COIFEDERATE DEFENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 MORRIS ISLAND 
 
 CHARLESTON HARBOR, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 TROOPS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 LATE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, 
 
 With a Map of Morris and Part of Folly Islands, 
 AND A Plan of F«ort Wagner. 
 
 Prepared from Official Reports and otlier sources 
 By Maj. ROBERT C. GILCHRIST, 
 
 a Participant, Commanding the Gist Guard Artillery in that Defence. 
 
 [FROM THE YEAR BOOK— 1884.] 
 
CONFEDERATE DEFENCE 
 
 OF 
 
 MORRIS ISLAND 
 
 CHARLESTON HARBOR, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 TROOPS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, 
 
 LATE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, 
 
 With a Map of Morris and Part of Folly Islands, 
 AND a Plan of Fort Wagner. 
 
 Prepared from Official T-ieports and other sources 
 By Maj. ROBERT C. QILCHRIST, 
 
 A PAKTiriPANT, Commanding the Gist Guard Artillery in that Defence. 
 
 [FROM THE YEAR BOOK— 1884.] 
 

 THE NEWS AND COURIER BOOK PRESSES, 
 19 Broad Street, Charleston, S. C. 
 
 In exch, 
 D. of 0. Pub. I*ib. 
 
^ 
 
 CONFEDERATE DEFENCE OF MORRIS ISLAND. 
 
 ^ Skirting along ship channel-, the main entrance into 
 Charleston harbor, and thus commanding the only approach 
 for large vessels to the city, is MoRRIS ISLAND : forever 
 prominent in the history of the United States for being the 
 site of the Battery that fired the first shot in the war be- 
 tween the States: still later for giving to the world its first 
 lesson in iron-clad armor: and more than all, for being the 
 theatre of a defence of an earth-work more stubborn and 
 brave, of a siege as memorable and bombardments the most 
 formidable in the annals of war. 
 
 This Island is three and three-fourths miles long, and 
 varies in width from twenty-five to one thousand yards. At 
 its Northern extremity it is flat, and with the exception of 
 a low line of sand hills is only two feet above high tide. 
 Three-fourths of a mile from Cummings Point (where was 
 situated Battery Gregg) the marsh on the West encroaches, 
 leaving a narrow strip between it and the sea of twenty-five 
 yards. Here was located the famed Fort Wagner."^ About 
 two thousand yards Southward • thence commences a range 
 of hills of various height, stretching to "Oyster Point," the 
 Southern end of the Island forming a secure shelter for 
 troops. The Island is compose'd of quartz sand, which has 
 no cohesion, and weighs, when dry, eighty-six pounds to 
 the cubic foot. To its power in resisting the penetration 
 of shot, and when displaced of falling back again to the 
 very spot it had occupied, is due the comparative invulner- 
 ability of the works erected on this Island, advantageous 
 alike to its defenders and assailants. 
 
 STAR OF THE WEST BATTERY. 
 
 After Sumter had been occupied by Major Anderson and 
 the United States troops under his command against orders, 
 
 *At West Point there are only two models of fortifications used for purposes 
 of instruction to the Cadets in the art of attack and defence ; one of th«se is Fort 
 Wagner, the other Sebastopol. 
 
4 Confederate Defenc'e of Morris Island. 
 
 to prevent reinforcements or supplies being sent to this 
 garrison, a two gun battery was erected on the Island, about 
 fifty or seventy-five yards South from the spot afterwards 
 occupied by Fort Wagner. A detachment of Citadel 
 Cadets, under Professor (now Bishop) P. F. Stevens, manned 
 the guns, supported by the Charleston Zouave Cadets, Capt. 
 C. E. Chichester, and German Riflemen, Capt. Jacob Sniall, 
 as Infantry. The Vigilant Rifles, eighty strong, under Capt. 
 S. Y. Tupper, were stationed at the lower end of the Island to 
 dispute a landing. The Battery was of the simplest character. 
 Its armament, two 24-pounder siege guns " en barbette," 
 without traverses or protection of any kind. It had been 
 built very hastily, so that the guns and gunners were en- 
 tirely exposed. A broadside of light navy shell guns could 
 have disabled it, and the guns of Fort Sumter completely 
 commanded it. 
 
 A little after daylight, on the morning of the 9th January, 
 1 861, the long roll was beat and the troops were got under 
 arms. In the horizon a steamer was descried coming over 
 the bar. Whether armed or unarmed no one knew ; but 
 the orders from Governor Pickens were positive to fire into 
 her and prevent her approach to Sumter. At 7.15 A. M. 
 she was within range of the Battery, and Major Stevens 
 sighted the guns. Cadet Haynesworth (afterwards a Lieu- 
 tenant in the First South Carolina Regulars, and now a 
 lawyer in Sumter, S. C.,) held the lanyard of the right gun, 
 and at the command fired the FIRST HOSTILE SHOT OF THE 
 WAR. It fell across her bows. At this she ran up a large 
 United States garrison flag to her fore. As she did not 
 stop, other shots were fired as rapidly as the guns could be 
 served ; about six in all. She checked her speed and began 
 to turn at the fourth .shot. Only three or four struck her, 
 doing no damage of any consequence, as the range was great 
 for 24-pounders. 
 
 During the firing Sumter ran out her guns, and many an 
 anxious eye was cast to the rear, expecting each moment to 
 see her belch forth a fire which would have annihilated 
 those who had thus dared to fire on the " Stars and Stripes." 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 5 
 
 In April the same act set ablaze the Northern heart ; but on 
 the 9th January it fell still-born. 
 
 STEVENS' IRON BATTERY. 
 
 When it was determined to invest Fort Sumter and reduce 
 it with artillery, among other batteries erected within 
 reach, Col. Clem. H. Stevens, a Cashier in the Planters' and 
 Mechanics' Bank of Charleston, devised and built at Cum- 
 mings Point the first iron-clad armored fortification ever 
 erected. Over heavy timbers he placed railroad T iron, 
 laid at an angle of from forty to forty-five degrees. 
 
 P'ort Sumter was distant one thousand three hundred and 
 ninety yards. Behind this " slaughter-pen," as many called 
 it. the Palmetto Guard, Captain G. B. Cuthbert, fought 
 through the 12th and 13th of April, 1861, pouring a heavy 
 fire into the gorge of Sumter, which replied with a severe 
 but ineffectual fire from her heaviest guns. At the close of 
 the engagement " Stevens' Battery " was almost intact, 
 only an iron cove of port-hole being displaced and one gun 
 dismounted. Not a man of its garrison was hurt. This 
 astounding success established the value of iron armor, of 
 which both sides in the internecine struggle were quick to 
 avail themselves, and this experiment has revolutionized 
 the navies of the world. 
 
 BRIGADIER-GENERAL R. S. RIPLEY. 
 
 If to one man more than another Charleston was indebted 
 for her safety until Sherman knocked at her back door, that 
 man was General Ripley. Though by birth a Northerner, 
 he was one of the first to offer his sword for the defence of 
 the State of his adoption, and to consecrate to her service 
 his all of ability, zeal and time. At the time of the bom- 
 bardment of Sumter in April, 1861, he commanded Fort 
 Moultrie, and it was by the red-hot shot he threw into it, 
 that its barracks were set on fire and its surrender compelled. 
 For some reason he was not in favor with the powers that 
 were in Richmond, and as in this category the General of 
 
6 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 the Department was also placed, he was compelled to rely 
 mainly upon his own resources, cramped as they often were 
 at critical moments by heavy drafts from the War Depart- 
 ment. What he accomplished with the limited material of 
 war and small force at his disposal was superhuman. The 
 success that crowned his efforts was his only reward. 
 
 FOLLY ISLAND. 
 
 Next South of Morris Island, and separated from it by 
 "Light-house Inlet" (four hundred yards wide), is Little 
 Folly Island. The topographical features of the North end 
 of this Island, bordering on the Inlet, gave to the enemy 
 every facility for the concealment of his designs. The sand 
 hills alone obscure the view from Morris Island, but these 
 were covered with a heavy growth of scrubby trees, which 
 ought to have been removed by the Confederates when they 
 controlled this stragetic point. Failure to do so enabled 
 the Federals, under their cover, to secretly place in bat- 
 tery forty-seven pieces of artillery, with two hundred rounds 
 of ammunition for each gun, provided with suitable para- 
 pets, splinter-proof shelters and magazines, almost within 
 speaking distance of the Confederate pickets, and undiscov- 
 ered by several reconnoisances made just before the assault 
 of July loth. This battery on Little Folly Island was the 
 prelude to the memorable siege of Fort Wagner, and rendered 
 necessary the fearful sacrifice of life, with the lavish expen- 
 diture of treasure that followed its unmasking. 
 
 FAILURE TO FORTIFY SOUTH END OF ISLAND. 
 
 It has always been a vexed question on whom should rest 
 the blame for the neglect of this stragetic point. There 
 were mutual recriminations and much "bad blood" be- 
 tween those who were thought to be responsible for the 
 success of the Federals on the loth of July, whicli involved 
 the destruction of Fort Sumter, and the long and bloody 
 siege of Fort Wagner. But the truth is General Beauregard 
 did not believe an attack would be made by this route, and 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. y 
 
 was firmly persuaded the enemy would again essay an ad- 
 vance over James Island.* He, therefore, withdrew all the 
 negro laborers from Morris Island to strengthen the fortifi- 
 cations elsewhere, leaving the Gist Guard and Matthewes 
 Artillery to finish half completed Fort Wagner. And when 
 General Ripley, on his own responsibility, and by his own 
 Engineer, commenced to fortify the neighborhood of Light- 
 house Inlet, he peremptorily commanded the work to stop. 
 Later, when it was discovered that General Vogdes was 
 doing some work — its extent unknown — on Folly Island, 
 General Ripley again, with the tardy consent of General 
 Beauregard, sent two companies of the First South Caro- 
 lina Artillery, Capt. John C. Mitchell commanding, who, 
 with the assistance of the Twenty-first South Carolina Vol- 
 unteers, Colonel Graham, built among the sand hills of the 
 South end of Morris Island nine independent one gun bat- 
 teries, which were eventually to meet the concentrated fire 
 of forty-seven guns in the masked Federal Batteries on 
 Little Folly Island, and 8, ii and 15-inch guns in the 
 Monitors. 
 
 DEFENCE OF CHARLESTON. 
 
 As the "Cradle of Secession," it was the ambition of the 
 United States troops, at the very commencement of the war, 
 to be possessed of Charleston. Equally determined were 
 the Confederates to hold it to the last extremity. The 
 effort to take it by a land approach over James Island had 
 failed at the battle of Secessionville, i6th June, 1862. Now, 
 it became evident, by the concentration of iron-clads, gun- 
 boats and transports in the Stono and adjacent waters, that 
 a combined land and naval attack would be attempted. 
 Two lines were open to their approach — one by way of Sul- 
 livan's Island and the other by Morris Island. The former 
 was defended by batteries of the most formidable character, 
 extending from Breach Inlet on the North to the Cove on 
 
 *" The holding of the position was secondary to that of James Island, which 
 must first be secured beyond peril, if possible, of surprise and capture." See 
 Cjeneral Beauregard, Vol. 2, p. 493. 
 
8 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 the South, and also by Fort Moultrie (of Revolutionary 
 fame), but Morris Island was almost unprotected. 
 
 FORT WAGNER. 
 
 A short time after the battle of Secessionville, Fort Wag- 
 ner was commenced. Captains F. D. Lee and Langdon 
 Cheves, of the Confederate States Engineer Corps, planned 
 and built it. The position before described, about three- 
 quarters of a inile to the South of Cummings Pi^'nt, was 
 selected for its site. Here the Island is about two hundred 
 and fifty yards wide, bounded by Vincent's Creek on the 
 West, and the ocean on the East. Immediately in front the 
 marsh from Vincent's Creek setting in towards the ocean, 
 narrows it to but thirty-three yards, and this marsh even at 
 low tides makes an impassable barrier. A low line of sand 
 hillocks skirting the beach serves as a partial protection 
 from the fleet in the channel, back to Cummings Point.* 
 The higher sand hills of the Island are distant to the South 
 two thousand yards. The intervening ground being a narrow 
 strip, bounded by the ocean on one side, and the marsh on the 
 other, of alternating width, from twenty-five to forty yards 
 at high tide, along which the sappers and miners had to 
 build their approaches. Nature designed this spot for de- 
 fence, and there is no other site on the Island equal to it. 
 Its distance from Fort Sumter is two thousand seven hun- 
 dred and eighty yards. 
 
 DIMENSIONS. 
 
