The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-08-08
The Attack On Fort wagner.
BLOODY NIGHr-AssAULr AND RRPULsK


Again Fort Wagner has been assaulted
and again we have been repulsed, and with,
regret to say, a much more formidable
loss in killed, wounded and missing, than
in the first attempt.
The first assault failed, IA l stated in my
last letter, on account of the hardness of
the 10th Pennsylvania and the 9Th Maine,
to properly support the successful assault
of the 9TH Connecticut, who were left alone
on the parapet and within the bitches of
the fort to battle with the whole Rebel gar
rison.
In the assault of the 18th inst, but one
brigade, and that a very small one, under
the command of Gen. Strong, were engag-
ed; in that of last evening whole division,
consisting of three full brigades, were
drawn out in line to take!part in the action,
but on account of some misunderstanding
of orders but two actually participated In
the fight.
Since the engagement of the l1th, Gen'l
Gilmore has strained every nerve to
strengthen his position on Morris Island,
and so far as human foresight can discern,
has made his line of defense impregnable.
before advancing to the attack.
session; five batteries have been erected,
in all containing nine 30-pound and fonr
2O-pound PARROTS, and ten 10-lnch mortars
on the left, with two 30-pound PARROTS, ten
lO-inch mortars, and three full batteries OF
light artillery ON the right. The earth
works protecting these guns have all been
erected by the New York Volunteer Engi-
ueers, under the direction of Capt. Brooks
and Lieuts. Mirche and Suter, of Gen. Gill
more's staff. During the action Of yester-
day, Lieut.. Col. jackson, Chief of Artillery
on Gen. Gillmore's staff, commanded on
the left, and Capt. Langdon of the LIST L. $.
Artillery, Company Nj, on the right. The
extreme right rests on the ocean beach; the
extreme left, on the edge of a swamp, about
500 yards from the small creek separating
Morris Island from James Island. The
whole line of batteries sweeps in the form
of semi-circle, and is at all points about
| l,S00 yards from Fort Wagner. Nearly all
| the guns upon the left are about 1000 yards
! from Fort SUMTER; but being of light cali
Der compared with the one on that formida-
| Bile structure, We're not brought to bear upon
her at any time during the action.
! Gen. Gilmore designed to commence the
bombardment of the fort at daylight yes
terday morning, but on account of terrific
| thunderstorm, which commenced early in
the evening and continued until morning
delaying the work of the engineers and
dampening the ammunition, the action did
not open until half past II. At that houl
Admiral Dahlgren signaled that he was
ready, and in few moments the Montauk
This fiag-ship,) the Ironsides, the Catskill
the Nantucket, the Weekawken and the
Patapsco moved into line in the order il
which / have named them, and commenc
ed hurting their heaviest shot and shell
around, upon and within the fort, and, will
intervals Of but very few minutes, contin
/ ued this terrible fire until one hour afte
the sun had gone down During all the at
ternoon the iron fleet lay about one mile of
from the fort, but just at the close of thu
engagement, and but few moments befor'
the first assault was made by Gen. Strong
the Admiral ran the Montauk directly un
der the guns of Fort Wagner, and within
$50 yards, fired round after round from hi
l5-inch gun, sending, as every shot struck
vast clouds of sand, mud and timber higl
of that portion of the fort facing the sea, ant
dismounting two of the heaviest guns.
Deserters and prisoners tell us that For
Wagner mounts thirteen rifled guns o
heavy caliber, but during all this furiou
bombardment by land and sea, she conde
scended to reply with but two; one upol
the whole fleet Of iron clads, and one upol
possibly have fired one shot to our on
hundred, but think even that number
large estimate. There were no casualtie
on the Monitors or Ironsides, and but on
man killed and one slightly wounded with
in the batteries. The firing was almost en-
tirely from our own side. With the mos
powerful glass, but very few men could b
from one of our guns on the left, cut tn
halyards on the flagstaff and brought tn
Rebel flag fluttering to the ground.
In moment, almost before we had be
gun to ask ourselves whether they had real
ly lowered their flag, and We're upon tn
point of surrendering or not, the old re
battle flag, which the Army of the Potoma
= k~r Lol IoGn v,1,, clio ~
, face, was run up about ten feet above tn
| parapet, little cluster of men rallie
, around it, cheered, waved their hats, an
then disappeared, and were not again see
during the day. Fort Sumter, the momer
the Rebel flag came to the ground, sent
: shot over our heads to assure us that it ha
been lowered by accident and not be dc
sign. In this shot she also desired US
distinctly understand that before Fol
Wagner surrendered, she herself woul
have to be consulted. With the exceptio
of this little episode almost profound s.
lence, so far as the Rebel garrison then
selves could maintain it, prevailed with
the fort. heavy cloud Of smoke an
: sand, occasioned byour constantly exploG
ing shell, hung over the fort all the after
noon, and 1t was only when the wind drift
ed it away that we were able to see til
1 amount of damage we had done. In a fe'
I hours what had been the smooth reguls
e lines of the engineer, and the beautiful 500
I ded embankmentS, become rugged and il
D regular heaps of sand with great gaps an
Q chasms in all the sides of the fort expose
: to our fire. From my point of observ,
ton, a wooden lookout, fifty feet higl
!; erected for Gen. Gilmore and staff upon
u sand hill Of about the same hight, and 81
: uated short distance back of the bate
9 les, itseemed as if no human being coul
live beneath SO terrible fire whether pr,
e tected by bomb-proofs or not, and in tn
9 opinion I was fully sustained by nearl
: every person around me. There seemed
), be but one opinion, and that was that v
e had silenced nearly every gun, that the
: inch shells had driven the Rebels from Il
Q bomb proofs, and that if there had been
8 strong infantry force in the rear of the 70
It we had made It impossible for them to r
9 main there and had slaughtered them /
q hundreds. But there were few later d
Q velopments that proved their opinion W.
g the correct one, who said this profound &
G lence on the Rebel side was significant, n
II of defeat and disaster, but of ultimate su
q cess in repulsing our assault; that the
t were keeping themselves under cover III
q til they could look into the eye of our me