The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1863-10-01
Interesting Description Of the Taking Of
-sss-ns- chs MIC PITS Of Fort Wagner.

Interesting Description Of the Taking Of
.-s-~s- che istlc PITS Of Fort Wagner.
The touosisg diary Of ths incidents
cosnectAdsxith the. capture Of the rife
pits of Fort Wagner is from a letter
written by member Of the oath Massa-
chusetts tto his retativos.- The letter is
dated M4peis Island, Aug. eth:
Yesterday afternoon, about 4 o'clock
the gath were ordered to fall in on the
sbcrrl az quickly as possible. We form
'ed'a line; extra cartridges were given
out. III Office were called to the front,
and Gen Stevenson gave them their or
ders. An alteration was then made IN
the regimental line; six men from 20. "A,
and our orderly another sergeant and
myself were pu. with Go. |, Captain
Amsrye, We were then formed IN the
- adyance-ro. As men then formed lit.
tie waybehlnd us, then the rest of the
reginsat I'll Lieut.. Sweet was put in com.
mand of Co. A. Then we were told where
we were going Co. l, and those of Go
A. who were in it, were to go forward to.
orr outer works--on the left Of the reb
el works t-raDd Attn, order, charge on
the pits. ......
Then Go. A was to como up-oach
man i, med with his gun and two shovels |
r--and wore to commence shoveling i'm
8 NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. up breas,works- !
using his muske. when necessary, and I.
were to be supported by the rest of the
regiment. We reached our outer works,
our regiment moved off TO the right, and
Co. |, in which was, to the left. We
lay behind our in,renchments, awaiting
the orders to charge Capt. Amory and
Capt, Rtddi of Go. A, were with Us.
o Thesforunr told us,o be sure and Keep
>.toectil r---torash forwarda top speed
each men to yell at the top Of his voice
that it was death to stand still--and
that s surss. way was toskeep on--and
if any mao dropped, to let him lie where
he El. until the thing was over, that no
dodbt itni.ht DO taken without the loss
OF ! sioele man, did we advance boldly
and quickly the enemy being taken
so suddenly by surprise would no d"ubt
run. We reconnoitered, and found out
tho airSetion' Of the pits from where we
were. Soon came ne order Is ax tnyo-
rets, ard to do it noi<e1c>slg We did SO,
and awaited the final word When the
order cIme, "Chargc. charcr" | ,prang
over the paraphat and came iato view OF
the euemy's rife pits. | made within
myself short, earnest prayer to God to
forgive my sin~-can nended my soul to
Him, and pushed forward, yelling at the
top of my voice. Whiz-whiz-came
tho balls al above us. We re*ched the
pits; there sure enough were the rebels,
some rushing toward Wagner, others
rushing into our lines, willing prisoners,
Others shot on the ground. We fired af,
ter them A moment after up rushed
the remainder of our regiment 49,
The shovclers threw down their pieces
and fell to work shoveling like mad
We all then formed to support them in
line Of battle. Then cane grape and
canister from Wagner all about US. Capt
Perkins and private Spooner, of Co. |,
and three more in other companies, were
instantly killed, and six wounded. Capts.
BEDDING and Amoty headed the charge
Of our lit,le detaehmen',aud did nobly; in
fact, so did all our officers and men. |
can tell you, such shoveIiDg as these
men did woud astonish you. In less
than twenty minutes, breastwork fifteen
feet in hight was thrown up. Then We
sat doxn, gun in hand, keeping men at
the top, on the watch for shells, aud any
force seen approaching. About 8 p. IN
regiment Of colored troops came up aud
continued cur ditch to our works -
The engineers then came out and fell to
work. Soon it commenced to rain We
had been wet through with perS; ration,
and now chilled and soaked completely
by the drcnchng storm, we were in
miserable plight TO crown ALL Forts
Wagner, johnson and Gregg sent solid
shot, shell, grape and canister, schrapnel
aud rife balls into us, and some of our
own batteries fell short of the mark, and
sent their shot and shell about us. 1t
was terrible scene. \ regiment of men
sitting in a long ditch at night, thun-
derstorm raging, raining in torrents, aud
( the continual roar of the thunder, and cx
plosion of shells, the whistling Of solid
shot, the horrible Shrek of grape and
canister all about us, and no one hit .
truly it was wonderful But God has
been mcrciful, ! am uninjurel and not
aman 10 Co. \ has been struck
-~ ! sB- An aft ,lr worthy Of notice occurred
a few days since on tho train between