 Fort Wagner was an enclosed earth-work, measuring 
 within the interior slopes from East to West si.x hundred 
 and thirty feet, and from North to South in extreme width 
 two hundred and seventy-five feet. The sea face, measuring 
 
 * This describes this portion of the Island as it was in 1863. Now (1885) 
 it is almost on a level with the sea. Vincent's Creek is filled up, and the 
 marsh covered with the sand that formed the fort and hills ; not a vestige re- 
 mains either of Wagner or the Federal approaches. The sea has cut througli 
 between the first and second parallels, dividing the Island into two. We would 
 suggest that the smaller of these two islands be hereafter called Wagner Island. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 9 
 
 along the interior crest two hundred and ten feet, contained 
 a bomb-proof magazine twenty by twenty feet, forming a 
 heavy traverse to protect the three guns North of it from 
 the land fire. Behind this sea face, parallel with the beach, 
 was the bomb-proof, thirty by one hundred and thirty feet 
 within, which could not accommodate more than nine 
 hundred men standing elbow to elbow and face to back 
 (not fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred men, as Gen. Gil- 
 more says), and this capacity was further reduced by cut- 
 ting off more than one-third for the hospital. In fact, not 
 more than three hundred could, or ever did, obtain shelter 
 in it at one time. The land face was irregular with re-enter- 
 ing angles, measuring in the whole length six hundred feet, 
 with chambers for five guns to sweep the land approach, 
 separated by heavy traverses to protect the guns from en- 
 filade fire of fleet. The Western portion of the battery was 
 an enclosed parade ground, containing one acre. From the 
 East face to the beach, protecting the sally-port and extend- 
 ing to high water-mark one hundred feet, was an outer 
 work pierced for two guns to sweep the sea face. The front 
 of the battery was guarded by a ditch, filled with water at 
 high tide and retained by sluice gates. Towards the close 
 of the siege this ditch was filled with "trous de loups" and 
 boards armed with spikes. 
 
 About two hundred and fifty yards in front of Fort Wag- 
 ner, just beyond the marsh, was a sand ridge, affording 
 shelter for pickets and sharp-shooters, the scene of conflict 
 on the nights of August 2ist, 25th and 26th. 
 
 ARMAMENT. 
 
 When direct operations against Fort Wagner commenced 
 on the loth July, the fort was armed with the following 
 guns: One lo-inch Columbiad, one 32-pounder smooth-bore, 
 one 42-pounder carronade, two naval 8-inch shell guns, three 
 32-pounder carronades, two 32-pounder siege howitzers, two 
 i2-pounder bronze howitzers and one lo-inch mortar. 
 
lO Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 GARRISON. 
 
 There were on Morris Island July loth, nine hundred and 
 twenty-seven men, Col. R. F. Graham, of the Twenty-first 
 South Carolina Volunteers, in command; Lieut-Col. Jos. A. 
 Yates, of the First South Carolina Artillery, as Chief of Ar- 
 tillery ; Capt. C. E. Chichester, of the Gist Guard Artillery, 
 commanding Fort Wagner (by right of seniority). Artillery 
 companies: Gist Guard, Lieut. R. C. Gilchrist, and Mat- 
 thewes Artillery, Capt. J. R. Matthewes. In Battery Gregg, 
 at Cumrnings Point, was Capt. Henry R. Lesesne, of the 
 First South Carolina Artillery, with his company. At the 
 South end of the Island, defending the nine single batteries 
 erected there to dispute landing from Folly Island, were 
 Companies I and E, and a detachment of H (two hundred 
 men), of the First South Carolina Artillery, Capts. John C. 
 Mitchell (son of the Irish patriot) and J. R. Macbeth, and 
 Li6ut. H. W. Frost, and a detachment of fifty men of the 
 First South Carolina Infantry under Capt. Chas. T. Haskell, 
 and the Twenty-first South Carolina Volunteers (six hun- 
 dred and twelve men) under Maj. G. W. Mclver. 
 
 It will be well, also, to give Gen. Beauregard's available 
 force in his department at this time: Infantry, five thous- 
 and two hundred and fifty-six; artillery, five thousand seven 
 hundred and ninety-four; cavalry, four thousand three hun- 
 dred and eighteen ; grand total, fifteen thousand three hun- 
 dred and eighteen ; distributed in Florida, Georgia and 
 South Carolina; and for the immediate defence of Charles- 
 ton five thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, of all arms. 
 Gen. Gilmore had for carrying on offensive operations, after 
 leaving Hilton Head and other important points perfectly 
 secure, ten thousand infantry, three hundred and fifty heavy 
 artillery, six hundred engineer troops, twenty-eight pieces 
 flying artillery, completely equipped and mounted ; and 
 the following guns : five 200-pounder rifled Parrotts, nineteen 
 lOO-pounder rifled Parrotts, twelve 30-pounder Parrotts siege, 
 four 20-pounder Parrotts siege, eight pieces field artillery 
 dismounted, twelve 13-inch S. C. Mortars, ten lo-inch siege 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 1 1 
 
 mortars, five 8-inch siege mortars and three coehorn mortars. 
 The entire effective force in South CaroHna was seventeen 
 thousand four hundred and sixty-three, officers and men in- 
 clusive. The force actually employed on Morris Island at 
 one time did not vary much from eleven thousand five hun- 
 dred men, aided by a powerful fleet of iron-clads. Opposed 
 to them the Confederates never had on the Island more 
 than one thousand six hundred and one men, and at times 
 this force was reduced to less than one thousand, divided 
 between Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg; nor could it in 
 any emergency have been increased to any practical extent, 
 on account of the limited transportation at command and 
 the exposed landing at Cummings Point. 
 
 ENGAGEMENT OF APRIL 7th. 
 
 Fort Wagner proposed to play a very important part 
 in the historic attack of the iron-clads of the Federal fleet 
 on Fort Sumter ; but, as it is believed, was defeated through 
 treachery. Some time before an iron boiler filled with one 
 thousand pounds of powder, fitted with electrical appliances 
 for exploding it, had been sunk in the channel, one mile and 
 a half from and abreast of Wagner. The submarine cable 
 stretched to the shore and lay within the fort. A system 
 of triangulation from both Gregg and Wagner, marked by 
 stakes driven in those batteries, determined its position, and 
 for days the opportunity to use it against the fleet had been 
 anxiously looked for. At noon on the 7th of April — a lovely 
 spring day, the deep blue sky, without a cloud, reflected in 
 the bay as smooth as glass — ■\ movement was observed 
 among the iron-clads. Soon after they advanced slowly in 
 line of battle ; the monitors Weehawken, Passaic, Montauk, 
 Patapsco, Catskill, Nantucket, Nahant and Keokuk, with 
 the New Ironsides bearing the pennant of Commodore 
 Dupont. 
 
 At ten minutes past 3 P. M., Moultrie opened her bat- 
 teries ; immediately thereafter Fort Sumter, Battery Gregg, 
 and all the iron-clads joined in the thundering chorus^ 
 
1 2 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 " The music of the spheres." The sea seethed as a 
 boiling cauldron, as shot and shell, with the debris of 
 fort and vessels, plunged into it. Amid this pandemo- 
 nium Wagner stood silent, yet all within were nerved 
 to the most intense excitement. The long looked for hour 
 was at hand when one of those dreaded iron-clad monsters 
 would be hurled into the air. The New Ironsides was 
 singled out for destruction. One of the Signal Corps had 
 been stationed at Battery Gregg, and another at Fort 
 Wagner, each with keen eyes watching their respective 
 lines of vision. At the electric key stood Capt. Langdon 
 Cheves, with his eyes bent on both stations, so that as the 
 flags waved in concert, indicating the fateful moment when 
 the Ironsides should be over the torpedo, to apply the spark 
 and do the deed. Slowly the Ironsides steamed around, 
 delivering one terrific broadside after another. Ever and 
 anon the flag would wig-wag on Gregg, but Wagner's was 
 still ; then that on Wagner, but Gregg's did not reply, and 
 so it seemed that hours passed. The garrison intent and 
 watching, hearts could almost be heard beating above the 
 din of battle. At last both flags waved. Oh, the wild rush 
 of hope and joy that overwhelmed them as they felt that 
 their hour had come at last. The key was touched once 
 and again. All looked breathlessly towards the doomed 
 ship. There was no answering explosion. Unconscious of 
 the danger she had escaped, she steamed on and delivered 
 her broadsides until the action closed. It was said after- 
 wards and believed that the ''expert'' who was charged 
 with arranging the torpedo was a " Federal spy." 
 
 That afternoon the first blood was spilled in Fort Wag- 
 ner. Through disobedience of orders and carelessness, an 
 ammunition chest was exploded in the gun chamber of 
 Lieut. Steadman of the Matthewes Artillery, killing three 
 and wounding five men ; also dismounting the 32-pounder. 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 
 
 Unfortunately for the defence of Morris Island, the 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 13 
 
 Steamer " Rub}^ " (a blockade-runner) got aground four 
 hundred yards from Folly Island, by the South entrance to 
 the Light-house Inlet, while the batteries were being built 
 to command this approach. The temptation was too strong 
 for the needy " Confeds," and while they were busy wreck- 
 ing her, the more diligent and wary Federals were employed 
 in erecting their ten masked batteries not five hundred yards 
 away. This gave a false security to the District Commander, 
 who reports the fact to Gen. Beauregard as proof that the 
 enemy were not in force on Folly Island. 
 
 The morning of the loth of July, 1863, told a different 
 story. Citizens in Charleston, six miles distant, were 
 aroused from their slumbers at early dawn by a terrific 
 cannonade. Forty-seven pieces of artillery, consisting of 
 rifled guns, 20 and 30-pound Parrott's and lo-inch mortars, 
 poured an incessant fire on the unfinished Confederate bat- 
 teries that were intended to protect .the South end of the 
 Island. The monitors Catskill, Montauk, Nahant and Wee- 
 hawken steamed up to within less than a mile and delivered, 
 enfilade, their broadsides of 11 and 15-inch shot and shell, 
 while four howitzer launches opened on the right. Under 
 cover of this terrible bombardment, lasting over three 
 hours — heard in Edgefield, one hundred and thirty miles 
 away — the Ninth Maine, Third New Hampshire, Sixth and 
 Seventh Connecticut, Forty-eighth New York and Seventy- 
 sixth Pennsylvania, two thousand five hundred men, under 
 Brigadier-General Strong, put out in small boats from Folly 
 River, and landed on Oyster Point. 
 
 The brave artillerists fought with great determination, 
 but their guns were soon disabled, and fhey and the rem- 
 nant of Infantry were compelled to retire before the over- 
 whelming force, sustaining a loss of two hundred and ninety- 
 four, includingsixteen commissioned officers, killed, wounded 
 and missing. The Federals lost but fifteen killed and 
 ninety-two wounded. 
 
 THE RETREAT. 
 It was not until capture was imminent that the few gal- 
 
14 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 lant men remaining, who had sustained this terrific on- 
 slaught for three hours, fell back, disputing every inch of 
 ground. The four monitors steamed slowly along, as near 
 to the shoreas the depth of water would permit, pouring 
 in their broadsides of shrapnell and shells. The Federals, 
 two thousand five hundred strong, deployed across the 
 Island, from shore to shore, and delivered a murderous fire. 
 Two companies of the Seventh Battalion South Carolina 
 Infantry, Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson (whole battalion two 
 hundred and sixty effectives), which had just landed on the 
 Island, arrived in time to cover the retreat. The enemy 
 advanced until they came within range of the heavy guns of 
 Fort Wagner, which opened rapidly with shot and shell, 
 stopping the pursuit. Falling back to the shelter of the 
 sand hills, the Federal troops rested for the remainder of 
 the day. 
 
 CAPTAIN LANGDON CHEVES. 
 
 At 9 A. M. the Federal forces were in possession of the 
 sand hills of Morris Island. The " Stars and Stripes " had 
 replaced the " Stars and Bars " on Colonel Graham's head- 
 quarters. The artillery garrison of Fort Wagner manned 
 the guns, and throughout the day engaged the four moni- 
 tors, which took position a mile away, abreast of the fort. 
 Captain Cheves, son of the late Judge Cheves, to whose 
 engineering skill and untiring zeal Fort Wagner was to be 
 thenceforth famous in history, was sitting in his quarters 
 overwhelmed with grief at the tidings just brought to him 
 of the death of his nephew. Captain Chas. T. Haskell. But 
 as the sound of approaching battle grew louder, he roused 
 himself to action, and stepping across the threshold of his 
 door, towards one of the magazines, he was stricken to death 
 by a fragment of the first shell hurled at Fort Wagner. His 
 work lived after him fifty-eight days. An untold weight of 
 shot and shell could not destroy it. The heaviest artillery 
 of that day, which reduced the walls of Sumter to a shape- 
 less mass, four thousand five hundred yards away, at less 
 
Confederate Defe7ice of Morris Island. 15 
 
 than one-third the distance, made but little impression on 
 that monument of his genius and labor. It was not until 
 the long and laborious sap and mine of the highest engi- 
 neering skill, commenced one thousand six hundred yards 
 away, had reached the very moat, that the fort, unimpaired 
 in strength, and having accomplished the work designed, 
 was evacuated without loss to its garrison. The names of 
 Fort Wagner and Cheves should forever be one and in 
 separable. 
 
 FIRST ASSAULT. 
 
