USA > New York > The history of the Forty-eighth regiment New York state volunteers, in the war for the union. 1861-1865 > Part 8
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BOMB AND SPLINTER PROOF.
to protect the beach, and they were incomplete. Rifle-pits or infantry epaulements were also made, extending westward towards Oyster Point. According to the account of General Beauregard. they were manned as follows: 612 infantry, 289 artillerists, 261 cavalry-a total of 1162 men. The part of Strong's brigade which was to assail them numbered be- tween two and three thousand.
To divert the attention of the enemy from Morris to James Island. General A. H. Terry with some three thou- sand troops, was now sent up the Stono. landed on James Island and made a feint against the enemy there, but it is doubtful if that had any effect to withdraw troops from Morris Island.
MORRIS ISLAND.
Everything was supposed to be in readiness for the as- sault, on the night of July Sth, and we were marched to the place of embarkation ; but for some reason there was a delay of twenty-four hours, and we returned to our camp wearied with a long tramp through the sand and underbrush of Folly Island. At three o'clock the next afternoon (July 9th) the brigade again assembled and marched to the place on Folly River, where the boats were in waiting for us. Owing to the insufficient number of launches, after the Third New Hampshire, Sixth and Seventh Connecticut, Ninth Maine, and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and a battalion of sharp- shooters had embarked, there was only room in the boats for four companies of the Forty-eighth Regiment. These we're companies A, C, D, and F, under the immediate com- mand of Lieutenant-Colonel James M. Green. The other battalion of the regiment, under Colonel Barton, marched to the north end of the island in the rear of our batteries, and awaited the return of the boats the next morning. Si- lently, in the stillness of the night, Strong's brigade, packed closely in the boats and escorted by four howitzer launches manned by sailors, rowed up the Folly River and Creek to the entrance to Lighthouse Inlet, and halted. We were thoroughly masked by tall marsh-grass, and so noiselessly did the little flotilla move, that we were unheard and unob- served by the enemy. There we rested on our oars the whole night through, awaiting the signal to advance, fearful every moment that we would be discovered by the sentinels on the .Confederate works, which frowned upon us from across the inlet. No one who remembers his sensations that night will ever forget them : the sailors who rowed the boats seemed tranquil enough, being more at home on the water, but the soldiers preferred to have terra firma under them when they fought : the anticipation of having the boat you are in blown to pieces by a shell, and yourself, loaded down with cartridge-box and accoutrements, precipi- tated into the water and drowned, was not exhilarating. To face the perils of the water as well as the perils of bat-
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FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
teries in front, and to anticipate it a long night through, put the courage of the men to a strain, but did not break it. A perfect silence reigned all about us that night ; the screech- ing of a sea-fowl as it flew over our heads, the breaking of a twig by some careless foot on the shore, the gentle swash of the sea against the sides of the boats and the beating of our own hearts, were all the sounds we heard. Hours passed, and not a word was spoken. We knew the batteries were ready on Little Folly Island, that they would be unmasked at the first peep of day, that with the firing of their first gun we would be rowed rapidly across that six hundred yards of water that was between us and the beach of Morris Island in our front. Whether we should ever reach it was what we did not know ; and we all feared a deal more that we might be drowned in the inlet, than any danger we. should meet from the batteries when once our feet were on the shore.
The forces on Folly Island, which were held in reserve under General Vogdes, consisted of the Sixty-second Ohio, Colonel Pond ; Sixty-seventh Ohio, Colonel Voorhees; and Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania. Colonel Howell,-who were near the signal-station. The Seventh New Hampshire, Colonel H. S. Putnam ; One Hundredth New York, Colonel Dandy; a battalion of the Forty-eighth New York. Colonel Wm. B. Barton; and Battery B, First United States Artillery, Cap- tain G. V. Henry commanding,-were at the northern end of Little Folly Island, in readiness to follow General Strong's brigade. The formidable batteries which were to perform so important a part were commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Jackson and Major L. L. Langdon, First United States Artillery.
Opposed to us,-if we may accept the authority of Gen- eral Jones,-just across Lighthouse Inlet and within easy range, were the detached Confederate battery of eight guns and three mortars, manned by two companies of the First South Carolina Artillery, Captains J. C. Mitchell and J. R. Macbeth commanding, supported by the Twenty-first South
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MORRIS ISLAND.
