The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-08-07
The WEEKLY PIONEER AND DEMOCRAT.
State she represents, and thousand other

tight and were not exposed to perhaps the
most deadly fire of the war, when SO many
officers and so many of the rank and fla
were killed. 1t must aforementioned too
that this assault was made in the nieht-
a very dark night-even the light Of the
stars was Obscured by the backness of a
heavy thunder storm, and the enemy conld
be distinguished from our own men onlv
by the light of the bursting shell and the
flash OF the howitzer and the musket. The
oath Massachusetts negro) whom Conner
head officers would have called cowardly
If they had stOrmed and carried the gates
OF hell, went boldly into battle, for the
second time, commanded by their brave
Colonel, but came out of it led by no
higher officer than the boy, Lieut., Hic-
ginson.
The First brigade, under the lead Of
General Strong, failed to take the fort
1t was now the turn of Colonel Putnam.
commanding the Second Brigade. COM
posed of the Seventh New HAMPSHIRE the
Sixty-secOnd Ohio, Colonel Steele. the
Sixty-seventh Ohio, Col. Voorhees,. and the
One Hundredth 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 First brigade, it was not until he
himself fell killed and nearly all of his Of
tlcers wounded, and no reinforcements ar
irving, that his men fell back, and the rebel
shout and cheer of victory was heard
above the roar of Sumter and the guns
from Cummings Point.
In this second assault by Col. Putnam's
brigade, Col. Turner, of Gen. Gilmore's
staff, stood at the side of Col. Putnam,
when he fell, and with his voice and sword
III ged on the thinned ranks to the final
charge. But it was too late. The Third
brigade, Gen. StevensOn's was not on
hand. 1t was madness tor the Second to
remain longer under so deadly a fire. and
the thought OF surrendering in body to
the enemy, could not for a moment be
entertained. To fight their way back to
the entertainments was all that could be
done, and in this retreat many poor fell
low fell never to rise again.
Without doubt many of our men fell
from our own fire. The darkness was so
intence, the roar of artillery so loud, the
flight OF grape and canister shot SO rapid
and destructive, that it was absolutely i'm
possible to preserve order in the ranks of
individual companies, tosay nothing of the
regiments.
More than half the time we were in the
fort, the fight was simply hand to hand
one, as the wounds received by many
! clearly indicate. Some have sword thrusts,
some are hacked on the head, some are
stabbed with bayOnets, and few were
knocked down with the butt end of mus
kets, but recovered in time to get away
swollen heads. There was terrible fight
ing to get into the fort, and terrible Fl CHIT
ing to get out of it. The cowardly stood
no better chance for their lives than the
fearless. Even if they surrendered, the
she'll OF Sumter were thickly falling around
them in the darkness, and as prisoners,
they could not be safe, until victory, de-
cisive and unquestioned, rested with one
or the other belligerent.
| The battle is over; it is midnight; the
ocean beach is crowded with the dead, the
dying and the wounded. It is with diff
Guilty you can urge your horse through to
Lighthouse Inlet. Faint lights are glim-
mering in the sand holes and rifle pits to
the right, as you pass down the beach,
In these holes many poor wounded and
bleeding soldier has laid down to his last
sleep. Friends are bending over them to
staunch their wounds, or bind up their
shattered limbs, but the deathly glare
from sunken eyes tells that their kind SER
vices are all in vain.
In this night assault, and from its COM
mencement to its close, Gen. Gilmore, his
staff, and bis volunteer aids, consisting of
Col; Lttle6eld, of the 4th S. c., and Ma
jors Bannister and Stryker, of the Pay
mayster $ Department, were constantly
under fire and doing all il their power to
sustain the courage Of the troops and urge
| on reinforcements. All that human pow
| er could do to carry this formidable earth
work, seems to have been done. No one
would have imagined in the morning that
so fierce cannonade from both the navy
and the batteries on shore could fail
to destroy every bomb-proof the rebels had
erected. But the moment our men
touched the parapets of the fort, 1900
strong streamed from their safe hiding
place, where they had been concealed dur
lug the day, and fresh and strong, were
| prepared to drive us back. We then found
| to our sorrow that the Is inch shot from
| the Monitors, even when fired at the dis
lance of but 1880 yards, had not injured
them in the least. Only the parapets of
| the fort had been knocked into sand heaps.
In their proper places forgot to men
ton that the gunboats Wassahickon,
Capt. Davis, the Chippewa, Capt. Harris,
the Paul Jones, Capt. Buyer, and the Of
tawa, were also engaged in the lombard
ment at long range, and that during every
day of the week, from the 10th to the
18th, had been more Or less engaged with
the work.
The amount of shell thrown at Fort
Wagner would almost build another Iron
sides.
The london Times in IFS Issue of tho