USA > Maine > The story of one regiment; the Eleventh Maine infantry volunteers in the war of the rebellion > Part 14
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"In obedience to that order, the detachment left Fernandina on the 22d of July, 1863. It consisted of the following officers and men : First Lieutenant Charles Sellmer, of Company D, com- manding the detachment ; Second Lieutenant Charles H. Foster, of Company K ; Corporal Asa W. Googing, Privates Henry Albee. Ruben C. Bunker. Joseph M. Munson. Edward Noyes, Charles E. Urann, and Benjamin D. Willey, of Company C; Corporals
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Ira Weymouth and Franklin C. Rowe, Privates Moses M. Burse, Charles H. Ham, Bradley I. Kimball, Robert H. Nowell, Horace B. Sherburn, Major D. Smith, Jesse R. Stone, and John D. Wal- ton, of Company E; Private Joseph F. Estes, Company F ; Ser- geant George Payne, Corporal Judson R. Moon, Privates Samuel F. Bennett, Thomas J. Holmes, Nathaniel Hooper, Charles W. Royal, and James II. Taylor, of Company G ; Sergeants Andrew B. Erskine and Charles Knowles, Corporals Cyrus E. Bussey, Amos R. Pushaw, and John F. Buzzell, Privates Lorenzo D. Bickford, Roger A. Erskine, George C. Gould, John Green, David Peabody, Levi Pooler, Charles O. Varney, George Warrick, Samuel V. Wentworth, and Warren L. Whittier, of Company K.
" After a few days of uneventful journey, the detachment arrived at its destination, and went into camp near Department Head- quarters. On the following day it was divided into two parties : one under command of Lieutenant Sellmer, and the other under Lieutenant Foster, each proceeding to the trenches to take part in the siege operations, relieving parties of the Third Rhode Island Artillery in manning and working 10-inch siege mortar batteries, and thereafter taking turns with the Rhode Island men every other day, one day in the trenches, the following day in camp, but always within range of the rebel batteries. And it was most gratifying to their commander to see how coolly and unhesi- tatingly they went into action, how carelessly they took their first introduction to artillery work under a heavy artillery fire, and how rapidly and thoroughly they learned to use their new kind of firearms.
" The detachment left camup and marched to their batteries a short time before sundown of each day. Of course, the rebels were well aware of that fact, and that trench guards and working parties were also going to the front at that time of day ; conse- quently that was the time when they opened from Waguer, Gregg, Moultrie, and Johnson, with all the guns available. The beach close to the water's edge, the only practicable road, was then crowded with detachments going to the front or returning to camp, and was kept hot and alive with shrieking, bursting shells, bounding, screaming, ricochet shots, accompanied by the ‘je wiss, je wiss,' of the mortar shells which showered their frag- monts over the beach and batteries. During all this time our own batteries were firing away for dear life, trying to silence the
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THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.
fire of Fort Wagner. The general orders to the battery command- ers were, to open fire whenever Fort Wagner did, and to keep it up until Wagner's fire was silenced.
"Under these interesting and exciting circumstances the men received their first instruction in serving siege mortars, for the old detachment of the Rhode Island Artillery had rushed off for camp just as soon as the Eleventh Maine detachment had entered the battery. And after half an hour's instruction and actual practice they were able to return the compliments of Fort Wag- ner with telling effect, judging from the fragments and clouds of dust and sand thrown up into the air after every shot into Fort Wagner, and from the rapid slackening of Wagner's fire.
" After a few weeks of practice with the siege mortars the camp was changed farther to the front, and the detachment was as- signed to take charge of the only 10-inch seacoast mortar bat- tery (Kirby) in use during the siege.
" This battery was thrown up for bombarding Fort Sumter, as well as Wagner, Gregg, and Johnson. It was 4,550 yards from Fort Sumter, or 250 yards farther than the 'Heavy Artillery Tactics' gave as the extreme range of these guns, yet by judicious handling and manipulation its shells were dropped into Fort Sumter for four days, until on the 21st of August a storm . dead ahead' made them fall short, compelling the battery to cease firing for the first time.