Carolina Infantry, about four hundred men, Major McIver commanding, and a detachment of the First South Carolina Infantry, under Captain Charles T. Haskell (in all about seven hundred). The garrison of Battery Wagner, about three miles distant on the island, was two companies of artillery, Captains C. E. Chichester and J. R. Mathews com- manding, and of Battery Gregg, Captain Henry R. Lesesne's company of artillery. All of the artillery on the island was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J. A. Yates, First South Carolina Artillery. The whole force was commanded by Colonel R. F. Graham, Twenty-first South Carolina Infantry.
There is some disparity in the number of Confederates conceded to have been on Morris Island, by Generals Jones and Beauregard, but the statements of both are given.
Slowly the hours of the night passed, but as the sun rose on the morning of July Ioth our batteries were unmasked, and thirty-two guns and fifteen mortars opened fire upon the Confederates, to their immense surprise. A few min- utes later. four monitors, the Wechaweken, Commander E. R. Calhoun ; the Nahant, Commander John Downs; the Kaatskill, Commander George H. Rodgers ; and the Mon- tauk, Commander D. McN. Fairfax, -- which had crossed the bar and taken positions from which some of the Confederate batteries could be enfiladed and others taken in reverse, opened fire with fifteen- and eleven-inch guns on the Con- federate left and the four howitzer launches pulled into posi- tion and opened on the right, and for nearly three hours about sixty guns, some of them of the heaviest calibre, con- centrated a rapid and accurate fire on the Confederate posi- tion.
Some delay occurred in our getting off, and it was half- past six before General Strong was finally signalled to ad- vance ; then we "pulled for the shore" at "Oyster Point" in our front with vigor. The enemy saw us now, and their batteries opened on us : they did such poor execution, how- ever, that they sunk but one of the boats, wounding two men of the Sixth Connecticut, one of whom had his leg
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taken off, but he swam to another boat and was rescued from drowning, although he died soon afterward from loss of blood.
It was only a matter of a few moments-that crossing of Lighthouse Inlet, by the little flotilla of launches ; but they were moments of intense excitement. A brilliant writer has declared that in all the annals of modern war no example can be found where an army thus approached a hostile shore in boats, landed under a fire of artillery and infantry, and drove the enemy from his fortifications. He likens the descent on Morris Island to the landing of Cæsar on the coast of Britain and of William the Norman at Hastings .*
The men at the oars pulled with their might ; in some boats the men cheered; in others they remained silent ; it was no time for words: in twenty minutes we were in the surf. General Strong leaped ashore with the agility of a deer, waved aloft his sword, and shouted to his troops, "Come on, brigade!" It may be questioned if in all the · history of the war a more picturesque and striking figure could have been seen than that of the young General as he sprang into the surf that day and called on us to follow him. He lost a boot in the mud and ran up the shelly beach in his stocking-feet. He first ordered the Sixth Connecticut ashore. They obeyed him with alacrity, and at the word carried the sea-face of the earthworks on our right with but little loss, as the enemy fled before them. Then General Strong called for the Ninth Maine to attack the rifle-pits, but the tide of the inlet was so strong that they had been carried above the landing-place, and could not reach the shore in time. The Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania and Third New Hampshire were in the same plight. Then the General called for the Forty-eighth New York: the sailors at the oars in our boats put us ashore in quick time, and without waiting for further orders we dashed ahead and quickly
* See " Afloat and Ashore," by Charles Cowley.
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MORRIS ISLAND.
drove the rebels out of the first line of the rifle-pits, then by a flank movement out of the second. It was at that mo- ment that we met the first terrific volley straight in our faces from rebel guns; and there fell dead at the head of his men Captain Lent of Company A-the first officer of the regiment to be killed in battle. But no man stopped; the whole brigade was now ashore, and all rushed on over sand-dunes and batteries, past the Beacon House, and on in the glare of the sun that had now risen, with cheers and shouts, and an eager, impetuous "forward," without stop- ping either to tend the wounded or mourn the dead. "It
BEACON HOUSE, MORRIS ISLAND.