 During the morning and evening of the loth Morris 
 Island was reinforced by Nelson's Battalion, Seventh South 
 Carolina Volunteers, two hundred and sixty men, and Col 
 onel Olmsted's command of Georgia troops, detachments of 
 First, Twelfth, Eighteenth and Sixty-third Georgia Regi 
 ments, five hundred and thirty-four men ; these, with twenty 
 men of Company D, First South Carolina Infantry, Lieut. 
 Horlbeck; seventy men of Companies E, H and I, First 
 South Carolina Artillery, Capt. John C. Mitchell ; two hun- 
 dred remnant of Twenty-first South Carolina Volunteers, 
 the Gist Guard and Matthews Artillery, under Captain Chi- 
 chester, in all one thousand two hundred men, constituted 
 the Confederate force. The garrison of Wagner was ordered 
 to be on the alert against an impending attack. The night 
 was passed in comparative quiet, the men resting at their 
 post, and the artillerists sleeping in the gun-chambers. 
 Four hours past midnight the pickets on the ridge caught 
 the sound of stealthy footsteps advancing over the soft 
 sand. The early gloaming of dawn hardly revealed the form 
 of the foe. Waiting only to make "assurance doubly sure," 
 they opened a rapid fire, and thus gave signal to the vigi- 
 lant garrison of Wagner. In a moment the South Carolin- 
 ians manned the guns and the right and right centre of the 
 ramparts. The Georgians guarded the left and left centre 
 of the works ; the Eighteenth Battalion occupied the South- 
 east bastion ; the First Georgia along the sea front to the 
 
1 6 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 left ; the Twelfth Georgia Battalion to the right, Colonel R. 
 F. Graham in command. 
 
 Four companies of the Seventh Connecticut, under Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Rodman, led the assault. So rapidly did 
 they follow on the heels of the retreating picket force, they 
 were at the crest of the sea face as the pickets were enter- 
 ing the sally port. Against the dark sky the dim outline of 
 a human figure could just be discerned. Lieutenant R. C. 
 Gilchrist, of the Gist Guard, in command of the company, 
 challenged him to know if he was friend or foe. Quick as 
 thought the man's gun was levelled, and a ball parted the 
 Lieutenant's hair, the powder blinding his e3'es. His 
 32-pounder, double-shotted with grape and cannister, belched 
 forth a reply, the whole load passing through the man's 
 body, cutting him in twain, his discharged rifle dropping in 
 the battery. This became the signal for the blast of war. 
 Instantly the whole battery was ablaze. The artillery 
 opened with a murderous hail of grape and cannister, while 
 the musketry poured forth in a steady roll, their balls sent 
 like wind and rain in the face of the foe. As the light 
 of day increased, and the smoke cleared away, the retreat- 
 ing columns of blue coats were seen making for the sand 
 hills. The remnant of the forlorn hope of the Seventh Con- 
 necticut, who had sheltered themselves against the scarp 
 during the terrific fire, now crawled \c\ and surrendered 
 themselves prisoners, one hundred and thirty, rank and file. 
 General Strong, who commanded in person on the loth and 
 nth, reports his losses in the two days four hundred and 
 thirty-six, but three hundred and fifty wounded were carried 
 to Hilton Head, and over one hundred were buried by the 
 Confederates in front of Wagner, one hundred and thirty 
 taken prisoners. The loss in Wagner was one officer, Capt. 
 C. Werner, of the German Volunteers, of Savannah, and 
 five men killed, and one officer and fifteen men wounded — 
 twelve in all. 
 
 CHANGE IN GARRISON. 
 After their signal repulse on the morning of the iith,the 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Tslaiid. \y 
 
 Federals were busy strengthening their position on the 
 Island. On the 12th General Beauregard called a Council 
 of general officers to discuss the practicability of driving 
 the Federals from Morris Island. It was considered that 
 wot less than four thousand men would be required to do it. 
 More than that number could not be manoeuvered. The 
 enemy's works must be carried before daylight, otherwise 
 the advance and attack would be exposed to the fire of the 
 fleet. The limited means of transportation at hand did not 
 permit as large a force to be put on the Island in one night 
 and give time to allow an advance to the South end before 
 daylight. Unwillingly the idea was abandoned. That op- 
 portunity was lost. Never after was there the slightest 
 chance that victory would have crowned the effort. Each 
 day one or more monitors took position abreast of Wagner, 
 shelling that fort and Gregg more or less vigorously. 
 
 The Confederate force, which had done such arduous duty, 
 were relieved by the Fifty-first North Carolina troops (six 
 hundred and eighty-seven men), under Col. H. McKethan ; 
 detachments from Captains Bucknerand Dixon's Companies 
 of Sixty-third Georgia Artillery ; Captains Tatem and 
 Adams' Companies of the First South Carolina Infantry as 
 Artillery ; section of howitzers of DeSaussure Artillery, 
 Captain DePass ; section of howitzers, Blake's Artillery, 
 Lieutenant VVaties ; Charleston Battalion, Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel P. C. Gaillard, and Thirty-first North Carolina troops, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Knight. Brigadier-General William 
 Taliaferro relieved Colonel Graham in the command of the 
 Island. 
 
 BOMBARDMENT. 
 
 For several days there had been evidences of a renewed 
 attack by land and sea on Fort Wagner. All the Federal 
 fleet disappeared from Stono on the 17th. The New Iron- 
 sides and several gunboats crossed the bar, and the forces 
 were increased on the Island. In five days four powerful 
 batteries had been erected, the nearest within one thousand 
 three hundred and thirty yards of Wagner; the furthest 
 .3 
 
1 8 Confederate Defence^ of Morris Island. 
 
 one thousand nine hundred and thirty yards. The first 
 mounted five lo-inch siege mortars, the second nine 
 3d-pounder and four 2o-pounder Parrott rifles, the third four 
 lo-inch siege mortars, and the fourth five 8-inch siege mor- 
 tars and two 30-pounder, six lo-pounder Parrott rifles, four 
 3-inch rifles and two Wiard rifles — in all thirty-six pieces. 
 
 About daylight on the 18th the Federal mortars com- 
 menced their practice, which they kept up at intervals until 
 noon. The New Ironsides, the monitors Montauk, Cat- 
 skill, Nantucket, Weehawken and Patapsco, the gunboats 
 Paul Jones, Ottowa, Seneca, Chippewa and Wissahickon 
 steamed in and took position abreast of Wagner. At 12 
 o'tlock all the land and naval batteries opened a ''feu 
 d' enfer'' upon the devoted work. For eight long hours it 
 was as a continuous reverberation of thunder, peal followed 
 peal in rapid succession. NiNE THOUSAND SHELL WERE 
 HURLED AGAINST Wagner (twenty each minute). It ceased 
 only when darkness came on, as its further continuance 
 would have involved the slaughter of the assaulting column, 
 but strange to tell, few within the fort were injured — eight 
 killed and twenty wounded. The two North Carolina Reg- 
 iments during the bombardment were kept under the shelter 
 of the bomb-proof. The greater portion of the Charleston 
 Battalion was stationed along the parapet of the work, under 
 Colonel Gaillard, a position they gallantly maintained the 
 whole day exposed to the fearful fire, while the remaining 
 companies, under Captain Julius A. Blake, took shelter be- 
 hind the sand hills in the rear, yet within call. The light 
 field pieces were dismounted from their carriages and buried 
 in the sand for protection. 
 
 At the commencement of the bombardment Wagner had 
 delivered a sharp and severe fire against the fleet, but in a 
 short time its land batteries were entirely silent, and those 
 of the sea front were practically so. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR ASSAULT. 
 
 As it became evident that an attack on Fort Wagner 
 would be made at dark. Battery Gregg and Fort Sumter 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 19 
 
 made ready to fire over Wagner on the advancing columns, 
 and the batteries on James Island to enfilade its face. 
 General Hagood was ordered to be in readiness to support, 
 or relieve, General Taliaferro, and the Thirty-second Geor- 
 gia Regiment, Colonel Harrison, proceeded to the reinforce- 
 ment of the garrison. On the part of the Federals, Briga- 
 dier-General Strong's Brigade was to lead the assault. It 
 was composed of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, Colonel 
 Shaw; the Sixth Connecticut Regiment, Colonel J. L. Chat- 
 field ; a Battalion of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment, 
 Colonel Barton ; the Third New Hampshire, the Forty- 
 eighth New York Regiment, Colonel Jackson ; the Ninth 
 Maine Regiment, Colonel Emery, and the Seventy-sixth 
 Pennsylvania Regiment, Colonel Strawbridge, and was to 
 be supported by Colonel Putnam's Brigade, comprising his 
 own regiment (the Seventh New Hampshire), Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Abbott; the One Hundredth New York Regiment, 
 Colonel Dandy ; the Sixty-second Ohio Regiment, Colonel 
 Pond, and the Sixty-seventh Ohio Regiment, Colonel Voris. 
 Brigadier-General T. Seymour to command the assaulting 
 column, and to arrange details for attack. 
 
 Sometime before sunset these regiments were formed on 
 the beach in rear of their batteries, in columns of eight 
 companies, closed at half distance. The Sixth Connecticut 
 to lead and attack the Southeast salient angle of the fort. 
 The Forty-eighth New York to pass along the sea front and 
 facing inward, to attack there ; the other regiments of the 
 brigade to charge the South front, extending inward to- 
 wards the marshes, on the left ; the Fifty-fourth Massachu- 
 setts Volunteers (colored), one thousand strong, in advance 
 of all, and to be the '' enfans perdiis!' They formed in two 
 lines ahead of the brigade. Their comimander was Colonel 
 Rob't G. Shaw. He was under the medium height, of a 
 neat figure, wore a short jacket, and had long light hair, 
 which fell low on his neck, nearly to his shoulders, giving 
 him a very boyish appearance. Of the success of the assault 
 there was no doubt. They thought that the guns of Wag- 
 ner had all been silenced ; that there were not five hundred 
 
20 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 men in the fort, and these had been well hammered all day. 
 " We'll sleep in Wagner to-night," they said, and many a 
 poor fellow did, " the sleep that knows no waking." 
 
 SECOND ASSAULT, JULY i8th. 
 
 By preconcerted arrangement, as night closed in, about a 
 quarter past 8 o'clock, all the Federal guns, land and sea, 
 ceased in a moment, and a great calm followed, a prelude 
 to a greater storm to burst anon in all its fury. As the 
 curtain of smoke, which like a pall had enveloped Wagner 
 all day, slowly lifted, the blue coats of the enemy were seen 
 debouching from their first parallel, and advancing over the 
 narrow approach between it and the fort. Quickly the gar- 
 rison of Wagner sallied forth from the bomb-proof and sand 
 hills in the rear, to take their allotted positions on the ram- 
 parts, to do all that skill could dictate and manhood accom- 
 plish in defence of the place. The light field pieces were 
 dug out of the sand, remounted and placed in position, the 
 artillerists loaded their guns, double-shotted with grape and 
 canister, and stood lanyards in hand. Three companies of 
 the Charleston Battalion, under the intrepid Lieutenant- 
 Colonel P. C. Gaillard, manned the right of the battery ; 
 next on their left stood the gallant Fifty-first North Caro- 
 lina Volunteers, six hundred and eighty-seven strong, under 
 Colonel H. McKethan. The regiment that was to have 
 occupied the Southeast salient cowardly failed to respond, 
 and remained in the bomb-proof,* and thus was that por- 
 tion of the battery undefended. The remaining two com- 
 panies of the Charleston Battalion occupied the extreme 
 left of the fort by the beach. 
 
 When the advancing column was five hundred yards dis- 
 tant the blizzard burst; shot, shell, grape, shrapnel, canis- 
 ter and musket balls poured like hail and rain upon the 
 narrow approach, while Sumter, Gregg and the James Island 
 
 *This regiment wiped out the stigma incurred in a moment of weakness, 
 caused by the demoralizing effect of a new and strange experience, by their 
 distinguished bravery the next year in the operations around Petersburg. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 2 1 
 
 batteries concentrated their shells rapidly and fatally on the 
 same spot. For the morning bombardment the Federals 
 were paid in their own coin. 
 
 Colonel Robert G. Shaw, with his colored troops, led the 
 attack: "They went forward at a 'double quick '. with 
 great energy and resolution ; but on approaching the ditch 
 they broke ; the greater part of them followed their in- 
 trepid Colonel, bounded over the ditch, mounted the para- 
 pet, and planted their flag in the most gallant manner upon 
 the ramparts, where Shaw was shot dead ; while the rest 
 were siezed with a furious panic, and acted like wild beasts 
 let loose from a menagerie. They came down first on the 
 Ninth Maine, and then on the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, 
 and broke both of them in two. Portions of the Ninth and 
 Seventy-sixth mingled with the fugitives of the Fifty-fourth, 
 and could not be brought to the fort. They ran away like 
 deer, some crawling on their hands and knees."* 
 
 The Sixth Connecticut, Colonel John L. Chatfield, suc- 
 ceeded in passing through this deadly fire, and made a furi- 
 ous charge on the Southeast undefended salient, and took 
 it. Here for three hours they were penned in, no support 
 having dared to follow across the fatal stretch before the 
 fort. To retreat was worse than the advance. While .the 
 action was in progress Captain W. H. Ryan, with his com- 
 pany (Irish Volunteers, of Charleston Battalion), had en- 
 deavored to dislodge these men, and had met his death. 
 Major David Ramsay was then ordered to take a detail from 
 his command to recapture the salient. As he was advanc- 
 ing a shot from the bomb-proof struck him in the back, and 
 he too fell. By this time the enemy was in full retreat, shat- 
 tered and demoralized, and the conflict was virtually ended. 
 A fire of grape and musketry swept the faces of the salient, 
 to prevent the retreat of the Sixth Connecticut, who had 
 found lodgment there, until the Thirty-first Georgia Regi- 
 ment (who had reached the Island during the assault with 
 Brigadier-General Hagood) charged over the Southern scarp, 
 and two companies of the Charleston Battalion, under 
 
 *See " Life Afloat and Ashore," Judge Cowley, page 93. 
 
