USA > Massachusetts > History of the Fifty-fourth regiment of Masachusetts volunteer infantry, 1863-1865 > Part 9
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fourth had borne more than its share of labor, for it was exclusively employed on fatigue duty, which was not the case with the white troops. There had been no time for drill or discipline. Every moment in camp was needed to rest the exhausted men and officers. The faces and forms of all showed plainly at what cost this labor was done. Clothes were in rags, shoes worn out, and haver- sacks full of holes. On the 16th the medical staff was increased by the arrival of Asst .- Surg. G. M. Pease. Lieut. Charles Silva, Fourth South Carolina (colored), was detached to the Fifty-fourth on the 21st, doing duty until November 6.
Shortly after daybreak, August 17, the first bombard- ment of Sumter began from the land batteries, the navy soon joining in action. The fire of certain guns was di- rected against Wagner and Gregg. Capt. J. M. Wampler, the engineer officer at Wagner, and Capt. George W. Rodgers and Paymaster Woodbury of the monitor " Cat- skill" were killed. Sumter was pierced time and again until the walls looked like a honeycomb. All the guns on the northwest face were disabled, besides seven others. A heavy gale came on the 18th, causing a sand-storm on the island and seriously interfering with gun practice. Wagner and Gregg replied slowly. Lieut. Henry Holbrook, Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, was mortally wounded by a shell.
By premature explosion of one of our shells, Lieut. A. F. Webb, Fortieth Massachusetts, was killed and several men wounded at night on the 19th. The water stood in some of the trenches a foot and a half deep. Our sap was run from the left of the third parallel that morning. The One Hundredthi New York, Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania, and
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Third New Hampshire were detailed as the guard of the advance trenches. An event of the 20th was the firing for the first time of the great three-hundred-pounder Parrott. It broke down three sling-carts, and required a total of 2,500 days' labor before it was mounted. While in transit it was only moved at night, and covered with a tarpaulin and grass during the daytime. The enemy fired one hun- dred and sixteen shots at the Swamp Angel from James Island, but only one struck. Sumter's flag was shot away twice on the 20th. All the guns on the south face were disabled. Heavy fire from land and sea continued on the 21st, and Sumter suffered terribly.
A letter from Gillmore to Beauregard was sent on the 21st, demanding the surrender of Morris Island and Sumter, under penalty, if not complied with, of the city being shelled. The latter replied, threatening retaliation. Our fourth parallel was opened that night 350 yards from Wagner, and the One Hundredth New York unsuccessfully attempted to drive the enemy's pickets from a small ridge two hundred yards in front of Wagner. The Swamp Angel opened on Charleston at 1.30 A. M. on the 22d. By one shell a small fire was started there. Many non-combatants left the city. Wagner now daily gave a sharp fire on our advanced works to delay progress. The " New Ironsides " as often engaged that work with great effect. Late on the 22d a truce boat came from Charleston, causing firing to be temporarily suspended.
Although almost daily the Fifty-fourth had more or less men at the front, it had suffered no casualties. The men were employed at this period in throwing up parapets. enlarging the trenches, covering the slopes, turfing the bat- teries, filling sand-bags, and other labors incident to the
BTY GREGG
PLAN OF SIEGE OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT WAGNER JULY 18 TO SEPT. 7. 1863 James B. Gardner, 44'' Mass.
FORT WAGNER
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operations. In the daytime two men were stationed on higher points to watch the enemy's batteries. Whenever a puff of smoke was seen these "lookouts " called loudly, " Cover!" adding the name by which that particular bat- tery was known. Instantly the workers dropped shovels and tools, jumped into the trench, and, close-covered, waited the coming of the shot or shell, which having ex- ploded, passed, or struck, the work was again resumed. Some of the newer batteries of the enemy were known by peculiar or characteristic names, as " Bull in the Woods," " Mud Digger," and " Peanut Battery." At night the men worked better, for the shells could be seen by reason of the burning fuses, and their direction taken ; unless coming in the direction of the toilers, the work went on. Becoming accustomed to their exposure, in a short time this " dodging shells " was reduced almost to a scientific calculation by the men. Most of all they dreaded mortar-shells, which, describing a curved course in the sky, poised for a moment apparently, then, bursting, dropped their fragments from directly overhead. Bomb or splinter proofs alone protected the men from such missiles, but most of the work was in open trenches. Occasionally solid shot were thrown, which at times could be distinctly seen bounding over the sand- hills, or burying themselves in the parapets.