was a glorious victory." We captured twelve guns and one hundred prisoners, with many tents and much camp equip- age, stores, several Confederate flags, one of which bore the inscription " Pocotaligo," and a number of small arms. By ten o'clock we had captured two thirds of the island. The Confederates retreated before us precipitately behind the breastworks of Fort Wagner. Our skirmishers pushed up to within musket-range of that fortress and were halted. The sun was now high in the heavens and blazed down its scorching rays upon our heads; the sand blistered our feet ; the long night of anxiety and wakefulness, the run of three miles up the beach and over the sand-hills, had exhausted the men. General Strong thought that we could go no far-
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ther, and ordered a halt in order that we might rest and reinforcements be brought up from the rear. The remain- ing companies of our regiment, which had also crossed the inlet under fire with the reserve brigade, soon joined us, but that halt in front of Fort Wagner, which seemed at the time to be the act of prudence, if not of necessity, had for us all most fatal consequences. The continuation of our dash for half a mile farther would have swept the enemy that morning off Morris Island, and captured, with a com- paratively little loss of life, that great earthwork, Battery Wagner, whose strength was not then anticipated, but which was destined to defy us for months to come, and before whose flaming parapets the majority of us were yet to fall. A Confederate account contains the following passage : " Only a little dash on the part of the Union army would have given them the whole island: all they had to do was to press on with even one half of the troops they had land- ed. In my opinion, it did not justify their excess of pru- dence; fortunately, however, it saved us."
For once, we think that " Confederate's" opinion was cor- rect. True we were greatly wearied, but we had not run far- ther than the enemy, and they were dispirited by flight while we were buoyant with victory. The capture of Morris Island was, however, a splendid achievement. We had done an unheard-of thing in modern military history, and though we had made the assault and the enemy had but defended their earthworks, their casualties far outnumbered ours: they lost in killed, wounded, and captured 294, of whom 127 were prisoners ; our losses were officially reported as 53 killed and wounded-of whom 14 were killed. But four companies of the Forty-eighth were engaged, yet our losses were heavier than that of any other regiment, since we had done the most severe fighting ; Captain Lent was especially mourned by his brother officers, and indeed he was beloved by all the men, and his death was universally lamented.
General Seymour commended very highly the conduct of his troops :
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MORRIS ISLAND.
" For the brilliant vigor," he says, " with which the movements of his brigade were conducted the greatest credit is due to Brigadier- General Strong, whose personal example was heroism itself. His re- port justly praises his subordinate commanders, and to those I must refer ; but I must mention particularly the excellent conduct of Colonel Chatfield, Sixth Connecticut, who led his regiment in the advance up Morris Island until its colors were riddled by the close fire from Bat- tery Wagner. But to the hearty devotion and the cheerful courage of the soldiers of this division, in the patient labors in preparing for the battle and the ready courage with which they fought it, must, after all, be given the highest honors, and their gallant conduct in this brilliant action will always be to their commanders and their country the source of just pride."
The victory of Morris Island has not received much atten- tion from historians. I have been unable to find more than a passing account of it anywhere, but it was one of the few occasions in the war when we successfully surprised the enemy in an important engagement, and it may be doubted if such great results were accomplished with such small losses, and certainly never in such a picturesque manner, throughout the war. Nothing had been neglected, nothing unanticipated, and the entire movement was a perfect suc- cess. The only criticism that can be made upon it is that already noted-we should have gone on; Fort Wagner had been ours that day at small cost, but no one then supposed that we were yet confronted by any such formidable earth- work as " Battery Wagner" proved itself to be. The night of July 10th we rested, weary enough, sleeping on the sand. We had foraged a little that afternoon among the deserted rebel camps. The writer remembers that he captured a pig. Reinforcements had arrived, a pontoon bridge had been thrown across the inlet ; we were not afraid of a counter-as- sault, for we had now men enough on the island to have formed a solid wall across it, many ranks deep. We went to sleep therefore that night feeling that the worst was over, and supposing that the island practically was ours, and that the rebels in Fort Wagner and at Cumming's Point would probably withdraw during the night. General Beauregard
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was greatly blamed by the Confederate authorities for per- mitting himself to be surprised by the erection of our bat- teries on Little Folly Island. The Confederate Secretary of War wrote him a long letter of inquiry concerning it. Of course he denied it. and laid the blame on somebody else ; but the fact remains that he was surprised, as more candid Confederate military authorities now freely admit.