22 Confederate Defcnec of Morris Island. 
 
 Captain Julius A. Blake, of the Charleston Riflemen, de- 
 ployed along the Western face, when the Sixth Connecticut 
 surrendered. The assault was bravely made, but was 
 doomed to failure from the onset. The demoralization of 
 the negro troops at the supreme moment threw the ranks of 
 the Federals into disorder. The converging fire of artillery 
 and infantry on the narrow approach prevented a rally. 
 Few could move within that fatal area and live. The situa- 
 tion of the work forbid any feint or diversion, so that the 
 garrison could concentrate their attention on one point 
 alone. Besides, the increasing darkness, rendered more 
 dense by the smoke of conflict, added to the confusion of 
 the assailants and helped the assailed, and thus the fortunes 
 of war once more smiled on Fort Wagner, giving to the 
 Confederates a complete victory and to the Federals an 
 overwhelming defeat. 
 
 MAJOR DAVID RAMSAY. 
 
 One of the " bright, peculiar stars " of South Carolina was 
 this scholar, statesman, soldier, gentleman. Unsurpassed in 
 intellect, improved by ripe and faithful study in the Uni- 
 versities of Europe and America, he was fulfilling the 
 promise of his early youth. Grandson of the great Henry 
 Laurens, and also of South Carolina's historian, he had in- 
 herited the endowments of both grandsires, and to him the 
 future was big with hope and promise. While gallantly 
 leading his command he fell, not by the hand of the foe. 
 For seventeen days he lingered, enduring his sufferings with 
 Christian fortitude, and expired at last in his ancestral 
 home. At heart a lover of the Union he fought to destroy, 
 but a martyr to the State to which he deemed his allegiance 
 was due. 
 
 LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN C. SIMKINS. 
 
 No officer stood higher in personal worth, or was more 
 beloved by his comrades and men than Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Simkins, of the First South Carolina Infantry, and none 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 -j 
 
 have left behind them a brighter or purer memory. He fell 
 in the front, cheering his brave artillerists, a noble type, 
 living and dying, of a perfect gentleman and a brave soldier. 
 
 CAPTAIN WILLIAM II. RYAN. 
 
 Of all citizens, native or adopted, who have illustrated 
 Irish zeal, devotion and courage in defence of South Caro- 
 lina, no better or worthier name can be found than that of 
 Captain Ryan, of the " Irish Volunteers." These names, 
 Ramsay, Simkins, Tatum and Ryan, the martyrs of the i8th 
 June, are inseparably connected with the defence of this 
 renowned fort. 
 
 AFTER THE BATTLE. 
 
 Language has not the power to describe the horrors of 
 the night succeeding that assault. The shattered columns 
 of the Federals were driven back to the shelter of the sand 
 hills. Four thousand men had been dashed against Fort 
 Wagner; when re-formed within the Federal lines only six 
 hundred answered to their names. Brigadier-General 
 Strong was mortally wounded, and Colonels Chatfield, Put- 
 nam and Shaw were left dead within the lines of the enemy. 
 A desultory fire of small arms, with an occasional discharge 
 of grape and canister, was kept up for a time at an unseen 
 foe from the ramparts of Wagner, But soon silence and 
 stillness reigned supreme, broken only now and then by the 
 moans of the wounded and dying. At last the long night 
 was ended, and the sun of a peaceful Sabbath rose, reveal- 
 ing the details of the sickening scene. " Blood, mud, water, 
 brains and human hair, matted together ; men lying in every 
 possible attitude, with every conceivable expression on their 
 countenances ; their limbs bent into unnatural shapes by the 
 fall of twenty or more feet ; the fingers rigid and out- 
 stretched, as if they had clutched at the earth to save them- 
 selves ; pale, beseeching faces, looking out from among the 
 ghastly corpses, with moans and cries for help and water, and 
 dying gasps and death struggles." In the salient and on the 
 
24 Confederate Defcncd of Morris Island. 
 
 ramparts they lay heaped and pent, in some places three 
 deep. Among them Colonel Putnam, with the back part of 
 his head blown off; still the remarkable beauty of his face 
 and form evoked from his victorious foes a sigh of pity ; 
 while on the crest, with but few of his " sable troop " beside 
 the flag he had vainly planted, was the youthful corpse of 
 Colonel Shaw. 
 
 All of Sunday was employed in removing the wounded 
 and burying the dead. The former were immediately taken 
 to the city, and were carefully tended by Confederate Sur- 
 geons.* Wounds being inflicted at such short distance, little 
 could be done save to amputate, and Federal blood flowed 
 by the bucket full. Eight hundred mangled bodies, many 
 of them shattered beyond recognition, so that 'twas hard to 
 tell the black from the white, were buried by the Confede- 
 rates before their fort, near the beach, to be unearthed 
 again by the advancing sap and Federal shells. The 
 wounded and dead more remote from Wagner were cared 
 for by their friends. 
 
 EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 
 
 The next eventful day for Fort Wagner was the 25th of 
 July. General Taliaferro had been relieved on the 19th 
 by General Hagood, and was now again in command of the 
 fort. The intervening tiine had been diligently employed 
 by its defenders in repairing breaches, replacing guns, and 
 otherwise strengthening the works. The Federals swarmed 
 like bees nine hundred yards away on their second parallel, 
 against which the enfilading batteries of James Island, and 
 the guns of Wagner and Sumter, directed a continuous fire. 
 
 *Major Lewis Butler, of the Sixty-seventh Ohio, who was by the side of 
 Colonel Putnam when the latter was killed, says : " It is but just that I notice 
 a Special Order of General Beauregard, under date of July 27, 1S63 (if I am 
 correct as to date), directing that special care be taken of the wounded cap- 
 tured at Wagner, as men who were brave enough to go in there deserved the 
 respect of their enemy. Another act of courtesy : the effects, money and 
 papers belonging to members of the Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 
 who died in Charleston Hospital, were sent through the lines by flag of 
 truce." 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 25 
 
 Daily the monitors and New Ironsides threw into Wagner 
 their 11 and 15-inch shells, and each night portions of its 
 worn out garrison were relieved by fresh troops from 
 Charleston. 
 
 Negotiations, through flags of truce, commencing just 
 after the last assault, culminated in arrangements for an 
 exchange of prisoners, the excess at this time being in the 
 hands of the Confederates, and the 27th of July was ap- 
 pointed as the day. As the fleet had fired upon Wagner 
 pending a flag of truce a few days before, for which an 
 apology was demanded and given, Brigadier-General Ripley, 
 commanding the district, ordered all his batteries not to fire 
 on that day until after the exchange had been made. Not 
 so the Federals. Early in the morning their whole iron- 
 clad fleet took position abreast of this devoted fort ; and 
 their earth-works, five hundred yards nearer than before, and 
 mounted with still heavier guns, opened a concentrated and 
 destructive fire, which, while it lasted, was equal in inten- 
 sity to the bombardment of the i8th. Practice had made 
 their aim more perfect, so that their shot sought out the 
 weakest spots in the fort. The immense 15-inch shells of 
 the monitors would roll slowly up the scarp and burst upon 
 the crest of the work, some falling inside the gun chambers. 
 The garrison sought shelter in the bomb-proof, or lay low 
 behind the traverses and epaulments. All their guns were 
 silent. The Island trembled as if from an earthquake. 
 
 At 10 o'clock the steamer conveying the Federal prison- 
 ers, with a large white flag at her fore, was seen passing 
 Sumter. As she approached the fleet the bombardment 
 ceased, and for four hours the negotiations were carried on 
 by the two belligerent powers. 
 
 This time was diligently employed by General Taliaferro 
 in the examination of the fort, which it was feared had been 
 seriously damaged. The magazines and bomb-proofs were 
 filled with smoke from exploding shells, leading to the be- 
 lief that the former had been breached. So the garrison 
 was set to work removing the powder from the Southeast 
 magazine to one less exposed. No work or repairs could 
 4 
 
26 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 be put upon the outside of the battery at this time, as to do 
 so would have betrayed to their vigilant foe the success of 
 their bombardment. All that could be done was to be on 
 the alert for another assault, which was expected. 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR EVACUATION. 
 
 While the exchange of prisoners was going on, a 
 Council was called by General Taliaferro to discuss the 
 situation. It was decided that the place was no longer ten- 
 able, and must be given up. Dispatches were accordingly 
 signaled to General Ripley, asking that transportation be 
 furnished that night to remove the troops from the Island, 
 and preparation was made by General Taliaferro to evacu- 
 ate. But there was at least one officer in Fprt Wagner who 
 did not share this feeling of insecurity. From the first 
 spadeful of sand thrown up he had seen the fort grow to 
 completion, and had assisted in and superintended the 
 work. He knew by personal inspection the depth of sand 
 remaining on the outside of the bomb-proofs and magazines 
 after the bombardment, and believed that, though their 
 form had changed, they were still practically intact. Ask- 
 ing and receiving permission to go to the city (with a reflec- 
 tion on the nature of the request at such a time), he manned 
 the gig of the Gist Guard Artillery, and proceeded at once 
 to the city and to General Ripley's headquarters. There he 
 found the General chafing over the situation, and after a 
 brief interview, in which he begged the General not to evac- 
 uate the Island, he was assigned to duty as Chief of 
 Artillery, and directed to return to Fort Wagner with 
 orders that it be held. The situation was also sub- 
 mitted to General Beauregard, and " instructions were sent 
 to General Taliaferro not to abandon the works without ex- 
 press orders to that effect."* So that incidentally through 
 the personal efforts of Captain C. E. Chichester, Wagner, 
 and indeed the city itself, was saved at that date from fall- 
 ing into the hands of the enemy ; for the fall of Wagner then 
 
 *See General Ripley's report, p. 33, and General Beauregard, Vol. 2, p. 494. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 27 
 
 would have gravely impaired the safety of Charleston, 
 as the defences in the inner harbor were incomplete and 
 defective. 
 
 END OF FIRST PERIOD. 
 
 Brigadier-General Johnson Hagood succeeded Brigadier- 
 General Taliaferro in command of Morris Island on the night 
 of 26th July, and thus ended the first sixteen days of the 
 siege of Fort Wagner. Up to that time the following com- 
 mands had performed duty on the Island, relieving each 
 other at stated intervals, to wit : Artillery — Gist Guard, 
 Lieutenant R. C. Gilchrist ; Matthewes Artillery, Captain J. 
 Raven Matthews; Companies I, E and H, First South 
 Carolina Artillery, Captains John C. Mitchell, J. R. Mac- 
 beth, and Lieutenant H. W. Frost ; Captains Tatum and 
 Adams' Companies, of the First South Carolina Infantry ; 
 DeSaussure Light Artillery, Captain DePass command- 
 ing; Captains Buckner and Dixon's Companies, of Sixty- 
 third Georgia Regular Artillery; Captains John H.Gary 
 (Co. A) and Robert Pringle (Co. B), of Lucas' Battalion of 
 Artillery. Infantry — Twenty-first Regiment South Carolina 
 Volunteers, Colonel R. F. Graham ; Charleston Battalion, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel P. C. Gaillard and Major David Ram- 
 say ; Company B, Captain Chas. T. Haskell, First South 
 Carolina Infantry; Twelfth and Eighteenth Georgia Bat- 
 talions, under Lieutenant-Colonel H. D. Capers and 
 Major W. S. Bassinger; Thirty-second Georgia Volun- 
 teers, Colonel Geo. P. Harrison ; Sixty-first North Caro- 
 lina Volunteers, Colonel Jas. D. Radcliffe ; Fifty-first 
 Regiment North Carolina Volunteers, Colonel Hector 
 McKethan ; Thirty-first North Carolina Volunteers, Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Chas. W. Knight, and Eighth North Caro- 
 lina Volunteers, Colonel Henry M. Shaw. 
 
 Out of these commands ninety-five had been killed, three 
 hundred and twelve wounded and one hundred and thirty- 
 two taken prisoners. Two desperate assaults had been re- 
 pulsed, inflicting a loss on the Federals of not less than three 
 
28 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 thousand three hundred men. The ^uns disabled or dis- 
 mounted in Fort Wagner had been renewed or replaced. 
 