Our batteries and the navy were still beating down the walls of Sumter on the 23d, their shots sweeping through it. That day Colonel Rhett, the commander, and four other officers were there wounded. With Sumter in ruins, the breaching fire ceased that evening, and General Gill- more reported that he " considered the fort no longer a fit work from which to use artillery." He then deemed his part of the work against Charleston accomplished, and ex-
8
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pected that the navy would run past the batteries into the har- bor. Admiral Dahlgren and the Navy Department thought otherwise, declining to risk the vessels in the attempt.
Captain Partridge about August 23 applied for sick leave and shortly went north. In consequence Captain Emilio again became the senior officer and was at times in charge of the regiment until the middle of October. On the 23d the brigade was reviewed on the beach by General Gillmore, accompanied by General Terry. The latter complimented the Fifty-fourth on its appearance. That evening Captain Emilio and Lieutenant Higginson took one hundred and fifty men for grand guard, reporting to Col. Jos. R. Hawley, Seventh Connecticut, field-officer of the trenches. This was the first detail other than fatigue since July 21. The detachment relieved troops in the second parallel. During the night it was very stormy, the rain standing in pools in the trenches. But few shots were fired. Charleston's bells could be heard when all was still. At midnight the Swamp Angel again opened on the city. About 10 A. M., on the 24th, Wagner and Johnson both opened on us, the former with grape and canister sweeping the advanced works. In the camp, by reason of rain and high tides, the water was several inches deep in the tents on lowest ground. A new brigade - the Fourth - was formed on the 24th, composed of the Second South Carolina, Fifty- fourth Massachusetts, and Third United States Colored Troops (the latter a new regiment from the north), under Colonel Montgomery.
About dark on the 25th a force was again advanced against the enemy's picket, but was repulsed. It was found that a deterinined effort must be made to carry the sand ridge crowned by the enemy's rifle-pits. Just before dark
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the next day, therefore, a concentrated fire was maintained against this position for some time. Col. F. A. Osborn, Twenty-fourth Massachusetts, with his regiment, supported by the Third New Hampshire, Capt. Jas. F. Randlett, then advanced and gallantly took the line in an instant, the enemy only having time to deliver one volley. They cap- tured sixty-seven men of the Sixty-first North Carolina. Cover was soon made, a task in which the prisoners as- sisted to insure their own safety. The Twenty-fourth lost Lieut. Jas. A. Perkins and two enlisted men killed, and five wounded. Upon this ridge, two hundred yards from Wagner, the fifth parallel was immediately opened. Be- yond it the works, when constructed, were a succession of short zigzags because of the narrow breadth of the island and the flanking and near fire of the Confederates. Our fire was being more directed at Wagner, which forced its garrison to close their embrasures in the daytime. It had also become more difficult to send their customary reliev- ing force every third day to Morris Island. Fire upon us from the James Island batteries on the left became very troublesome, occasioning numerous casualties. Our own mortar-shells, on the 27th, in the evening killed seven men, and wounded two of the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania.
That night there was a severe thunder-storm drenching everything in camp and leaving pools of water in the tents. A warm drying sun came out on the 28th. In the evening there was some disturbance, soon suppressed, in conse- quence of ill feeling toward the regimental sutler. In the approaches work was slow by reason of the high tides and rain. Moonlight nights interfered also, disclosing our working parties to the enemy. Colonel Montgomery, com- manding the brigade, on the 20th established his head-
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quarters near the right of our camp. It was learned that a list of prisoners recently received from the enemy con- tained no names of Fifty-fourth men. On the 30th Lieut .- Col. Henry A. Purviance, Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania, was killed by the premature explosion of one of our own shells. The enemy's steamer "Sumter," returning from Morris Island early on the 31st with six hundred officers and men, was fired into by Fort Moultrie, and four men were killed or drowned.