It was determined that Fort Wagner should be carried by assault early the next morning. Three regiments of the " fighting brigade" were selected to make the assault. They were the four companies of the Seventh Connecticut, com- manded by Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman, the Ninth Maine. and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. General Strong led them in person. Haply the Forty-eighth was not selected for immolation that morning, possibly because of its more serious losses on the day before. The splendid charge of that early morning-July 11th-has been shamefully belit- tled in history. True it was overshadowed by the great as- sault which was made seven days afterwards, but it was on the part of one regiment at least, the Seventh Connecticut, a magnificent deed of valor. They formed at five o'clock in the morning, and at the word ran forward to the assault. They drove in three lines of pickets and received their successive fire straight in their faces, without firing a shot in return. The Seventh reached the ditch ; the other regiments failed to come up in support. Their behavior has been severely criticised. The writer, however, will not permit himself to do so. The men of one regiment were likely to be as brave as those of another ; and if some regiments were superior to others, those which were inferior were so generally. by the fault of their officers. It is said that when General Strong found that the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania and the Ninth Maine failed to come on to the support of the gallant Seventh Connecticut, he burst into tears, exclaimed bitterly, "It is useless," and ordered a retreat. I am disposed to think, after as careful a study as I have been able to make of the assault, that Major J. W. Hicks, who commanded
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MORRIS ISLAND.
the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, prompted possibly by over- zeal, attacked a different angle of the work rather than fol- low the Seventh Connecticut in support. as he had been ordered to do. Though at the time they were blamed for the failure of the assault, I am unwilling. after more than twenty years, to reflect upon the valor of a gallant regi- ment which left in front of Fort Wagner that morning five officers and 130 men out of some 350 who were engaged. The losses of the Ninth Maine were but 34. .
Survivors of the Forty-eighth will remember distinctly wit- nessing that assault from the summits of the sand-hills, that early morning. The rush of the Seventh Connecticut like. a wave up the beach, its recoil also before the terrible and deadly volleys which were poured into it. The assault failed in everything, except in demonstrating the great and unex- pected strength of "Battery Wagner." The Confederate losses were very small, only one officer and five privates killed and the same number wounded ; our losses have never been accurately reported, but they must have been very heavy in proportion to the number engaged. The Confederates claim to have buried 95 of our men. mostly of the Seventh Connecticut, within their lines, and to have captured 113 prisoners, 40 of whom were wounded. There is a state- ment also that 350 wounded men from that assault were carried on the steamer Cosmopolitan to Hilton Head : among them was Major Hicks of the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. and Lieutenant-Colonel Rodman, the heroic commander of the Seventh Connecticut, who was severely wounded in the leg. He was the only man brought off from the slopes of the work.
Much confusion has arisen in the various sketches of the. campaign on Morris Island by coupling the losses of the Ioth with those of the 11th of July. The battles, how- ever, were clearly distinct. By the courtesy of Captain Wm. J. Carlton, to whom I am not a little indebted for data. etc., a copy of a Confederate account of the assault has been obtained, which was printed in a Charleston
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FORTY-EIGHTHI REGIMENT, V. V. S. VOLS.
paper of April 18, 1883, from the pen of Colonel J. H. Rion, who commanded the enemy's picket - lines that morning. He writes as follows :
" At peep of day my attention was called to a dark mass approach- ing my front. When about twenty-five yards off I ordered the videttes to 'fire by file,' which they did ; then the whole battalion rose, formed lines, and gave an almost simultaneous ' yell.' This meant for me ' All right ;' for Battery Wagner, ' They are coming.' My first line had come to a ' ready :' we could see the beard on the faces of the Federals; ' Aim-fire !' Then a sheet of fire bursts into the advancing line ; this doubles up their front, but on comes the body at a double-quick ; we fall back, loading as we retire, and form on the left of the second line. Coming to a ' ready,' 'Aim-fire !' and we pour another volley into their faces : their front staggers, but on come the survivors at a stately double-quick ; we fall back to the third line, the whole battalion com- ing to a ' ready :' they are now within ten steps of us ; ' Aim-fire!' for the last time; the effect is terrific-it appears as when a wind strikes the stalks of a wheat-field. I actually felt sorry for them : it was " war,' and hence ' fair,' but it did seem to me that we were taking an unfair advantage of them ; they could not stop to fire upon us, for time was all-important to them ; their success depended on reaching the battery without delay, and hence they had to receive these dreadful volleys without responding ; the enemy dashed on, but barely gave us time to reach the inside of the works before they were repulsed. The Seventh Connecticut, under Colonel Rodman, led the attacking party. It behaved gallantly, not only upon this occasion but likewise at Fort Pulaski, and was never known to flinch anywhere."