 The effects of the heavy bombardment of the combined 
 artillery of land and navy against an earth-work, unprece- 
 dented in the annals of war, on two occasions, aggregating 
 twenty-one hours, and intermittent night and day, through 
 the whole period, had been repaired by its garrison, work- 
 ing all of each and every night. General W. B. Taliaferro had 
 succeeded Colonel Graham, was succeeded by General John- 
 son Hagood, succeeded him again, and was finally relieved 
 of the command of the Island on the 26th July by General 
 Hagood. From this time until the evacuation of the Island, 
 Generals A. H. Colquitt and T. L. Clingman, and Colohels 
 Geo. P. Harrison and L. M. Keitt, succeeded each other in 
 command, serving generally about five days — General Ha- 
 good and Colonel Keitt having two tours of duty. 
 
 During this same period, notwithstanding their heavy 
 losses, the Federals had accomplished substantial work. 
 The loth of July had given them three-fourths of Morris 
 Island. On that day they established their first line, one 
 thousand six hundred yards distant from Wagner. By 
 gradual approaches, working night and day under a heavy 
 fire from Sumter, Wagner, Gregg and the batteries on James 
 Island, they had advanced eleven hundred yards, and were 
 then one thousand yards distant from Wagner. Battery 
 Reynolds, one thousand three hundred and thirty yards 
 from Wagner, had been converted into a strong defensive 
 line, capable of resisting a formidable sortie. A row of in- 
 clined palisading, reaching entirely across the Island, had 
 been planted two hundred yards in advance of it, with a 
 return of fifty yards on the right. A bomb-proof magazine 
 was constructed, and heavy guns mounted. The first and 
 second parallels were established and completed. The latter 
 about six hundred yards in advance of the first, and occupy- 
 ing a narrow ridge which stretched across the Island and 
 extended over the marsh to Vincent's Creek, which was 
 spanned by two booms of floating timber to keep off sorties 
 from boats. An obstacle consisting of abattis, inclined pali- 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 29 
 
 sading and wire entanglements, was placed several yards in 
 advance, flanked by six light guns. On the right the parallel 
 itself was extended by a defensive barricade to low water 
 mark, terminating at that point in a strong cut work, on 
 which was placed three Riqua batteries and two field 
 howitzers to sweep the beach. Thus were the opposing 
 forces mutually prepared for attack and defence. General 
 Gilmore at that time had double the available force of 
 General Beauregard, within striking distance, and it would 
 have been madness to attempt to drive him from the Island, 
 protected as he was on the flank by the iron-clads. 
 
 SIEGE COMMENCES. 
 
 The unsuccessful assaults and bombardments of Wagner 
 had impressed the Federal commander with a respect for 
 its strength, and induced a change in his plan of operation. 
 He abandoned all hope of taking it by " coup de viain,'' and 
 resolved to resort to the safer, but slower, method of siege 
 by regular approach and bombardment. The large force at 
 his disposal, aided by the fleet, which could protect his 
 flank within the distance of a mile, rendered this practica- 
 ble. His only difficulty, the shifting nature of the material 
 he had to dig in, and the narrow ground on which to ap- 
 proach. But here, also, while his right flank was protected 
 by the iron-clads, his left was equally so by an impassable 
 marsh, and was only exposed to the fire of the batteries on 
 James Island, two and a quarter miles distant. 
 
 At first Sumter seriously interfered with his work, deliv- 
 ering from its barbette guns, over Wagner, an accurate and 
 destructive fire. But it was early eliminated from the 
 conflict, those guns having been dismounted by the i8th of 
 August by the breaching guns on Morris Island. 
 
 LIFE IN FORT WAGNER. 
 
 From the 20th of July was a period of simple endurance 
 on Morris Island. Night and day, with scarcely any inter- 
 mission, the hurling shell burst over and within it. Each 
 
30 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 day, often from early dawn, the New Ironsides or the six 
 monitors, some times all together, steamed up and delivered 
 their terrific broadsides, shaking the fort to its centre. The 
 noiseless coehorn 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 de- 
 fenders. 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 Cummings Point, 
 being often forty-eight hours in transitu, was unfit to eat. 
 The unventilated bomb-proofs, filled with smoke of lamps 
 and smell of blood, were intolerable, so that one endured 
 the risk of shot and shell rather than seek its shelter. 
 
 The incessant din of its own artillery, as well as the 
 bursting shells of the foe, prevented sleep. Then, as never 
 before, all realized the force of the prophecy: "In the 
 morning thou shalt say, would God it were even ! and at 
 even thou shalt say, would God it were morning ! for the 
 fear of thine eyes, wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the 
 sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." 
 
 The casualties were not numerous, and yet each day 
 added to the list of killed and wounded. Amputated 
 limbs were brought out from the hospital and buried in 
 the sand. Often bodies followed them. Only as a special 
 favor, or where high rank claimed the privilege, were the 
 dead carried to the city for interment. There were few 
 in the battery who could not tell of some narrow escape, 
 where a movement of position only had saved life. Nor can 
 we specify the instances of personal heroism, where all were 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 31 
 
 brave ; so often was the flag rescued and remounted, that 
 orders were issued by the Commanding General forbidding 
 it ; flags were many, but men were few. Thus the days 
 lengthened into weeks, the weeks into months, while its 
 brave and patient defenders individually stood face to face 
 with death, and endured in many instances what was worse. 
 
 Nor was the garrison inactive. For the blows received, 
 blows were given. Several monitors retired worsted from 
 the encounter, and were not seen again. Explosions in the 
 advancing works of the enemy showed the accuracy of the 
 Confederate fire ; while every night through the weary 
 hours lengthening into new days their working parties 
 swarmed over the fort to repair the damage done to bomb- 
 proof, parapet and traverses. Fighting from early morn to 
 set of sun, and working through the livelong night, com- 
 prised their sum of life and daily experience. 
 
 It was not possible for human endurance to stand this 
 mental and physical strain long. As each command became 
 exhausted it was relieved, and fresh troops took their place. 
 Six days was the longest period of any command; the in- 
 fantry served only three days at a time. And no greater proof 
 can be had of their courage and devotion than that, with 
 personal knowledge of the perilous nature of the service, 
 the same commands returned time and again, with full 
 ranks and even greater " esprit de corps," as the fierce 
 struggle grew more intense. 
 
 As early as the 30th July the Federals secured the range . 
 of Cummings Point, on which they kept up a fire each 
 night, and thus interrupted communication. Only occasion- 
 ally after this could a steamer reach that landing, and then 
 at great risk. One, the steamer " Sumter," was sunk by the 
 batteries on Sullivan's Island, being mistaken for the enemy. 
 So that by friend and foe alike, in the darkness of the night, 
 was the relief of Morris Island endangered. Small boats 
 alone, generally furnished by the Confederate Navy, sup- 
 plied or changed the garrison in the last days of the siege, 
 and these were harrassed, and sometimes captured, by the 
 Federal barges that picketed nightly in the adjacent waters. 
 
32 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 FEDERAL APPROACH. 
 
 By the 26th July the defensive arrangements of the second 
 parallel were completed. They comprised, beside the for- 
 midable obstacles in front of it already described, two hun- 
 dred and ninety yards of parapet for infantry and twenty- 
 one pieces of light artillery, three 30-pounder Parrott rifles 
 and one Wiard field gun — as strong against open assault as 
 Wagner itself. Afterwards, by the 15th August, two 8-inch 
 Parrott rifles and six lOO-pounder Parrott rifles were located 
 in this parallel against Fort Sumter, three thousand five 
 hundred and twenty-five yards distant. At the same time 
 the navy established in the first parallel two 200-pounder 
 Parrott rifles and two 80-pounder VVhitworth rifles, as a 
 breaching battery. This was called " Naval Battery." 
 
 At " Battery Reynolds," on a line with Naval Battery, 
 were mounted one 300-pounder Parrott rifle, two 200-pounder 
 Parrott rifles and four lOO-pounder Parrott rifles. All these 
 pieces took part in the bombardment of Sumter from 17th 
 to 23d August. 
 
 On August 9th the third parallel was established, with 
 the flying sap about five hundred yards distant from Wag- 
 ner, but their progress was greatly impeded, and on the loth 
 was stopped entirely by the Confederate batteries and the 
 sharp-shooters, so that it became doubtful if the trenches 
 could be pushed forward much further. Operations against 
 Wagner were suspended until the i8th of August, and the 
 attention of the P'ederals was directed chiefly against Sum- 
 ter. The iron-clad fleet, however, from day to day continued 
 to bombard both Wagner and Gregg. 
 
 From the i6th to the 24th of August, the fourteen loO, 
 200 and 300-pounder Parrott rifle breaching guns of the 
 Federal batteries were directed almost exclusively on Fort 
 Sumter, firing five thousand and nine projectiles weighing 
 five hundred and fifty-two thousand six hundred and eighty- 
 three pounds, though seriously interfered with, and at times 
 partially suspended, by the galling fire from Fort Wagner. 
 The combined fire of their mortars and light pieces, aided by 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 33 
 
 the gun boats and iron-clads, failed to subdue this annoyance, 
 so the Federals turned some of their heavy breaching guns 
 on that work. At one time there was a prospect that their 
 most efficient batteries would be disabled before they had 
 accomplished their work of demolition of Sumter. 
 
 On the night of August i8th active operations were re- 
 sumed against Wagner, by debouching with the full sap 
 from the left of the third parallel. The high tides and 
 storm, usual at this season, had submerged the trenches to 
 a depth of two feet in many places and washed down the 
 parapets. At the second parallel the " Surf Battery " had 
 barely escaped destruction, about one-third of it having 
 been carried away to the sea. Its armament had been tem- 
 porarily removed as a precaution against the storm. The 
 progress of the sap being hotly opposed by the fire of both 
 artillery and sharp-shooters in Wagner, and by the latter, 
 in particular, under the cover of the ridge, two hundred 
 yards in front of the battery. 
 
 On the 2ist August the fourth parallel was opened three 
 hundred yards distant from Fort Wagner, partly with the 
 flying and partly with the full sap. Here the Island is one 
 hundred and sixty yards wide at high water. 
 
 ARTILLERY PRACTICE. 
 
 The constant service of the guns on both sides made the 
 artillerists almost perfect in their aim. The Federals, having 
 better guns and ammunition, were the most accurate. 
 From a land battery an 8-inch rifle shot was fired at a siege 
 howitzer on the land face of Wagner. It struck the muzzle. 
 The Captain of the squad said it was a chance shot, and 
 told his men to run her "in battery " again. The next shot 
 came swiftly, and entering the bore broke the piece off at 
 the trunnions. The 11 and 15-inch shells from the Iron- 
 sides and monitors fired at a low elevation would richochet, 
 or rather roll, on the water, and striking the edge of the 
 beach bound over the parapet, to burst in a gun chamber 
 or passage-way. One such shell claimed as its victim the 
 5 
 
34 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 engineer in charge, Captain Wampler, who had arrived at 
 Wagner only a short time before. He had just taken the 
 chair vacated by Surgeon Henry B. Horlbeck, and seating 
 himself to write, had commenced " My dear wife and 
 child," when the deafening report of the shell was 
 heard and he was seen to slide from his chair cut in 
 twain. He died without a moan. The excellence of their 
 fuses made their mortar practice superb. Seldom did they 
 fail to burst either just over or within the fort. 
 
 If the fire of the Confederate batteries was less effective, 
 it must be remembered that the largest gun was a lO-inch 
 Columbiad, never in prime condition and things always 
 awry. The gunners, also, instead of being within a turret 
 of iron or beyond range of adverse fire, were terribly ex- 
 posed ; yet, of the accuracy of their aim let Admiral Dahl- 
 gren speak. He says: "On August 17 the Ironsides lay at 
 nine hundred yards, and was struck thirty-one times, mostly 
 from Wagner and Gregg." " During the operations against 
 Morris Island the nine iron-clads fired eight thousand and 
 twenty-six projectiles, weighing six hundred and fifty-three 
 and a half tons, and were hit eight hundred and eighty-two 
 times, chiefly by lo-inch shot." " The duties of the iron- 
 clads were not performed under idle batteries; the guns of 
 Wagner never failed to open on them, and fired until their 
 men were driven by those of our iron-clads to take shelter 
 in the bomb-proofs. One of their cannon, a lo-inch, left 
 deep dents on every turret that will not easily be efifaced." 
 Had that gun been a 300-pounder rifled Parrott, or one of 
 the 934^ -inch 700-pounder rifled Blakely afterwards mounted 
 in Charleston, its record would have been fatal to every 
 iron-cl'ad. 
 
 SHARP-SHOOTERS. 
 
 More fatal even than the heaviest artillery were the little 
 minnie balls of the sharp-shooters. " From early morn to 
 dewy eve," these crack shots would sit in their eyries, ex- 
 temporized out of sand bags, patiently watching for a mark 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 35 
 
 to fire at. To expose a hat, an arm or a hand even on either 
 side was sure to draw a minnie ball with certain aim from 
 over one thousand yards away. A cap elevated on a ram- 
 rod above the parapet would draw the fire of the foe, and 
 when the incautious "blue jacket" peered out of his rifle 
 pit to sec the effect of his shot he was " plugged." An 
 officer in Wagner making his rounds looked for a moment 
 through one of these loop-holes at the advancing sap, a puff 
 of smoke from a rifle pit warned him of his danger and he 
 withdrew his head just in time to escape the ball that 
 passed through the opening. Another less fortunate was 
 pierced through his brain. This accuracy of aim was due 
 to the Whitworth rifle, with telescopic attachment, ob- 
 tained for Wagner through the efforts of Capt. S. A. Ashe, 
 of the Ordnance Department, who did good service on Mor- 
 ris Island during the greater part of the siege. These guns 
 were fatal at fifteen hundred yards. The heavy charge at 
 which they were fired caused a recoil that bruised the face 
 of the sharp-shooter, so that the black ring around the eye 
 was recognized as his distinctive badge. 
 