With our capture of the ridge on the 26th the last natu- ral cover was attained. Beyond for two hundred yards stretched a strip of sand over which the besiegers must ad- vance. It seemed impossible to progress far, as each at- tempt to do so resulted in severe losses. Every detail at the front maintained its position only at the cost of life. So numerous were the dead at this period of the siege that at almost any hour throughout the day the sound of funeral music could be heard in the camps. Such was the depressing effect upon the men that finally orders were issued to dispense with music at burials. The troops were dispirited by such losses without adequate results. That the strain was great was manifested by an enormous siek list. It was the opinion of experienced officers that the losses by casualties and sickness were greater than might be expected from another assault.
Success or defeat seemed to hang in the balance. Under no greater difficulties and losses many a siege had been raised. General Gillmore, however, was equal to the emergency. He ordered the fifth parallel enlarged and strengthened, the cover increased, and a line of rifle trench run in front of it. New positions were constructed for the sharpshooters. All his light mortars were moved to the
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front, and his guns trained on Wagner. A powerful cal- cium light was arranged to illumine the enemy's work, that our fire might be continuous and effective. Changes were also made in the regiments furnishing permanent details in the trenches and advanced works, and an important part, requiring courage and constancy, was now assigned to our regiment. It is indicated in the following order : -
HEADQUARTERS U. S. FORCES,
MORRIS ISLAND, S. C., Aug. 31, 1863.
Special Orders No. 131.
II. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, Col. M. S. Littlefield, Fourth South Carolina Volunteers, commanding, are hereby detailed for special duty in the trenches under the di- rection of Maj. T. B. Brooks, A. D. C. and Assistant Engineer. The whole of the available force of the regiment will be divided into four equal reliefs, which will relieve each other at intervals of eight hours each. The first relief will report to Major Brooks at the second parallel at 8 A. M. this day. No other details will be made from the regiment until further orders.
By order of
BRIG .- GEN. A. H. TERRY.
ADRIAN TERRY,
Captain, and Assistant Adjutant-General.
Major Brooks, in his journal of the siege under date of August 31, thus writes, -
" The Third United States Colored Troops, who have been on fatigue duty in the advance trenches since the 20th inst., were relieved to-day by the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volun- teers (colored), it being desirable to have older troops for the important and hazardous duty required at this period."
Throughout the whole siege the First New York En- gineers held the post of honor. Their sapping brigades took
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the lead in the advance trench opening the ground, followed by fatigue details which widened the cut and threw up the enlarged cover. These workers were without arms, but were supported by the guard of the trenches. Upon this fatigue work with the engineers, the Fifty-fourth at once engaged. During the night of the 31st work went on rapidly, as the enemy fired but little. Out of a detail of forty men from the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania, one was killed and six were wounded. One of the guard was killed by a torpedo. A man of Company K, of our regiment, was mortally wounded that night.
Early on September 1 our land batteries opened on Sumter, and the monitors on Wagner. Four arches in the north face of Sumter with platforms and guns were carried away. Lieut. P. S. Michie, United States Engineers, was temporarily in charge of the advance works on the right. Much work was done in strengthening the parapets and re- vetting the slopes. Our Fifty-fourth detail went out under Lieutenant Higginson that morning, and had one man wounded. Rev. Samuel Harrison, of Pittsfield, Mass., commissioned chaplain of the regiment, arrived that day.
September 2 the land batteries were throwing some few shots at Sumter and more at Wagner. Capt. Jos. Walker, First New York Engineers, started the sap at 7 P. M. in a new direction under heavy fire. Considering that the trench was but eighty yards from Wagner, good progress was made. The sap-roller could not be used, because of torpedoes planted thereabout. Our fire was concentrated upon Wagner on the 3d, to protect sapping. But little success resulted, for the enemy's sharpshooters on the left enfiladed our trench at from one hundred to three hundred yards. At this time the narrowest development in the
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whole approach was encountered, - but twenty-five yards ; and the least depth of sand, - but two feet. Everywhere torpedoes were found planted, arranged with delicate ex- plosive mechanism. Arrangements were made to use a calcium light at night. From August 19 to this date, when the three regiments serving as guards of the trenches were relieved by fresher troops, their loss aggregated ten per cent of their whole force, mainly from artillery fire.
On the night of the 3d, Wagner fired steadily, and the James Island batteries now and then. Our detail at the front had George Vanderpool killed and Alexander Hunter of the same company - H - wounded. Throughout the 4th we fired at Wagner, and in the afternoon received its last shot in daylight. Captain Walker ran the sap twenty-five feet in the morning before he was compelled to ecase.
