The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-08-07
FROM CHARLESTON.
THE OPERATIONS OF THE 18TH
AND 18TH INSTANT.
Terrific Naval Bembardment.
Magnificent Bravery Of the Land
60 ssaoae Attack. son


Again Fort Wagner has been assaulted
and again we have been repulsed, and
with, ! regret to say, much more for
midable loss in killed, wounded and miss
ing, than in the first attempt.
The first assault failed, as | stated in
my last letter on account of the hardness
of the 10th Pennsylvania and the 9th
Maine to properly support the Fsucc sful
assault Of the 18th Connecticut, who were
left alone on the parapet and within the
bitches of the fort to battle with the whole
rebel garrison. .s
g In the assault of the 18th inst, but one
brigade, and that very small one, under
the command of Gen. Strong, were enga-
ged in that of last evening a whole di-
vision, consisting of three full brigades,
were drawn out in line to take part in the
action, but on account of some misunder-
standing of orders, but two actually par
ticipated in the fight.
Since the engagement of the 18th, Cen
eral Gilmore has strained every nerve to
strengthen his position on Morris Island,
and so far as human foresight can discern,
has made his lines of defense impregnable,
before advancing to the attack.
Gen. Gilmore designed to commence
the bombardment of the fort at daylight
yesterday morning, but on account of a
terrific thunder storm, which commenced
early in the evening and continued until
morning, delaying the work of the engin-
GERS and dampening the powder, the ac-
ton did not open until half-past twelve.
AT that hour Admiral Dahlgreen signaled
that he was ready, and in few moments
the Montauk, (his flagship the Ironsides,
the Catskill, the Nantucket, the Weehaw-
ken and the Patapsco moved into line in
the order in which I have named them,
and commenced hurting their heaviest
shot and shell around, upon, and within,
the folt, and, with intervals of but very
few minutes, continued this terrible fire
until one hour after the sun had gone
down. During all the afternoon the iron
fleet lay about one mile off from the fort,
but just at the close of the engagement,
and but few moments before the first as
sault was made by General Strong, the
Admiral run the Montauk directly under
the guns of Fort Wagner, and, within 2sO
+ yards, fred round after round from his
15-inch gun, sending, as every shot struck,
vast clouds of sand, mud and timber high
up into the air, making one huge sand
heap Of that portion of the fort facing the
sea, and dism0unting two of the heaviest
guns. nGgD2H5 GRO ige9l 3a 9IFlo.. ers
|0nd Deserters and prisoners tell us that Fort
Wagner mounts thirteen rifed guns OF
heavy calibre, but during all this furious
bombardment by land and sea, she conde-
scsnded to reply with but two; one upon
|, the whole fleet of iron-clads, and one upon
- the entire line of land batteries. She may
possibly have fred one shot to our one hun
dred, but think even that number is a
large estimate. There were no casualties
8 on the Monitors or Eonsides, and but one
man killed and one slightly wounded within
the batteries The firing was almost en-
tirely from our own side. With the most
powerful glass, but very few men could be
|, seen in the fort. At half-past two, shot
from one of our guns on the left cut the
halyards on the flagstaff, and brought the
rebel flag duttering to the ground. =
az In moment, almost before we had be-
gun to ask ourselves whether they had
really lowered their flag, and were upon
the point of surrendering or not, the old
red battle-fag, which the Army of the POI
IS tomac has so often had deiantly shaken in
its face, was run up about ten feet above
the parapet, a little cluster of men rallied
around it, cheered, waved their hats, and
then disappeared, and were not seen again
during the day. Fort Sumter, the mo-
ment the rebel flag came to the ground,
10 sent shower over our heads to assure us
that it had been lowered by accident, and
not by design. In this shot she also de-
sired US to understand that before Fort
Wagner surrendered, she herself would
have to be consulted. With the exception
of this little episode, almost profound
silence, SO far as the rebel garrison them.
selves could maintain it, prevailed within
the fort. A heavy cloud of smoke and
sand, occasioned by our constantly explod-
ing shell, hung over the fort all the after
noon, and it was only when the wind drift
ed it away that we were able to see the
amount of damage we had done. In a few
hours what had been the smooth, regular
lines of the engineer, and the beautiful
sodded entertainments, became rugged and
irregular heaps of sand, with great gaps
and chasms in all the sides of the fort ex-
posed to our fire. From my point of OBJ
servation, wooden lookout fifty feet high,
erected for Gen. Gilmore and staff upon a
sand hill of about the same height, and sit
uated short distance back of the bat
teries, it seemed as if no human being could
live beneath so terrible fire, whether pro-
tected by bomb-proofs or not, and in this
opinion I was fully sustained by nearly
every person around me. There seemed
to be but one opinion, and that was that
we had silenced nearly every gun; that
the ID inch shells had driven the rebels
from the bomb-proofs; and that if there
had been strong infantry force in the
rear OF the fort, we had made it impossible
for them to remain there, and had slaugh-
tered them by hundreds. But there were
few later developments that proved their
opinion the correct one, who said this pro.
found silence on the rebel side was signif-
| cant, not of defeat and disaster, but of ulti-
mate success in repelling our assault; that
they were keeping themselves under cover
until they could look into the eyes of our
men, and send bullets through their heads /;