 CAVALRY. • 
 
 Strange as it may seem, the cavalry rendered efficient 
 service on Morris Island. A detail of a Lieutenant and ten 
 men, with their horses, from Capt. Zimmerman Davis' com- 
 pany, " The South Carolina Rangers," were sent down on 
 the nth July, and thereafter until the evacuation reliefs 
 were furnished by the same command ; the same horses 
 being used by each. The duty these men performed was 
 dangerous in the extreme. They were the couriers between 
 Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg, and as one started 
 at full speed from one to the other he became at once a 
 target for the shells from the monitors and balls from the 
 sharp-shooters, and it was always a race for life. Many 
 narrow escapes were made. Privates Flinn C. Davis and 
 W. W. Pemberton had their horses killed under them. 
 Frequently an important dispatch would be sent by two 
 
36 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 couriers at a time, so as to ensure its delivery should one 
 be killed. In the assault of the 18th July, Lieut. Geo. Tup- 
 per with his squad and the relief under Lieut. J. P. DeVeaux, 
 Jr., (making twenty men) were present, and while not acting 
 as couriers, rendered valuable aid in repelling the assault, 
 engaging in a hand-to-hand conflict with the enemy. 
 
 THE SIGNAL CORPS. 
 
 Though non-combatants, none ran greater risks than the 
 signal corps. Perched on the highest and most conspicuous 
 spot of Battery Gregg, flag in hand — the cynosure of all 
 eyes, both friend and foe, exposed to the fire of sharp-shooter 
 and artillery, often their special aim, in the thick as well as 
 the surcease of conflict — the wig-wag of their flags con- 
 veyed to the commandant in Charleston the needs of the 
 garrison, or received from him orders for defence. By their 
 intelligent service, likewise, the dispatches passing from 
 fleet to shore were read ; so that, forewarned by them on 
 several occasions, the Confederates were forearmed and 
 ready, so as to repel with little loss assaults that would 
 otherwise have been fatal. 
 
 SURGEONS AND CHAPLAINS. 
 
 Without the excitement of conflict to lessen the sense of 
 danger, in the midst of scenes that "tried men's souls." 
 and exposed to risks as imminent and great as the actual 
 combatants endured, the Surgeon and the Chaplain in Wag- 
 ner had to perform the demands of their calling, sustained 
 only by a sense of duty. In the intolerable heat and stench 
 of the bomb-proof, suffocated with the smoke of lamp oil 
 that could find no vent, in darkness relieved at noon-day by 
 its fitful glare, the Surgeon staunched the life-blood and 
 bound up the gaping wounds of his comrades, or sought to 
 save life by the sacrifice of limbs; while the devoted 
 Chaplain, with heartfelt pity and gentle smile, kneeled by 
 the side of the wounded to whisper the peace and consola- 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 37 
 
 tion Heaven alone could give. Notably among these heroic 
 Chaplains was the Rev. Samuel E. Axson, who always ac- 
 companied his comrades to the rifle pits, sharing their dan- 
 ger, animating them by precept and example in the supreme 
 moment of conflict, receiving from the dying the last mes- 
 sage of love to absent dear ones, and, as far as human sym- 
 pathy could avail, sustaining them as they passed through 
 " the valley of the shadow of death." 
 
 ASSAULT ON RIFLE PITS. 
 
 The ridge two hundred and forty yards in front of Fort 
 Wagner was the source of serious annoyance to the ap- 
 proaching sap of the Federals. It was occupied by the Con- 
 federate sharp-shooters, who kept up a deadly fire on their 
 gunners and working party. Brigadier-General Terry was 
 ordered to "carry it at the point of the bayonet and hold 
 it." As preliminary to the assault the monitors shelled it 
 and Wagner heavily during the day of the 21st, firing sixty 
 shots to the minute, and about dark the attempt was made. 
 They were received with a brisk fire and a determined front, 
 and reinforcements being sent forward by General Hagood, 
 the assault was driven back. Among the killed on that day 
 was Captain Robert Pringle, of Lucas' Battalion of Artillery, 
 who had served with distinction on Coles' Island, and was 
 then acting as Chief of Artilleri% That morning, while the 
 monitors were shelling Wagner /igorously, their shells fired 
 at low elevation would ricochet twice upon the water, the 
 last time about twenty-five yards from the shore, and then 
 explode just over the parapet of the battery. One of these 
 shells struck a school of mullet, and hurled one into the gun- 
 chamber. Captain Pringle picked it up, and laughingly re- 
 marked, "I have got my dinner." Not long after he was 
 killed. 
 
 FIRST ASSAULT ON GREGG. 
 
 On the 24th of August an attempt was made to carry 
 Cummings Point from Vincent's Creek. Lieutenant R. C. 
 
38 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 Gilchrist was then in command of Battery Gregg, with the 
 Gist Guard Artillery and Company C of Lucas' Battalion of 
 Artillery as its garrison. By some means the Federal sig- 
 nal code had been obtained, so that messages passing be- 
 tween the fleet and shore could be read.* By this means the 
 Confederates were informed of the contemplated attack that 
 night; further confirmed by the vigorous shelling of Battery 
 Gregg all that day, during which a heavy traverse caved in, 
 filling up the gun-chamber, burying the gunners of Com- 
 pany C, Lucas' Battalion. A volunteer party, headed by 
 Sergeant Brown, of the Marion Artillery, flew to the rescue 
 of their comrades and dug them out, while exposed to a 
 concentrated fire of artillery and sharp-shooters, but not be- 
 fore two were dead. The guns of Battery Gregg were 
 trained to sweep the creek just beyond the shore. A select 
 picket force was stationed to watch for the approach of the 
 barges. About midnight the phosphorescent light made by 
 the splash of mufiled oars alone revealed their presence. 
 The signal was given ; grape, canister and lead responded ; 
 while the crash of timbers and shrieks of the wounded told 
 of the ef^cacy of the aim. In five minutes the conflict was 
 ended. 
 
 CAPTURE OF RIDGE. 
 
 The unsuccessful assault on the rifle-pits of the 2ist was 
 renewed on the 25th August. As long as this post could be 
 held it was not possible to surprise Wagner, so it was the 
 '■'■ point d appiW for both assailed and assailant. General 
 Hagood's forces were fortunately prepared to receive the 
 attack, and the position was held with courage and spirit by 
 the Sixty-first North Carolina and the Fifty-fourth Georgia 
 Regiments, by whom the enemy was driven back a second 
 time, with heavy loss, the casualties on the Confederate side 
 being but five killed and nineteen wounded. 
 
 * On board the monitor " Keokuk " a copy of the Federal signal code was 
 found. Armed with this, one of the Confederate Signal Corps, dressed in a 
 " blue jacket," was locked up as a fellow-prisoner with one of the Federal Sig- 
 nal Corps ; from him he learned it perfectly. 
 
A 
 
 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 39 
 
 The following day Fort Wagner was subjected to another 
 of those heavy bombardments from land and sea to which 
 it had become accustomed, and at dark an overwhelming 
 force was thrown against the " Ridge." The engagement of 
 the night before had interrupted communication with the 
 city, so that reinforcements of fresh troops and ammunition 
 failed to reach the Island. Overpowered at last, the ridge 
 was abandoned, and the fifth and last parallel against Wag- 
 ner established. 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE END. 
 
 The massive walls of Fort Sumter had been battered 
 down until they were a shapeless ruin. Its gallant artillery 
 defenders could do little more than lie passive. The heavy 
 armament, which had done good service on the 7th of April, 
 had been removed, and was then guslrding the inner de- 
 fences of Charleston. The long and stubborn defence of 
 Fort Wagner had served its purpose. The demolition of 
 Sumter did not open the gate to the city. Frowning batteries 
 lined the inner harbor, prepared to meet with shot and 
 shell, hurled by the same brave hands, the armored fleet of 
 the foe. Still, as before the destruction of Sumter, the 
 enemy did not dare to essay an entrance into the harbor. 
 The commander of the fleet, as if with premonition of the 
 fate that would befall him, utterly failed to realize the ex- 
 pectations which had been based upon the supposed effi- 
 ciency of the iron-clads. The time had therefore come when 
 Wagner had ceased to be useful, and there was no longer a 
 call for sacrifice of life in its defence. 
 
 The Federals were now two hundred and fifty yards from 
 the sally port of Fort Wagner. The intervening space com- 
 prised the narrowest and shallowest part of Morris Island, 
 over which the sea in rough weather swept entirely across. 
 It had been the intention of Captain Cheves to cut through 
 this portion, making a canal, which would have widened 
 with each recurring tide, thus dividing the Island at that 
 point. Had this been done no sap could have approached 
 nearer. 
 
40 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 An ingenious system of torpedo mines, to be exploded by 
 the tread of persons walking over them, had been established 
 by the Confederates in this narrow causeway and in front 
 of the battery. These protected the enemy against sorties 
 even more than they impeded his approach. 
 
 The Federals were now so near to Wagner that they were 
 comparatively free from the enfilading fire of the James 
 Island batteries, and were exposed only to the converging 
 fire of Wagner and its sharp-shooters. The bright moon 
 impeded work by night almost as well as the sun by day, 
 and the casualties of the sappers were on the increase. It 
 was therefore determined to keep Wagner quiet with an 
 overpowering curved fire from siege and coehorn mortars, 
 and if possible to breach the bomb-proof shelter witli rifled 
 guns. Accordingly, all the light mortars were moved to the 
 front and placed in battery; the rifled guns were trained 
 upon Wagner and prepared for prolonged action ; a large 
 magazine was constructed to furnish ample supplies of am- 
 munition, and the co-operation of the New Ironsides during 
 the day v/as secured. 
 
 LAST BOMBARDMENT. 
 
 At break of day on the morning of the 5th of September 
 seventeen siege and coehorn mortars, thirteen 100, 200 and 
 300-pounder Parrott rifles, opened on the devoted battery, 
 which still loomed up as defiantly as ever. The New Iron- 
 sides took position a mile distant, and from her eight gun 
 broadside poured an incessant blizzard of ii-inch shells 
 against the sloping parapet, exploding either over or within 
 the work. For forty-two consecutive hours this iron hail 
 descended, making a scene as unsurpassingly grand as it was 
 fearful. One thousand four hundred and eleven projectiles 
 were thrown by the land batteries alone, aggregating 1 50,505 
 pounds of metal, 22,330 pounds striking the bomb-proof, 
 and during the night, when the fire of the mortars was most 
 needed, as many as four shells could be seen at once en 
 route for Wagner. The garrison sought the shelter of 
 bomb-proof, traverse and revetment, and the guns were 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 41 
 
 silent. Powerful calcium lights turned night into day, 
 blinding the defenders, giving light to the sappers, and ena- 
 bling the Federal artillerists to fire with the same precision 
 as in the day. No one could move within the range of 
 those guns and live. The casualties on that day were one 
 in nine. 
 
 During this bombardment the Federals in the advanced 
 trenches prosecuted their labors without danger, pushing by 
 the South face of the fort, leaving it on their left. By night 
 they had advanced to the moat. 
 
 Fort Wagner had now been held under a continued 
 and furious cannonade, by land and sea, night and day, for 
 fifty-seven days. The Federals had been forced to expend 
 time, men and material most lavishly in approaching it ; foot 
 by foot burrowing their way with pick and shovel, they were 
 at last within the moat. Nearly all the guns in the fort 
 were injured and useless. Transportation of men and sup- 
 plies had become most difficult and dangerous. The enemy 
 were over eleven thousand five hundred strong on the 
 Island, supported by a powerful fleet of iron-clads and gun- 
 boats, free to select their own time and method of attack. 
 The calcium lights, placed on monitors at a safe distance 
 abreast the fort, illuminated the works as brilliantly at night 
 as the sun by da)'; while their sharp-shooters, under shelter 
 of the darkness, sent death to every one who was exposed, 
 so that no repairs could be put upon the fort. 
 
 General Beauregard, who had for some time been consid- 
 ering the exigencies of the case, sent his Chief Engineer, 
 Colonel Harris, with the Engineer of the post, Captain F. D. 
 Lee, on Sunday, the lOth September, to make a critical ex- 
 amination of the fort, its capabilities of continued defence, 
 and the position of the enemy's sap. On receiving his 
 report, to save the brave men forming its garrison from 
 the desperate chances of an assault, he gave orders for its 
 evacuation. 
 
 BOAT ATTACK ON CUMMINGS POINT. 
 
