The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-08

or anIlihilation. And ever after that : when they came near each other, the
 white troops of the Nutmeg State
 cheered the black men from Massa-
 chusetts.
 Just a word as to the armament of
 the fort which the F'ifty-fourth tried
 to take with their bavonets. On the sea face, according to Capt. Luis F.
 Emilio, the historian of the regiment there was one 10-inch Columbiad and
 two smooth bore 32-pounders; on the southeast bastion, operating on land and sea, one rifled 32-pounder; on south side of bastion, operating on
 land, one 42-pounder carronade; in the curtain, with direct fire on land ap-
 proach to embrasure, two 8-inch naval shell-guns, one 8-inch seacOast howM-
 Fer, and one 32-pound smooth bore; on the flank defence of the curtain, two
 32-pound carronades in embrasures; on | the southerly face, one 32- -pounder car | ronade; in southwest angle, one 10-
 inch seacoast mortar; on bastion gorge, 32-pounder carronade. There were also four 12-pounder howitzers.
 YOU MAY LEAD THE COLUMN
 In addition to all this artillery there
 were the muskets of a large garrison l of infantry. and the approaches to the II port were also in range of the Confed-
 crate guns of Fort Sumter and Fort 1 Gregg and the batteries on James and | Suilivan'S Islands.
 | Furthermore, the conformation of the | sea beach was such that the only ap- proach possible for an attacking force
 was about as deadly as could be de- | vised.
 l Col Shaw and his men realized all fth1s on July IS, 1863, when Gen. Strong, | in command of the forces in that l vicinity, said to the commander of the
 colored regiment: You may lead the i column if you say yes. Your men, know, are worn out, but do as you l choose"
 l The Massachusetts colonel chose to lead. This was at six o'clock in the evening. There had been no regular issue of rations for forty-eight hours, l the men had had nothing whatever to eat since morning. but they cheered when the order came to fall in for the l march over the sand dunes. followed | by the Sixth Connecticut. | As they approached the point of l formation for the assault Col. Shaw walked back to Lieut.. Hallowell. to whom he said: T shall go in advance the State flag with you, It will g.ve the men something to rally round We shall take the fort or die there Good by.''
 Soon afterward Gen. Strong rode up and said to the Fifty fourth: Boys, am a Massachusetts man myself and I know you will fight for the honor of into the fight tired and hungry, but the men in the fort are tired, too. Don't fire musket on the way up, but go in and bayonet them at their guns"
 Then calling out Sergeant William
 Fl. Carney. who had the national flag, tue general asked: 'If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on?"
 T wilI.'' replied Col Shaw.
 While on the beach, a few cannon shot had reached the regiment. one over to the right. When the inaction had become almost unendurable runs Capt. Emilio's report. the signal to ad- vance came
 DOUBLE QUICK AND CHARGE
 Attention said Col Shaw, and then. Move in quick time until w th- in one hundred yards of the fort: then double quick and charge. Forward!'
 Then began the real march to the assault. three-quarters of a mile over the beach.
 They had approached within two hundred yards. and then Fort Wagner became 8 mound of fire. There was the roar of the rtillery and a sheet of musket flame swept along the para
 
 and the Charleston Battalion poured direct and left oblique fire into the ad- vancing Fifty-fourth.
 And the only response was the change from quick to double quick in the march of the colored soldiers As the swifter pace was taken, and of fcers sDrang to the front with drawn swords. the men closed the gaps in their ranks. and with set jaws and bowed heads charged on toward Wag- ner's deadly wall.
 As they drew nearer to the parapet they encountered the flanking fire from the guns in the southwest salient and the howitzers which swept the trench.
 Nothing but the ditch now separated the Fifty-fourth from the goal Do ~n into this they went, through three feet of water, and up the slope beyond, with the, defenders on the parapet fir ing down upon them.
 Many fell, but the survivors gained i the slope. and Carney planted the na- tiOnal flag upon the wall of the fort | and the, State flag was soon beside it.
 Col. Shaw had led the regiment from first to last Gaining the rampant, he l uplifted and shouting Forward! Fifyt- fourth!'' and then fell dead by the flag with a bullet through his heart
 Up to this time the attacking regi- i ment had not fired shot. but on the | parapet there was fierce struggle | with bayonets. clubbed muskets, fists, l and revolvers.
 But the F,ifty-fourth was greatly out Capt. Simpkins and Rus sells were killed on the rampant soon after their colonel had fallen. The | ditch was filled with the dead and | wounded, and the Fifty-fourth was driven back.
 There had been a blunder somewhere, 1 and the regiment which had led the | assault was not followed quickly | enough by endorsements to complete the work which it had so bravely and begun.
 Here is the comment of Confeder- ate officer, Lieut.. Iredell Jones, on the attack of the Fifty-fourth Regiment, which he helped to repulse: '"The neg roes fought gallantly.. and were headed by as brave a colonel as ever lived. He mounted the breastworks waving his sword, and at the head of his regi- ment. and he and a negro orderly ser geant fell dead together over the inner crest of the works. The negroes were as fine a looking set as I ever saw large, strong muscular fellows."'
 Of the co1ored soldiers reported miss ing about sixty were captured. Under an act of the Confederate Congress negroes who fought against the South, if captured, were not to be treated as other prisoners of war but put to death as outlaws guilty of SerVile in-