page_title: First Battle of Fort Wagner
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: First Battle of Fort Wagner / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of battlefield core and study areas. The ABPP revised the 1993 Study Area to reflect the coastline of Morris Island as it was shaped in 1863. The revised Study Area also includes the main shipping channel of Charleston Harbor and Light House Inlet (both used by attacking US Naval forces), the Folly Island camps and batteries, and the angled field of fire from Fort Sumter. The ABPP modified the northern Core Area to represent the ranges of heavy artillery fire from US vessels in the harbor, and from Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter. The southern Core Area includes the field of covering fire from US Army batteries along the northern edge of Folly Island, and fields of fire associated with US Navy vessels in the harbor channel and ships landed with BG Strong's Brigade on the southern tip of Morris Island.
context_page_description: The First Battle of Fort Wagner was fought on July 10 and 11, 1863, on Morris Island in Charleston harbor during the American Civil War. An attempt by the Union Army to capture Fort Wagner was repulsed. The more famous Second Battle of Fort Wagner, which involved an assault by the 54th Massachusetts, would be fought on July 18.
context_section_description: On July 10, Union artillery on Folly Island (which had been occupied in April 1863) and naval gunfire from Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren's four ironclad warships bombarded the Confederate defenses protecting the southern end of Morris Island. This provided cover for the landing of Brig. Gen. George C. Strong's brigade, which crossed Lighthouse Inlet and landed at the southern tip of the island. Strong's troops advanced, capturing several batteries, moving about three miles to within range of Fort Wagner. Also known as Battery Wagner, it was a heavily gunned redoubt that covered nearly the entire width of the northern end of Morris Island, facing Sumter. Strong's report described the advance:
  The two columns now moved forward, under a lively discharge of shell, grape, and canister, converging toward the works nearest the southern extremity of the island, and thence along its commanding ridge and eastern coast, capturing successively the eight batteries, of one heavy gun each, occupying the commanding points of that ridge, besides two batteries, mounting, together, three 10-inch seacoast mortars.
  On July 11, Strong's brigade attacked at dawn, advancing through a thick fog, attempting to seize Fort Wagner. Although the men of the 7th Connecticut Infantry overran a line of rifle pits, they were repulsed by the 1,770-man force under Confederate Col. Robert F. Graham. Heavy artillery fire from Fort Wagner prevented other units from joining the attack.
caption: Map of Fort Wagner I Battlefield core and study areas by the American Battlefield Protection Program.
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