" About this time General J. W. Turner, Chief of Artillery, gave instructions to Lieutenant Sellmer to take charge of the marsh battery in addition to the seacoast mortar battery, and to prepare it to open fire upon the city of Charleston at ten o'clock that evening, aiming the gun at St. Michael's Church steeple. . Marsh Battery' was the official designation of the battery, but the soldiers named it the 'Swamp Angel,' and by that name alone is it known to the general public. It was about 8, 000 yards from the city, built in the marsh on the left and front of the Union batteries, and near a creek, by which it could be reached at high tide from Light House Inlet. The battery consisted of an epaul- ment made of sand bags, supported by a grillage composed of round logs, crossing each other at right angles, in two layers, and resting on the surface of the marsh. In this grillage, in rear of the epaulment, there was a rectangular opening large enough to receive the platform of the gun. This opening was surrounded
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by sheathing piles, which reached through the mud into the solid substrata of sand. Within this rectangular space layers of marsh grass, canvas, and sand were packed, on which base rested a close-fitting sub-platform of planks. On these planks the gun platform was placed. The platform and the epaulment were therefore independent of each other, so that subsidence or dis- placement of the one would not necessarily involve that of the other. This will explain the rocking and swaying of the gun and platform, when firing the gun, that some of the men serving the 'Swamp Angel' gun could not understand. The Swamp Angel battery connected with the other batteries, and was approached by a plank walk about half a mile long, consisting of a single plank resting upon frail trestles driven into the mud just far enough to keep the planks above high-water mark, as every tide overflowed the whole extent of the marsh, leaving only the tops of the marsh grass visible, occasionally even raising the planks a little from the trestles. At a distance, a person upon this walk would appear as if standing upon the top of the marsh grass, looming up as tall as a church steeple.
" While Lieutenant Sellmer was going to the Swamp Augel battery in order to ascertain its condition and requirements, he was fired upon by the guns of 'Fort Simpkins,' situated on James Island, and about one thousand yards to the left of the plank walk. The firing was kept up until he had reached the battery, where he found a small guard in charge of a solitary gun, that was mounted upon an iron carriage, with chassis. The gun proved to be a 200-pound Parrott rifle. Its weight was 16,300 pounds ; weight of carriage and chassis, 8,000 pounds ; diameter of bore, 8 inches : weight of shot, 200 pounds ; weight of shell, 175 pounds ; service charge, 16 pounds of powder ; charge used. 20 pounds of pourder. To prepare the battery for service, shells. powder cartridges, Greek fire, primers, implements, and equip- ments had to be procured from the Ordnance Depot and trans- ported by our men to Light House Iulet, and from there in boats to the battery. The tide was low at the time, and the boats did not get to the battery until nearly one o'clock in the morning of the 22d of August. To avoid accidents to the boats, the car- tridges-twenty pounds of powder in a woolen bag-were carried to the battery on the shoulders of the men over the plank walk.
" While Lieutenant Selhmer was returning from the battery in
J
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the morning, he had taken the bearings of St. Michael's steeple from a suitable point by the aid of a pocket compass, as neither the city nor St. Michael's steeple could be seen from the battery. It was by this means that the gun was aimed at the city, and chalked in that position. This is the only instance on record in which a gun was aimed at an invisible object and at such a great distance by a compass. After the boats had arrived they were unloaded and sent back to the inlet with the superfluous men. Shells were then cleaned and loaded, and everything put in order as rapidly as possible. It was just half-past one o'clock in the morning of August 22, 1863, when the first shell sped over the rebel batteries on James Island into the city. The fire bells wore heard after the second shot. It had struck a Government medical purveyor's storehouse, and had set it on fire. The rebels re- sponded to the firing with two 10-inch seacoast mortars from Fort Johnson, on James Island. Evidently, none of their other batteries were garrisoned during the night.
" At every shot fired from the Swamp Angel gun the whole struc- ture swayed to and fro as if it were a vessel afloat. The pintle block holding the gun-carriage in place moved gradually from the cpaulment with each shot, until after the sixteenth shot it had gotten back nearly three feet. This condition made it necessary to cease firing for fear of dismounting the gun, or disabling the battery altogether. The following morning the Chief Engineer, Colonel Edward W. Serrell, of the First New York Volunteer Engineers, inspected the damage, and asked for two days' time in which to make the necessary repairs. In the meantime a steamer came from the city under a flag of truce, protesting against the bombardment without due notice to non-combatants to leave the city. General Gillinore gave them until ten o'clock of the follow- ing night, August 23d, assuring them that the firing would be resumed at that hour.