When the south end of Morris Island was captured, Maj. O. S. Sanford, Seventh Connecticut, was placed in charge of two hundred men to act as "boat infantry." From their camp on the creek, near the Left Batteries, details from this force were sent out in boats carrying six oarsmen and six armed men each. They scoured and patrolled the waters about Morris Island. Throughout the whole siege of Charleston this boat infantry was kept up, under various commanders. It was thought that could Gregg be first taken, Wagner's garrison might be captured entire; and an attempt to do so was arranged for the night of September 4. Details for the enterprise, which was to be a surprise, were made from four regiments under com- mand of Major Sanford. The admiral was to send boats with howitzers as support. When all was ready, the boats started toward Gregg. Nearing that work, several musket- shots were heard. A navy-boat had fired into and cap-
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tured a barge of the enemy with Maj. F. F. Warley, a surgeon, and ten men. This firing aroused Gregg's gar- rison ; our boats were discovered and fired upon. Thus the surprise, was a failure, and the attack given up.
Wagner was now in extremis, and the garrison enduring indescribable misery. A pen picture of the state of things there is given by a Southerner as follows : -
" Each day, often from early dawn, the 'New Ironsides' or the monitors, sometimes all together, steamed up and delivered their terrific fire, shaking the fort to its centre. The noiseless Cohorn shells, falling vertically, searched out the secret recesses, almost invariably claiming victims. The burning sun of a Southern summer, its heat intensified by the reflection of the white sand, scorched and blistered the unprotected garrison, or the more welcome rain and storm wet them to the skin. An intolerable stench from the unearthed dead of the previous conflict, the carcasses of cavalry horses lying where they fell in the rear, and barrels of putrid meat thrown out on the beach sickened the defenders. A large and brilliantly colored fly, attracted by the feast and unseen before, inflicted wounds more painful though less dangerous than the shot of the enemy. Water was scarcer than whiskey. The food, however good when it started for its destination, by exposure, first, on the wharf in Charleston, then on the beach at Cumming's Point, being often forty-eight hours in transitu, was unfit to eat. The unventilated bombproofs, filled with smoke of lamps and smell of blood, were intolerable, so that one endured the risk of shot and shell rather than seek their shelter. The incessant din of its own artillery, as well as the bursting shell of the foe, prevented sleep. .. . "
General Beauregard on September 4 ordered Sumter's garrison reduced to one company of artillery and two of infantry under Maj. Stephen Elliott. Early on the 5th
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the land batteries, "Ironsides," and two monitors opened a terrific bombardment on Wagner which lasted forty-two hours. Under its protection our sap progressed in safety. Wagner dared not show a man, while the approaches were so close that the more distant batteries of the enemy feared to injure their own men. Our working parties moved about freely. Captain Walker ran some one hundred and fifty yards of sap; and by noon the flag, planted at the head of the trench to apprise the naval vessels of our position, was within one hundred yards of the fort. The Fifty-fourth detail at work there on this day had Corp. Aaron Spencer of Company A mortally wounded by one of our own shells, and Private Chas. Van Allen of the same company killed. Gregg's capture was again at- tempted that night by Major Sanford's command. When the boats approached near, some musket-shots were ex- changed; and as the defenders were alert, we again retired with slight loss.
Daylight dawned upon the last day of Wagner's memo- rable siege on September 6. The work was swept by our searching fire from land and water, before which its traverses were hurled down in avalanches covering the entrances to magazines and bombproofs. Gregg was also heavily bom- barded. As on the previous day our sappers worked rapidly and exposed themselves with impunity. The greatest danger was from our own shells, by which one man was wounded. Lieutenant McGuire, U. S. A., was in charge a part of the day. He caused the trenches to be prepared for holding a large number of troops, with means for easy egress to the front. Late that evening General Gillmore issued orders for an assault at nine o'clock the next morning, the hour of low tide, by three storming columns under General
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Terry, with proper reserves. Artillery fire was to be kept up until the stormers mounted the parapet. At night the gallant Captain Walker, who was assisted by Captain Pratt, Fifty-fifth Massachusetts, observed that the enemy's sharpshooters fired but scatteringly, and that but one mortar-shell was thrown from Wagner. About 10 P. M. he passed into the ditch and examined it thoroughly. He found a fraise of spears and stakes, of which he pulled up some two hundred. Returning, a flying sap was run along the crest of the glacis, throwing the earth level, to enable assailants to pass over readily.