 During the occupation of Morris Island by the Federals, 
 6 
 
42 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 Battery Gregg, on Cummings Point, had played a part 
 second only to Fort Wagner. Each day its garrison had 
 come in for a share of the shelling, both from the fleet 
 and land batteries, and full well had it discharged its 
 duty in resisting the advance of the foe. On the night 
 preceding the evacuation it occupied the foremost point 
 of attack. On Saturday evening there were indications 
 observed of an assault by boats. Colonel Keitt, now in 
 command of the Island, sent strong reinforcements from 
 the Twenty-eighth Georgia and Twenty-fifth South Caro- 
 lina Volunteers to the support of Battery Gregg, who sta- 
 tioned themselves in the sand hills between it and Wag- 
 ner. While taking their position. Captain Haines, of the 
 Twenty-eighth Georgia, and Lieut. R. A. Blum, command- 
 ing Company B, Washington Light Infantry, Twenty-fifth 
 South Carolina Volunteers, were both killed by a mortar 
 shell. Two monitors were at that time shelling Gregg. At 
 a quarter to 2 A. M. a rocket was thrown up, and ere many 
 minutes elapsed the Federals were descried approaching 
 Morris Island at a point between Wagner and Gregg, in 
 fifteen or twenty barges, through the creek to the rear. Ad- 
 vancing in line of battle, they were permitted to come very 
 near. Captain Henry R. Lesesne, commanding Gregg, 
 opened on them with a 9-inch Dahlgren, with double can- 
 ister and grape. Major Gardner, of the Twenty-seventh 
 Georgia Regiment, threw his infantry forward and poured 
 into them a well directed and effective fire of musketry. 
 Moultrie, Batteries Bee and Mitchell also opened a rapid 
 and most demoralizing fire. The barges pressed bravely 
 forward, firing spherical case from their howitzers. Cap- 
 tain J. R. Macbeth (son of the Mayor of Charleston) replied 
 with his two field howitzers. The Federals were soon com- 
 pelled to withdraw, bafifled once again in their attempt to 
 capture Gregg, and thus take Wagner in the rear. As all 
 who were struck fell in their boats, the loss was not known. 
 Some bodies and debris of boats floated to the shore. The 
 survivors made the best of their way back through the 
 creek and marshes. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 43 
 
 PRErARATIONS FOR EVACUATION. 
 
 The Confederate iron-clads took position just after dark 
 on the evening of the 6th, near to Fort Sumter, with their 
 guns bearing on Cummings Point to the Eastward of Gregg. 
 At the same time all the James Island batteries were pre- 
 pared to sweep the water faces of Gregg. Transport steam- 
 ers took position within the harbor, near to Cummings 
 Point, to receive the men from the row boats, by which the 
 embarkation from Morris Island was to be effected. Forty 
 barges, manned by proficient oarsmen from the " Palmetto 
 State" and " Chicora," each under charge of a navy officer, 
 the whole commanded by Lieutenant Ward, Confederate 
 States Navy, were in readiness at Cummings Point at dark. 
 On Morris Island, Colonel Keitt in command, made all 
 necessary arrangements, assisted by Lieutenant-Colonel J. 
 G. Pressley, Twenty-fifth South Carolina Volunteers (Eutaw 
 Regiment); Major Gardner, Twenty-seventh Georgia Regi- 
 ment ; Captain W. P. Crawford, Twenty-eighth Georgia 
 Regiment, and Captain T. A. Huguenin, First South Caro- 
 lina Infantry, 
 
 The whole day the terrific bombardment had continued, 
 adding to the casualties two-fold ; men fell on every side, 
 and the litter-bearers and surgeons had their hands full. 
 Yet in that solemn hour, in the gloom of the bomb-proof, 
 the Rev. Andrew Flinn Dickson, the brave and devoted 
 Chaplain of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, conducted the usual 
 Sabbath services. Those gathered there were neither afraid 
 nor ashamed to pray, and their deep toned voices ascended 
 in the sweet songs of praise to the sad accompaniment of 
 the groans of the wounded, and the sighs of the dying, 
 while around and above them the shriek of balls and burst- 
 ing of shells added to the earnestness of worship. A fit 
 ending to that memorable siege. 
 
 On the approach of night Companies C and E, of the 
 Twenty-fifth Regiment, were ordered to march in from the 
 sand hills. This movement, no doubt, created the impres- 
 sion that the garrison was being changed, and that fresh 
 
44 Confederate Defence of Morris Islaiid. 
 
 troops were coming in to relieve those on duty. When 
 night closed in Company E, Palmetto Battalion, Light 
 Artillery, Captain J. D. Johnson, and the Twenty-eighth 
 Georgia, moved out of the fort, and took position in the 
 sand hills, between it and Gregg, where the Twenty-seventh 
 Georgia had a i2-pounder howitzer, so as to check pursuit 
 long enough to enable every one to escape. At the same 
 time the wounded were sent back to Cummings Point. Com- 
 pany I, Twenty-fifth South Carolina Volunteers, Captain 
 Joseph C. Burgess, spread out over the land face of Wagner, 
 covering the space that had been occupied by the Twenty- 
 eighth Georgia, and kept up a steady fire, so as to induce 
 the belief that the fort had been reinforced. 
 
 General Gilmore, in command of the Federal forces, on 
 that day issued orders to assault Fort Wagner on the mor- 
 row, at 9 A. M., that being the hour of low tide, by the 
 troops in command of Brigadier-General Terry, detailing the 
 manner of the assault ; and the troops were so disposed in 
 the trenches that night. 
 
 THE EVACUATION. 
 
 There is no operation in war more delicate than the evac- 
 uation by water of a detached and remote fort, in the near 
 presence of the enemy. The Federals were in large force, 
 the head of their column in the sap, which had reached the 
 moat. Coolness, resolute courage, judgment and inflexi- 
 bility on the part of officers, obedience to orders, perfect 
 discipline, and a constant sense of the necessity for silence 
 on the part of the men, were essential for success. One de- 
 serter to the enemy would have defeated it. How easy in 
 the darkness and confusion of that night to slip around the 
 curtain to the sap, just a few steps beyond, and with one 
 word put in motion eleven thousand five hundred Federals. 
 That no traitor was there redounds to the eternal credit of 
 the garrison, and crowns the record that makes immortal 
 the fame of Fort Wagner. 
 
 There was a suspicion in the Federal mind that some 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 45 
 
 movement was taking place among the Confederates, but 
 whether it was an increase of garrison, or an evacuation, no 
 one could determine. To be prepared for any emergency, 
 a strong calcium light was thrown upon the fort from one of 
 the iron-clads. It was a ghostly glare, which betrayed those 
 who watched, instead of those who retreated. Men moved 
 about the works without discovery, and the light on the 
 front of the fort deepened the darkness on all other sides, 
 throwing the shadow of Wagner back over the sand hills all 
 the way to Cummings Point. 
 
 At 9 o'clock Sunday night a courier informed Colonel 
 Keitt that the boats were at the point in readiness for the 
 embarkation. The wounded were first sent off. About 
 this time First Sergeant Carson, of Company F, Twenty- 
 fifth South Carolina Volunteers, was killed, and Lieutenant 
 J. N. McDonald, commanding Company K, Twenty-fifth 
 South Carolina Volunteers, mortally wounded. The former 
 was buried by his comrades behind the flank wall of 
 Wagner, the booming of the enemy's guns and the burst- 
 ing of their shells his funeral salute. To the admirable 
 discipline of the crews of the barges is mainly due the suc- 
 cess of the embarkation. Their boats kept abreast, with the 
 length of an oar from the gunwale to the end of the blade 
 separating them. The oars thus interlocked never touched 
 or interfered with each other. As each detachment left, 
 other boats grounded on the beach to receive their load, 
 and thus silently and without confusion the embarkation 
 was accomplished. 
 
 To the Twenty-fifth Regiment South Carolina Volunteers 
 was accorded the honor of bringing up the rear and guard- 
 ing the retreat from the fort. As courier after courier ar- 
 rived from Cummings Point, with information that the pre- 
 vious detachment had embarked, Lieutenant-Colonel Press- 
 ley sent off other companies, distributing those remaining 
 over the works to keep up the firing. At last only he, 
 with Companies I and F, remained. The soft sand echoed 
 no foot-step, and no voice was raised above a whisper. 
 Even to have spiked the cannon in Wagner would have 
 
46 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 notified the Federals in their sap, not thirty steps away, 
 and so the armament was left intact. At midnight the 
 fort, which had been tenanted so long, and had withstood 
 so much, was without a sentinel to challenge or an artil- 
 lerist to fire. Captain Huguenin, with Captain C. C. Pinck- 
 ney, of General Ripley's Staff, Captain Edmund Mazyck, 
 Ordnance Officer at Wagner, Captain Harry Bryan, of Gen- 
 eral Beauregard's Staff, assigned to duty with Colonel Keitt, 
 and Lieutenant James Ross, of the Washington Light In- 
 fantry, and thirty-five men, selected from the different com- 
 mands, were left behind as a rear guard, and to blow up the 
 fort. 
 
 At Battery Gregg Captain C. E. Kanapaux. commanding 
 the Light Artillery, spiked his guns and embarked his 
 company. Captain Henry R. Lesesne, in command of 
 Gregg, spiked the guns of that battery, and sent off his 
 command. Company H, First South Carolina Artillery; 
 and Colonel L. M. Keitt, with the remainder of the garri- 
 son, safely and expeditiously embarked about an hour after 
 midnight, just as the moon was rising. The signal having 
 been given, the fuses were lighted — that at Wagner by Capt. 
 Huguenin and that at Gregg by Capt. Lesesne. Every pre- 
 caution had been taken to ensure their efficiency, and they 
 were so timed that the parties retreating from Wagner could 
 embark with those from Gregg, and the destruction of the 
 two fortifications occur simultaneously. Capt. Huguenin 
 and party remained in Wagner longer than was prudent so 
 as to be certain the fuse was burning, and did not leave until 
 they had every assurance of success. Capt. Lesesne at Gregg, 
 finding that his fuse was burning more rapidly than calcula- 
 ted, re-entered the magazine and cut off the lighted end, so 
 as to give time for the arrival of the rear guard from Wag- 
 ner, and when they were seen approaching he re-lit it. The 
 whole party (except Capt. Huguenin, who had fallen to the 
 rear on account of a wound in his knee), then embarked in 
 the boat commanded by Lieut. Odenheimer (son of the 
 Bishop of New Jersey), of the Confederate States Navy. 
 About this time the Federal barges were swarming around 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 4^ 
 
 Cummings Point, and commanded the adjacent waters. 
 Two boats, containing nineteen sailors and twenty-seven 
 soldiers of the rear guard, had already been captured ; so 
 Lieut. Odenheimer boldly put out to sea under fire of the 
 boat howitzers. As they skirted the beach, to the surprise 
 of all they were hailed by Capt. Huguenin, who waded out 
 to his arm-pits and was drawn into the boat. 
 
 SURPRISE OF FEDERALS. 
 
 "No ONE AT Home!" was the reply received the next 
 morning when Gen. Gilmore knocked at the sally-port for 
 admission. The elaborate preparation for an assault was 
 useless. The Federals walked in quietly and took posses- 
 sion. The brief official report of its "capture" (?) hardly 
 conceals the chagrin felt at the "escape" of the "once de- 
 fiant foe." The fuses which should have given warning of 
 evacuated works, like most Confederate fuses, failed to do 
 duty. The guns (hereafter enumerated) fell into the hands of 
 the Federals, but to them they were only so much old iron, 
 or trophies of war. t Nevertheless, to signalize their barren 
 victory they replaced with the "Stars and Stripes" the 
 little battle flags floating over Wagner and Gregg. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 For fifty-eight days Wagner and Gregg, with a force 
 never exceeding sixteen hundred men, had withstood a 
 thoroughly equipped army of eleven thousand five hundred 
 men, the Ironsides, eight monitors and five gunboats. For 
 every pound of sand used in construction or repair of 
 Fort Wagner, its assailants had expended two pounds of 
 iron in the vain attempt to batter it down. At the end of 
 the bombardment, as at the commencement, it stood sullen, 
 strong and defiant as ever. The total loss in killed and 
 wounded on Morris Island from July loth to September 
 7th, was only six hundred and seventy-two men. Deduct- 
 ing the killed and wounded due to the landing on the loth 
 July and to the assaults of the nth and i8th July, the 
 
48 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 killed and wounded by the terrible bombardment which 
 lasted almost uninterruptedly night and day for fifty days, 
 only amounted to forty-seven killed and two hundred and 
 eighty men wounded, many of whom were but slightly 
 injured. 
 
 The days and weeks, lengthening into months, during 
 which the gallant defence was prolonged, had been em- 
 ployed by Gen. Ripley in erecting batteries along the shores 
 of the inner harbor, and in the city itself, in which were 
 mounted the heavy guns taken from Fort Sumter. The 
 debris of that grim old fortress, with other material brought 
 by night from the city under the orders of the Engineer 
 Department, and the engineer in charge (being for the most 
 part Major John Johnson, C. S, Engineer Corps, now the 
 Rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston), had gradually 
 converted it into a powerful earth-work for infantry; its 
 brave artillery garrison having been removed to the interior 
 and still stronger line of batteries. 
 