" On the morning of the 23d the enemy, presumably with the intention of making the resumption of the firing on that day im- possible, opened with all the guns and mortars they could bring to bear upon the ' Swamp Angel' and its approaches. At noon of that day Lieutenant Sellmer, with six men of the Eleventh Maine detachment, started for the battery to prepare the ammuni- tion, timing the passage of the plank walk between twelve and one o'clock, when the enemy's batteries usually ceased firing, pre-
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sumably for the purpose of giving the artillerymen time for their dinners. In this way the party reached the 'Swamp Angel' without being fired upon, but had hardly entered it when the fir- ing was resumed, and a vicious fire kept up on the 'Swamp Angel' until sunset. This was the time designated to Lieutenant Foster to start for the 'Swamp Angel' with the other men required -- ten -each carrying cartridges as before. This party also reached the battery without being fired upon, but from that time until sunrise of the following morning the firing was kept up without inter- mission.
" All preparations for opening fire had been made before sunset, consequently the party was forced to await the arrival of ten o'clock in utter inactivity. For over four hours they sat around the battery, seated upon loaded shells, watching the enemy's pro- jectiles as they approached. The course of the mortar shells was a particular item of interest. These would ascend high into the air, the fuze scintillating and twinkling, marking their course very distinctly and impressively. They would apparently stop for a moment in their course, and then descend with an ever-increasing speed, the fuze glimmering threateningly in the dim light of the moon, and the 'je wiss, je wiss' sound, caused by the action of the air upon the projection of the wooden fuze-plug and the cars of the shell, was in no way reassuring to the watchers. Each indi- vidual imagined that the shell was going straight for him; and well he might, for the battery was very contracted in size, not more than ten feet of space across its largest part. (It was built in the shape of a horseshoe.) The mortar-firing was very good, but luckily not a single shell burst in the air, all striking quite near enough, but sinking into the mud before exploding. Mud- spattering was the only damage caused by them.
" When it was nearly ten o'clock the gun was made ready, loaded and elevated, primer iu vent and lanyard taut. The moon disap- peared below the horizon about the same instant that the com- mand, ' Fire,' despatched the seventeenth shell towards the besieged city. The enemy's batteries, as if enraged at their inability to stop the bombardment of the city in spite of their endeavors to do so, now redoubled their fire, until there was not an instant in which there was not some deadly messenger on its mis- sion of destruction or exploding in close proximity to the battery. The ' Swamp Angel' was now shrouded in utter darkness, lighted
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THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.
up only momentarily by the discharge of the gun, or some ex- ploding rebel shell, while the words of command, a hissing shot or exploding shell, was the only interruption of the deepest silence. Several of our shells had exploded before leaving the gun, scatter- ing the tubes containing the much-vaunted composition of Greek fire into the marsh grass, but no trace of the terrible effects prom- ised could be seen. After the sixth shot the gunner called out, ' I can't get the priming wire down, sir !' Examining the vent, it was found that the gun had moved in its jacket-the wrought- iron band shrunk around the breech of a Parrott gun ! Although the priming wire would not go down, there was still sufficient space to ignite the charge with the primer. The gun was injured beyond redemption ; it might burst at any discharge. In order to get all possible service out of it, Lieutenant Sellmer decided to fire the gun until it burst. The men were then cautioned to go out- side of the battery at the command, ' Ready,' so as to bo out of danger when it should burst. Number four, who discharged the gun, was given two lanyards tied together, that he might be pro- tected by the epaulment. In this way the service of the gun continued. At the twentieth round fired that night, Lieutenant Sellmer desired to know the time of night, in order to calculate the rapidity of the firing. Watch in hand, he placed himself on the left side of the gun, so as to see the time by the flash of the discharge. He gave the command, 'Fire.' Instantly the whole battery was one sheet of flame. The Parrott gun had burst.
"Lieutenant Sellmer's left ear bled from an internal injury, and his hair, eyebrows, and mustache were singed. Number four (Walton) had the knuckles of his right hand out by one of the flying bolts of the carriage, and Private Moses M. Burse was groan- ing in the mud in rear of the gun. He had not gone sufficiently outside the battery, and was struck across the thighs by a piece of timber with which the chassis had been blocked up. Private Charles H. Ham was slightly wounded. Upon examination of the gun, it was discovered that the breech in rear of the vent had been blown clear out of its jacket, through the chassis and scaffolding, and plunged into the mud. The gun itself had died like a soldier, face to the foe. It had pitched itself forward upon the epaulment, clear out of the carriage, and in nearly the same position as when ready to be fired. The shot itself went smoothly to the city, as if
10
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THE STORY OF ONE REGIMENT.
nothing had happened to the gun. No wonder the rebel batteries kept up their fire at it for the two succeeding days, evidently fearing it might go off again. So it did, but not in the way they feared. It was removed and replaced by a seacoast mortar, but that was never fired.