From early morning Col. L. M. Keitt, the Confederate commander of Morris Island, had been signalling that his force was terribly reduced, the enemy about to as- sault, and that to save the garrison there should be trans- portation ready by nightfall of the 6th. He reported his casualties on the 5th as one hundred out of nine hundred; that a repetition of that day's bombardment would leave the work a ruin. He had but four hundred effectives, exclusive of artillerymen. His negro laborers could not be made to work ; and thirty or forty soldiers had been wounded that day in attempting to repair damages. General Beauregard, who had been, since the 4th at least, jeopardizing the safety of the brave garrison, then gave the necessary order for evacuation.
A picket detail of one hundred men went out from the Fifty-fourth camp at 5 P. M. on the 6th. Our usual detail was at work in the front under the engineers. It was not until two o'clock on the morning of September 7 that the officers and men of the regiment remaining in camp were aroused, fell into line, and with the colored brigade marched up over the beach line to a point just south of the Beacon
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house, where these regiments rested, constituting the re- serve of infantry in the anticipated assault. Many of the regiments were arriving or in position, and the advance trenches were full of troops. Soon came the gray of early morning, and with it rumors that Wagner was evacuated. By and by the rumors were confirmed, and the glad tidings spread from regiment to regiment. Up and down through the trenches and the parallels rolled repeated cheers and shouts of victory. It was a joyous time ; our men threw up their hats, dancing in their gladness. Officers shook hands enthusiastically. Wagner was ours at last.
In accordance with instructions, at dark on the 6th the Confederate ironclads took position near Sumter. Some transport vessels were run close in, and forty barges under Lieutenant Ward, C. S. N., were at Cumming's Point. A courier reported to Colonel Keitt that everything was pre- pared, whereupon his troops were gradually withdrawn, and embarked after suffering a few casualties in the movement. By midnight Wagner was deserted by all but Capt. T. A. Huguenin, a few officers, and thirty-five men. The guns were partially spiked, and fuses prepared to explode the powder-magazine and burst the guns. At Gregg the heavy guns and three howitzers were spiked, and the magazine was to be blown up. The evacuation was complete at 1.30 A. M. on the 7th. At a signal the fuses were lighted in both forts ; but the expected explosion did not occur in either work, probably on account of defective matches.
Just after midnight one of the enemy, a young Irishman, deserted from Wagner and gained our lines. Taken before Lieut .- Col. O. L. Mann, Thirty-ninth Illinois, general officer of the trenches, he reported the work abandoned and the enemy retired to Gregg. Half an hour later all the guns
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were turned upon Wagner for twenty minutes, after which Sergeant Vermillion, a corporal, and four privates of the Thirty-ninth Illinois, all volunteers, went out. In a short time they returned, reporting no one in Wagner and only a few men in a boat rowing toward Gregg. On the receipt of this news the flag of the sappers and the regimental color of the Thirty-ninth Illinois were both planted on the earthwork. A hasty examination was made of Wagner, in the course of which a line of fuse connecting with two magazines was cut. Every precaution was taken, and guards posted at all dangerous points.
A few moments after our troops first entered Wagner two companies of the Third New Hampshire under Captain Randlett were pushed toward Gregg. Capt. C. R. Brayton, Third Rhode Island Heavy Artillery, and some Fifty-fourth men started for the same point. Amid the sand-hills the Third New Hampshire men stopped to take charge of some prisoners, while Captain Brayton kept on, and was the first to enter Gregg, closely followed by the Fifty-fourth men. In Wagner eighteen pieces of ordnance were found, and in Gregg, seven pieces. All about the former work muskets, boarding-pikes, spears, and boards filled with spikes were found arranged to repel assaults. Inside and all around, the stench was nauseating from the buried and unburied bodies of inen and animals. The bombproof was indescribably filthy. One terribly wounded man was found who lived to tell of his sufferings, but died on the way to hospital. Everywhere were evidences of the terrific bom- bardment beyond the power of pen to describe.
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