Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-04-05

throw enough infantry upon Morris Island
to make quick dash upon the Federals and
overwhelm them. The regiments to make
this move had been named, when it was dis:
covered that lack Of transportation would
prevent. !
Twenty-four hours later it was realized
that the knell of fate was about to ring out
its warming over Morris Island. G1lmore
the Specter was as inf1eXible as death and
as unyielding as a coffin. A snail might
have progressed faster, but it was progress
sion Just the same. Each morning saw his
tracks of blood little nearer-each night
there were burials in the sand hills behind
Wagner. The fort was holding out-the
guns were roaring defiance at fate, but fate
ever conquers.
In the first week of September Gilmore's
trenches ended within stones throw OF
Wagner, but covered from its guns. From
here he could drivemines into its very bomb
proofs, or he could assemble sufficient force
to make the chances Of sudden rush al
most certain. The guns from land ana sea
had an enflading fire, the mortars had the
exact range, and it. had come to pass at last
that Death CROPPED in every nook and corner
and bomb-proof in search of victims.
MAKING READY.
Fort Wagner would not surrender, but it
must be evacuated Everything was plan
ned in the coolest manner. Only the sandy
site, rent and torn by explosions, was to be
left for the Specter to gloat over.
One of the preliminary steps was to eXca-
yate trenches and rihe-pits in rear Of Wag-
ner. These, filled with the rear guard OF
the garrison, would check pursuit long
enough to enable everybody to escape.
Such ammunitiOns of war as could be re-
moved to Gregg and beyond were taken
away. M,
uation began. The greater part of the gar
rison was withdrawn to the ritie..plts, two
orthree light guns dragged away with them,
and presently the fort, which had been ten
anted so long and had withstood SO much,
was without sentinels to challenge or artll-
lerists to fire.
GHOsTLY SHADOWS. ....
There was a suspicion in the Federal mind
that some movements were taking place
among the Confederates, but whether 1t was
an increase Of garrison or an evacuation, no
one could determine. TO be prepared 1or
any emergency, a strong calcium light was
thrown upon the fort from one OF the IRON
clads. From the vessel it seemed as II one
could have seen cat walking along the
parapets but the light was deceiving. 1t
was a ghostly glare which betrayed those
who watched instead of those who worked.
Men stood upon the parapets without dis
covery and the strong glare on the front OF
the fort deepened the darkness on all other
sides.
On this night Federal pickets lay in their
rife-pits within thirty steps of the ditch OF
Wagner, but they neither saw nor heard
anything to arouse their suspicious. There
were less than 800 men in the garrison. ana
| arphn
fort and moved away like shadows. The
soft sand echoed no fOotstep, and no voice
was raised above whisper.
While the ghOstly glare OF the calcium
light fell upon the ramparts, and while the
TIGER of War crouched in the sand only a
few steps away, listening, peering, glarlng,
| $50 men fitted across the sand to Battery
Gregg without the whisper of an alarm.
For every pound of sand used in construct
ing Wagner and repairing it, two pounds OF
Federal iron had been used to batter 1t
down, but on this night it stood there as
proud and strong and defiant as ever.
LEAVING THE ISLAND.
Before 10 o'clock the garrison of Wagner
was rowing away from Morris Island. The
men had taken their muskets, but little
| else. Not one of the cannon had been
saved. Before midnight the garrison OF
Gregg had left, and there remained only a
small party charged with blowing up both
works.
The intention of the Confederates was to
leave nothing but two great holes in the
sand to mark the sites Of the forts. The Or
ders transmitted from headquarters were
very plain and complete. The guns were to
be spiked, the truniOns knocked off and the
carriages broken. All ammunition was t)
be placed in the main magazine, and time
fuses used for the explosions. The big
guns were to be jammed full of powder,
sand and shot and arranged with time fuses
t. burst about the time Of the grand explo-
sion. Gregg being about five minutes walk
| from Wagner, was to have ten-mlnuteS
Use instead of a fifteen, and the programme
was to have the two explosions occur IN the
same second.
WHAT WAS DONE.
No move could be made at Wagner until
a.;er dark, and then it was found that a
blow struck upon the gun would arouse all
the Federal pickets lying beyond the dlich.
The guns were spiked by men crawling
about like cats, but they could not be ar
ranged for bursting nor the carriages de,,
stroyed. The spiking was better done at
Gregg, being further away, but yet with
in six hours alter the Federals took posses
sion every gun was in good working order:
The fuses had been repeatedly tested. and
each time they had burned brightly and eX-
actly such distance to the minute. In
each fort the fuse was carefully laid and led
to a barrel of powder, and they were burn
ing all right when the last boat left the
island. And yet, strangely enough, neither
fuse accomplished the result deemed posi-
lively certain. One went out altogether SIX
or eight feet from the powder, and the other
became disarranged, and was consumed
without damage to anything.
The last boat from the island was discoV-
cred by Federal picket-boats and fired at,
mOre'S forces that Morris Island had been
evacuated by the Confederates.
At given signal Forts Sumter, johnson
and other works turned their fire upon the
evacuated forts to prevent the Federals from
rushing in and extinguishing the fuses, and
though this fire answered the object in one
sense it failed in another.
From April to September Wagner had
been stormed and assaulted and pounded
until almost every grain of sand had soaked
a drop of blood, but here it was at last in
Federal hands. Ten thousand infantry
cannon and mortars in battery, backed by
a fleet of ironclads, had finally driven 72C
men out of sand heap, and Gilmore was
half mile nearer Charleston.
Federal history called it great victory
and the masses shouted glory without count
ing the cost or consulting the facts. IO-day
the sea is pouring across the sand-Dar III
three or four different channels, and re"
months more may see white-capped waves
rolling over the spot where whole pages o
a nations history were written with bay0
nets dipped in blood.