" The firing was at an end for that night, and as it was impor- tant that Burse, who suffered considerably from his wounds, should receive prompt medical attention, volunteers were called for to go for a boat. Sergeant George Payne and Private Bradley L. Kimball offered their services, and departed on the plank walk for the boat at Light House Inlet. These two men were awarded medals by General Gillmore for this act, upon the recommenda- tion of Colonel Plaisted and the testimony of Lieutenant Sell- mer. After the boat had arrived at the little dock in front of the battery, the wounded man was carried to it, and all the detachment embarked; all this under a heavy fire, but camp was reached before daylight without any further casualty.
"It is certainly very remarkable that, from all the firing from the rebel batteries upon the 'Swamp Angel,' not a man should have been injured by their fire. There were two 10-inch Colum- biads and four 10-inch mortars at Fort Johnson, four field pieces at Battery Simpkins, and three or four field pieces in the edge of the woods between Simpkins and Fort Johnson. Their firing was excellent, not at all ' wild,' but the programne was badly planned. Had they used shorter fuzes in their mortar shells. exploding them over the 'Swamp Angel,' the result would have been disastrous to the detachment ; on the other hand, had their Columbiads been served with solid shot, or shells with a longer-time fuze, they must have demolished the light epaulment or dismounted the gun, be- sides inflicting heavy loss upon the gun detachment. Instead of doing this, they burst their shells most beautifully in front of the battery, deluging it with fragments which could do no harm, owing to precautions taken. A lookout was stationed to observe the Columbiads only, as the field pieces and mortars were not minded at all, though the shots of the former struck the battery several times, and the shells of the latter never dropped far from it. At the flash of the Columbiads the lookout gave warning, and the men, no matter what they were doing at the time, promptly covered themselves behind the epaulment until the fragments had passed. The men had to be quick, for hardly had the warning
.
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THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.
call been made when the shell would be bursting before the bat- tery, so near was the rebel battery.
" The destructive effects produced by the bombardment of Charleston were all small, as far as actual damage was concerned ; the moral effect was immense, all that had been expected from it, but most important were the scientific results, for it was the dawn- ing of a new era for the artillery of the world.
" The detachment of the Eleventh Maine was now transferred to and encamped on Black Island, where a battery of four guns had been prepared for further bombardment of the city. Four shots were fired by the Eleventh Maine into the city from that battery ; further firing was discontinued, because the evacuation of Morris Island by the rebels allowed other batteries to be established much nearer to and in plain view of the city. The whole regiment now arriving at Morris Island, the detached men were returned to their companies, but still served as artillerists, with the addition of other men from the regiment, all under command of Lieutenant Sell- ner. They now served four seacoast mortars in Battery Chatfield and two siege mortars in Battery Putnam, and continued to do so until the bombardment of Sumter was discontinued, when the detachments were relieved from further duty as artillerists, and returned to their companies at Fort Wagner and on Black Island.
" The men, while on duty with the detachments under the com- mand of Lieutenant Sellmer, merited and received the highest praise from that officer for their soldierly qualities, intelligence. bravery, coolness under fire, and prompt obedience under all circumstances. They, their relatives and descendants, may well feel proud of their records, and the knowledge that their duty was faithfully, honestly, and willingly performed.
(Signed,) "CHARLES SELLMER, "Late Captain Co. B, 11th Me. Infantry, "Brevet Colonel [T. S. Vols."
No other gun was mounted in this battery until in the spring of 1864, when the diaries of Morton and Maxfield stato that a fatigue party engaged in mounting guns on the "Swamp Angel " was shelled by the rebel batteries. Newcomb notes that it con- tained two 10-inch mortars when he picketed it. Sellmer's detachment was ordered to Black Island, from which point they rejoined the regiment on the 11th of October.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE REGIMENT IN THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.
Turning Wagner and Gregg under the Enemy's Fire-Hard Fatigue and Guard Duty-The Confederate Fleet-Its Attack on our Fleet-Tor- pedo Boats-The Sinking of the Weekdicken-Detachments of the Eleventh for Artillery Service-Experiences as Gunners in Battery Chatfield-Odd Escapes-Fun with a Captain-A Shell Breaks into our Magazine-Casualties-Night Bombardments-Attempt to Storm Sumter-The Artillery Detachments Return to the Regiment -- Aggressive Work closed for the Seasou.
