Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-04-05
5e1istellaueuas &eaaing,
EVACUATION OF MORRIS ISLAND.
NJ. Quad in Detroit Free Press.

Edrly Ill 1OOOj ~ DCSttiiiS pis'iii
to the Confederates that they could not hold
The he i iron-ciads had pounded them from one
side and Gilmore's troops from the other,
and that the greater part of Morris Island
would soon be in the hands Of the Federals
was conclusion which must be met and
prepared for.
And now here was the grimness of war.
The sand forts had been almost leveled to
the surface three or four times over, and
vet repairs had been made and the garrl-
sons reinforced. They had the iron-clads
on the one hand and the Federal infantry
on the other, and it had come to that pass
that finger could not be lifted above the
parapet without finding a sharp-shooter
watching for it. Gilmore had about thirty
guns in a semi-circle before Wagner, and
not satisfied with raining tons of shot and
shell daily upon the work, he began new
movement. ,
Here was the terror of war-sap and
mine. Foot by foot, inch by inch, the Fed
erals had crept as near as was possible, roll
ing their sand earthworks before them al
most as easily as one could roll bales OF
they halted. War had become cold-bloOded
murder. a strip of sand, not 400 feet wide,
was the neutral ground, and the Tiger OF
War raved back and forth over this in
search of blood. He found it-blood by
| the gallon-by the barrel-bloOd flowing
out upon the white sands, until the tracks,
of the Tiger could be plainly seen in the
| dampness.
BLOCKING THE PATH.
The iron-clads could neither reduce Fort
Sumter nor pass it, and the attempt to
reach Charleston by way of Secessionville
had failed. If the Federals could gain
| Of Tcla nd ri
| would be under the fire of common artillery
and Fort Sumter could be attacked from a
new side.
Gilmore had secured the lower end of the
island and intrenched his position, but he
could advance no further until Wagner and
GREGG were overcome. Wagner had re-
ceived the most terrific pounding from the
ironclads-a fire so fierce and continuous
that army and navy officers asserted that
all human life behind the sand-piles had
been wiped out, and yet the echoes of the
last gun had scarcely died away when a
thousand COnfederateS emerged from the
pairs. A column of 5000 Federals had
flung itself at the fort, fought with desper-
alton and retired shattered and broken. a
second column, stronger by a thousand, had
rushed over the ditch-up the "lOpes-Over
the walls of sand-fought hand-to-hand
with the ferocity Of tigers, and when the
broken ranks were reformed within the
Federal lines six hundred men were not
there to answer to their names.
Battery Gregg had been pounded at for
weary days-its garrison torn to pieces by
it's walls torn out or leVeled f1at-but there
they were, sullen, defiant, and saying to the
Federal Lion:
ave are in your path and prepared for
YOU"
The English, the French and the Germans
have their histories of that great fOur-years'
struggle in America, and their historians
have praised pluck wherever it cropped out.
An American who attempts twill be called
a patriot for praising the one side, and a
"reber' for praising the other. There was
pluck at Wagner and Gregg and Sumter and
Charleston-such pluck and determination
such uncomplaining sacrifices for the cause
such steadfast purpose to defend every
brick and beam and plank to the last as
neither Greek nor Spartan ever exhibited
FOOT BY FOOT.
When it was finally realized that neither
the missiles from the fleet nor the bayonets
from the infantry on shore could reduce the
forts of sand it was determined to blow
Wagner out of the path Of the advance
Wagner out of the way, Gregg would be
evacuated.
Beginning about the 18th of July, the
; Federal forces may be said to have advanced
foot by foot. During the night the sappers
would advance underground, burroWing
their way with pick and shovel, and next
morning the Confederates would look out
upon a new Federal position. Wagner was
being fought with its own weapon-sand
', It's sand walls had saved it-other sand walls
were to overWhelm it. Gilmore was the
specter of war. His. shadow was reaching
, further and further up Morris Island, ano
that shadow never moved backwards
r Where it rested it burned into the sand, and
, left a horrible trace. There was scarcely s
7 day that the specter did not seek to devoul
more ground-never night that the mer
who followed it or opposed it, did not scream
,ut as bullets tore their flesh.
STRIKING AT FATE.
! In the last days Of July the sight of tho