upon them,
happily without 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.
Tne 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 •quiek
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 sinipl9 a ha
nd
to hand one, as the wounds received by many _clearly
indicated ; some had sword thrusts, some are hacked
bayonets, and
on the head, some were stabbed v
a few were knocked down with tilieitbil
butt end of mus-
kets, but recovered in time to get away with swollen
heads. There was terrible fighting to get
In this
into the
,
fort, and terrible fighting t
oget out of it
commencement to its
close, Gen. Gillmore,
night assault, and from.
its
staff, and his volunteer
aids, consisting of Col. Littlefield, of the 4th South
Carolina, and Majors Bannister and Stryker, of the
Paymaster's
.. Department, were constantly under
fire, and doing all tneir 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
a cannonade from both the navy and the batteries
on shore could fail to destroy every bomb-proof
b b-proo. ,
the rebels had erected. But the moment our