WE left the regiment marching up the broad, firm beach of Morris Island. It went into camp about half-way up the island. From here details of men for fatigue duty aud "grand guard " were sent to the upper end of the island. The fatigue work con- sisted largely in rebuilding Forts Gregg and Wagner, turning them so as to bring the guns we were mounting in them to bear upon the enemy's batteries on James and Sullivan's Islands. Sumter had been battered out of defensive power before we reached the island, and, but for a gun now and then fired from it, was a silent ruin. But, from something like sentimental reasons, Sumter was still the central point of offense and defense, the rebel flag still flying defiantly over its ruined bastions, the garrison burrowing in bomb-proofs that every shell of ours but added to the strength of, crumbling and tumbling the broken stonework in yet deeper depths above its garrison. From these burrows the garrison watched for night sallies from shore and fleet, and by the aid of the enfilading fire of the guns of James and Sullivan's Islands succeeded in beating off all that were made.
As the fatigue parties worked with shovel and spade in the sand of Fort Wagner and of Battery Gregg, the lookouts on the para- pets would see a round cloud of white smoke fly into the air, from James Island perhaps. Then, with a cry of "James Island," they would leap from the parapets to cover, while the busy shovelers would scatter for shelter, instinctively taking cover under the sand walls next James Island till the projectile, shot or shell, from gun
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THE REGIMENT IN THE SIEGE OF CHARLESTON.
or mortar, had exploded and the fragments had buried themselves deep in the sand. Or the cry would be "Sullivan," then the cover was sought for under the sand walls next that island. As soon as the danger was over, all rushed back to their work again. But sometimes this enfilading fire would become so vig- orous as to force the men to quit work for a time and take shelter in the great bomb-proofs and magazines, built of squared logs, banked and heaped with such depths of sand that even the fifteen-inch shells of the ironclads had failed to make any impres- sion on them during the bombardment. All this time our own batteries on Morris Island were keeping up a steady fire upon Sumter and the other rebel fortifications, the fleet taking advan- tage of good weather to leave their stations outside the rebel line of fire, steam in, and join in the bombardment.
Another duty consisted in furnishing men for picket. These were stationed at night at various points to keep a sharp lookout for attempts that might be made to land and attack our works. Some were stationed on the "Swamp Angel" battery, which, as Colonel Sellmer states, was connected with Morris Island by a long plank walk built across the marsh. (Black Island was con- nected with Morris by a similar walk that was a mile long.) A picket post was stationed at Payne's Dock, formerly a floating rebel four-gun battery. Army picket boats cruised along the upper shore of Cumming's Point, and along Vincent's Creek, every night, while the fleet would send an ironclad in at night, from which naval pickets were sent out in boats, and in the bomb-proofs of Gregg and Wagner a "grand guard " of a few hundred men was usually stationed at night, to repel any assaulting column that might attempt the recapture of these works.
Captain Maxfield, then acting as Sergeant-Major, has noted that for a part of the time we furnished a hundred men for fatigue duty during the day, and at night fifty men for picket ; and that this demand grew until in November there was a call for 235 men for picket and grand-guard duty, of which we could furnish but 178 men, after taking out the camp guard, our force reported for duty numbering but 275 men all told. This was November 8th. The duty had grown harder even than it was when Morton noted, October 17th : "The boys seldom get twenty-four hours off fatigue or grand guard now."
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The Confederates picketed the waters of the harbor and the mouths of the creeks still in their possession. They had a small. naval force-a few ships and two rams. Maxfield notes, October 20th : "Some vessels came from Charleston to Fort Sumter. One appeared to be an ironclad ram of no small proportions." General Beauregard's " Military Operations " speaks of two iron- clad gunboats-rams-the Palmetto State and the Chicora, and of three small harbor steamers which served the rams as tenders. The only aggressive movement made by this ficet was on January 30, 1863. The rams, accompanied by their tenders, steamed out on a clear day, when the water was in a most smooth and pro- pitious condition, and attacked the blockading fleet, of which the ablest boats were away. The rams dispersed the fleet, after disabling two or three of the vessels, two of which struck their colors, but were left behind when the rams steamed back to Charleston. Beauregard says the Confederate lack of naval enterprise was owing to the weakness of the machinery of the rams and their great draught of water, stating also that neither could be looked upon as entirely seaworthy. They certainly played a very inconspicuous part in General Beauregard's very energetic and successful defense of the city of Charleston.
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