This tribute to the courage of our brave comrades of the Seventh Connecticut, by the first "rebel" they met that early morning, is as graceful as it is deserved.
I here add also the account of the Confederate General Jones .- although it contains a quotation from the report of General Strong,-which lays the blame of the failure upon the two regiments in support :
"The assault of Battery Wagner, which the troops were too much exhausted to attempt on the roth, was made about day-dawn the next morning by General Strong.
"The garrison of Wagner at that time consisted of the shattered remainder of the troops which had contested the landing the previous
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MORRIS ISLAND.
morning. namely, the Twenty-first South Carolina Regiment, about two hundred men, under Major J. G. W. McIver ; twenty men of Com- pany D, First South Carolina Infantry, Lieutenant Horlbeck com- manding ; and seventy men of Companies E. H, and I, First South Carolina Artillery, under Captain John C. Mitchell: also the Gist Guard, Captain C. E. Chichester, and Mathews' Artillery, Captain J. R. Mathews, which had occupied the battery on the 10th ; the Seventh South Carolina Battalion, about three hundred men, Major J. H. Rion commanding ; four companies each of the First Georgia Regi- ment, Colonel C. H. Olmstead ; and Twelfth Georgia Battalion, Lieu- tenant-Colonel H. D. Capers; and three companies of the Eighteenth Georgia Battalion, Major W. S. Basinger-in all about five hundred men, Colonel Olmstead commanding. The aggregate force was about twelve hundred men.
"The South Carolinians manned the guns and the right and right centre of the ramparts. The Georgians, who arrived in the night of the 10th, guarded the left and left centre of the work. The Eigh- teenth Battalion occupied the southeast bastion, the First Georgia along the sea-front to the left, the Twelfth Georgia Battalion to the right, connecting with the Carolinians. Lieutenant-Colonel Yates commanded the artillery and Colonel R. F. Graham (Twenty-first South Carolina) the whole.
" THE ASSAULTING COLUMN.
"General Strong formed his brigade before day-adwn. The assault- ing column consisted of the battalion of the Seventh Connecticut, the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, and the Ninth Maine. The Seventh Connecticut led the advance,-Lieutenant - Colonel Rodman com- manding. The Third and Seventh New Hampshire were held in re- serve. The battalion of the Seventh Connecticut was deployed in line in front, followed closely in the order named by the Seventy- sixth Pennsylvania and Ninth Maine, each formed in close divisions. They were ordered to carefully preserve their intervals and when the Confederates should open fire to rush forward with a cheer, mount the parapet, and carry the battery by storm.
"WHAT LOST THE BATTLE.
"General Strong commanded in person. His instructions were most faithfully carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Rodman, who led his Seventh Connecticut men under a brisk fire of cannon and musketry to the ditch, and some of them to the top of the parapet. where. it is reported, they bayoneted two Confederate gunners.
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FORTY-EIGHTTH REGIMENT, N. Y. S. VOLS.
"'But unfortunately,' says General Strong in his report, 'when the enemy opened fire simultaneously along the whole line, and with a range of two hundred yards, the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania halted and lay down upon the ground. Though they remained in this posi- tion but a few moments and afterwards moved gallantly forward, some of them even to the ditch, that halt lost the battle, for the in- terval was lost, and the Seventh Connecticut, unsupported, were driven from the parapet. The whole column, including the Ninth Maine, which had reached the ditch on the left, gave way and re- treated from the field.'
"The garrison of Wagner had of course expected an attack, and was on the alert all night. When the column was seen advancing in the dim light of early dawn Colonel Graham deliberately held his fire until his enemy was within close range, then opened simultaneously along his whole line, firing rapidly and continuously until the last man of the rapidly retreating column was under cover of the sand- hills.
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