 What, then, had the Federals gained by the lavish ex- 
 penditure of the material of war, boundless treasure, and 
 the fearful sacrifice of life they had sustained during those 
 two weary months? The sole object of the occupation of 
 Morris Island, as stated by General Gilmore, was " the 
 demolition of Sumter as preliminary to the entrance of 
 the iron-clads." That accomplished, it was thoug'nt that 
 the gate to Charleston would be thrown open to the navy, 
 and the "Cradle of Secession" would fall. From the 30th of 
 August, 1863, only a morning and evening gun (32-pounder) 
 saluted its flag. Sumter was eliminated from the defence 
 of the harbor. Yet for eighteen months thereafter the fleet 
 remained in the outer harbor, viewing the spires of Charles- 
 ton over the low hills of Morris Island, and all this time the 
 200 and 300-pounder rifle Parrotts mounted at Cummings 
 Point kept up ever and anon an ineffectual fire at St. 
 Michael's steeple and other points in the city. It was not 
 until the i8th of February, 1865, when a row boat, sent by 
 the Municipal authorities of Charleston, informed Admiral 
 Dahlgren in the outer harbor that the Confederate forces 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 49 
 
 had evacuated the city, and that the frowning batteries 
 h"ning the shores of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers were 
 without men to man their guns, did his fleet venture to 
 enter; then, without fear of torpedo or harbor obstruction, 
 did monitors and gunboats steam up to the wharves of the 
 city. 
 
 Greek and Roman in ancient history, the English, French 
 and German in modern, have their stories of heroic endur- 
 ance, steadfast purpose and uncomplaining sacrifice, even 
 unto death, but never did Greek, Spartan, Gaul, Teuton 
 nor Anglo-Saxon show greater pluck and determination 
 than were exhibited by the gallant defenders of Fort Wag- 
 ner and Battery Gregg on Morris Island. 
 
 Federal history calls the capture of Wagner a great vic- 
 tory. Victory ! Seven Jmndred and forty men driven out 
 of a sand hill by eleven thousand five Imndred. Two months 
 to advance half a mile towards Charleston. They make 
 their boast that Sumter was demolished over Wagner. This 
 only teaches the world that sand batteries are more impreg- 
 nable than the most solid masonry, especially when MEN 
 are behind them who know how to fight them by d^y and 
 repair them by night. 
 
 To-day that famed fort is leveled ; its bomb-proofs, para- 
 pets and traverses blotted out; not by the iron hail of hos- 
 tile batteries, but by the winds of heaven. What the wrath 
 of man could not accomplish, the "still small voice" of the 
 Almighty has done. 
 
 " Afflavit Deus et dissipantur." 
 
 Ere long the sea, with its white capped waves, will sweep 
 athwart this page of our country's history, which has been 
 written in blood — even the site of Fort Wagner will be 
 gone. Not so its name and fame. Sooner will Thermopylae, 
 Marathon, Salamis, Sebastopol, and the other places where 
 in the past men have dared, endured and died, be lost to 
 memory, than will be forgotten the heroic patience and de- 
 voted courage of the soldiers who manned the defences of 
 Morris Island. 
 7 
 
50 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 OFFICERS IN COMMAND ON MORRIS ISLAND. 
 
 Brigadier-Generals Wm. Taliaferro, Johnson Hagood, T. L. Clingman, and A. 
 H. Colquitt ; Colonels Geo. P. Harrison, Jr. and L. M. Keitt. 
 
 CHIEFS OF ARTILLERY. 
 
 Lieutenant-Colonels Jos. A. Yates, John C. Simkins, Del Kemper, J. Wels- 
 man Brown ; Major F. F. Warley, and Captains C. E. Chichester, T. A. 
 Huguenin and Robert Pringle.* 
 
 ARTILLERY. 
 
 Gist Guard ArtILLEKY — Lieutenant R. C. Gilchrist. 
 Matthewes Artillery — Captain J. Raven Matthewes. 
 First South Carolina Artillery — 
 
 Company C — Captain C. W. Parker. 
 
 Company E — Captain J. R. Macbeth. 
 
 Company H — Captain H. R. Lesesne. 
 
 Company K — Captain Alfred S. Gaillard. 
 
 Company I — Captain John C. Mitchell. 
 Second South Carolina Artillery— 
 
 Company A — Lieutenant Robert S. Millar. 
 
 Company F — Captain Thos. K. Legate, 
 First South Carolina Infantry, as Artillery— 
 , Company A — Captain T. A. Huguenin. 
 
 Company B — Captain W. H. Tatem.* 
 
 Company D — Captain Charles T. Haskell. 
 
 Company H — Captain Warren Adams. 
 Lucas' Battalion Artillery — 
 
 Company A — Captain John H. Gary. 
 
 Company B — Captain Robt. Pringle.* 
 
 Company C — Captain T. B. Hayne. 
 Palmetto Battalion Artillery— 
 
 Company E — Captain J. D. Johnson. 
 
 Company G — Captain W. L. DePass. 
 South Carolina Siege Train — Company B, Lieutenant Ralph Nesbit. 
 Twelfth Battalion Georgia Artillery— Company A, Captain G. N. 
 
 Hanvey. 
 Sixty-third Regiment Georgia Artillery — 
 
 Company B — Captain James T. Buckner. 
 
 Company K— Captain W, J. Dixon. 
 Marion Artillery — Captain Edward L. Parker, Lieutenants John P. Stro- 
 hecker, Robert S. Murdoch, Martin L. Wilkins and Henry D. Lowndes. 
 Chatham Artillery — Lieutenants S. B. Palmer and T. A. Askew. 
 Blake Artillery— Lieutenant T. D. Waties. 
 
 * Killed in Wagner. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 51 
 
 CAVALRY (AS COURIERS). 
 
 South Carolina Rangers — (Captain Zimmerman Davis) Lieutenants Geo. 
 Tupper, J. P. DeVeaux, Jr., Geo. H. Smith. 
 
 INFANTRY. 
 Seventh South Carolina Battalion — Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick H. 
 
 Nelson. 
 
 Twentieth South Carolina Volunteers— (Colonel Keitt) Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Olen Dantzler and Major E. Boykin. 
 
 Twenty-first South Carolina Volunteers— Colonel R. F. Graham, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Dargan and Major G. W. Mclver. 
 
 Company A — Captain J. H. Read. 
 
 Company B — Captain S. H. Wilds. 
 
 Company D — Captain M. H. Tarrh. 
 
 Company E — Captain B. F. Davis. 
 
 Company F — Captain J. A, W. Thomas. 
 
 Company G — Captain R. VV, Reddy. 
 
 Company H — Lieutenant J. H. Dalrymple. 
 
 Company I — Captain R. G. Howard. 
 
 Company K — Captain J. W. Owens. 
 
 Company L — Captain H. Legette. 
 Twenty-fifth South Carolina Volunteers— (Colonel C. H. Simon- 
 ton in command of James Island) Lieutenant Colonel J. G. Pressley and 
 Major John V. Glover. 
 
 Company A (Washington Light Infantry) — Lieutenant H. B. Olney.* 
 
 Company B (Washington Light Infantry) — Lieutenant R. A. Blum.f 
 
 Company C (Wee Nee Volunteers) — Captain T. J. China. 
 
 Company D (Marion Light Infantry) — Captain W. J. McKerrall. 
 
 Company E (Beauregard Light Iiilantry) — Lieutenant A. J. Minis. 
 
 Company F (St. Matthewes Rifles) — Captain M. II. Sellers. 
 
 Company G (Edisto Rifles) — Captain J. F. Izlar. 
 
 Company H (Yeadon Light Infantry) — Captain Leroy F. Hammond. 
 
 Company I (Clarendon Rifles) — Captain Jos. C. Burgess. 
 
 Company K (Ripley Guards) — Captain W. B. Gordon. 
 Charleston Battalion — Lieutenant-Colonel P. C. Gaillard,|: Major David 
 Ramsay. § 
 
 Company A (Calhoun Guards) — Captain F. T. Miles. 
 
 Company B (Charleston Light Infantry) Captain Thos. Y. Simons. 
 
 Company C (Union Light Infantry and German Fusiliers) — Captain 
 S. Lord, Jr. 
 
 Company D (Sumter Guards) — Captain J. Ward Hopkins. 
 
 Company E (Irish Volunteers) — Captain W. H. Ryan.|| 
 
 Company F (Charleston Riflemen) — Captain Julius A. Blake. 
 
 * Captain J. M. Carson absent on sick leave. 
 
 t Killed in Wagner. % Lost an arm. § Mortally woundeJ. || Killed in Wugner. 
 
52 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 Eighth Nokth Carolina Volunteers — Colonel Henry M. Shaw, Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel James M. Whitson, Majoi- John R. Murchison. 
 
 Company A — Captain Daniel A. Sawyer. 
 
 Company B — Captain Thomas J. Jarvis. 
 
 Company C — Captain Charles A. Barron. 
 
 Company D — Captain Andrew J. Rogers. 
 
 Company E — Captain Luther R. Breese. 
 
 Company F — Captain Leonard A. Henderson. 
 
 Company G — Captain Amos J. Hines. 
 
 Company H — Captain Rufus A. Barrier. 
 
 Company I — Captain Junius N. Ramsay. 
 
 Company K — Captain Pinckney A. Kennedy. 
 Thirty-fiest North Carolina Volunteers— Colonel John V. Jordan, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Charles W. Knight, Major John A. D. McKay. 
 
 Company A — Captain Samuel P. Collins. 
 
 Company B — Captain James T. Bradley. 
 
 Company C — Captain William J. Long. 
 
 Company D — Captain Ruffin L. Bryant. 
 
 Company E — Captain John J. Allison. 
 
 Company F — Captain Stephen W. Morrisett. 
 
 Company G — Captain Isaac Pipkin. 
 
 Company H — Captain John Smith. 
 
 Company I — Captain W. A. Dewar. 
 
 Company K — Captain Joseph Whitty. 
 Fifty-first North Carolina Volunteers— Colonel Hector McKethan, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Caleb B. Hobson, Major James R. McDonald. 
 
 Company A — Captain Edward Southerland. 
 
 Company B— Captain Walter R. Bell. 
 
 Company C — Captain Samuel M. Stanford. 
 
 Company D — Captain Robert J. McEachan. 
 
 Company E — Captain Willis H. Pope. 
 
 Company F — Captain William S. Norment. 
 
 Company G — Captain James W. Lippett. 
 
 Company H — Captain Samuel W. Maultsby. 
 
 Company I — Captain George Sloan. 
 
 Company K — Captain William J. Murphy. 
 Sixty-first North Carolina Volunteers — Colonel James D. Radcliffe, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel William S. Devane, Major Henry Harding. 
 
 Company A — Captain James H. Robinson. 
 
 Company B — Captain William N. Stevenson. 
 
 Company C — Captain Edward Mallet. 
 
 Company D — Captain Nathan A. Ramsey. 
 
 Company E — Captain William S. Byrd. 
 Company F — Captain Andrew J. Moore. 
 
 Company G — Captain Lemuel L. Keith. 
 Company H — Captain William B. Lanier. 
 Company I — Captain William T. Choat. 
 Company K — Captain Samuel W. Noble. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 53 
 
 First Volunteer Regiment of Georgia— Colonel C. IT. Olmsted. 
 Eighteenth Georgia Battalion (S.-ivannnh Volunteer Guards)— Major 
 W. S. Bassinger. 
 
 Nineteenth Georgia Regiment — Colonel Andrew J. Ilutchins. 
 
 Twenty-third Georgia Regiment— Colonel James H. Huggins; Major 
 M. R. Ballinger. 
 
 Twenty-seventh Georgia Regiment— Major Gardner. 
 
 Twenty-eighth Georgia Regiment— Captain W. P. Crawford. 
 
 Thirty-second Georgia Regiment — Colonel (afterwards Brigadier-Gen- 
 eral) Geo. P. Harrison, Jr. 
 
 These commands were stationed generally on James 
 Island, and detachments from them served at Fort Wagner 
 and Battery Gregg three days at a time.. There were never 
 more than sixteen hundred men on Morris Island at one 
 time ; often this force was reduced below one thousand. 
 Just before the evacuation it amounted to but seven hun- 
 dred and fifty. The artillerists generally served six or 
 seven days before relieved. Every effort has been made to 
 have the list complete and correct. The responses from 
 North Carolina having been most full, the names of com- 
 pany commanders could be given. 
 
54 Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 
 
 CASUALTIES. 
 
 Commissioned Enlisted. Grand Total 
 
 Commands. 
 
 1st South Carolina Infantry. . 
 20th " " " . . 
 
 2ist " " " . . 
 
 25th " " " .. 
 
 Charleston Battalion 
 
 1st South Carolina Artillery. . 
 2d " " " .. 
 
 P. B. L. Artillery 
 
 Siege Train . . 
 
 Lucas' Battalion Artillery. . . . 
 
 Gist Guard Artillery 
 
 Matthewes Artillery 
 
 Marion Artillery 
 
 7th South Carolina Battalion. 
 8th North Carolina Troo])s. . . 
 51st " " " ... 
 
 6ist " " " ... 
 
 1st Georgia Volunteers 
 
 i8th " " 
 
 28th " " 
 
 63d " " 
 
 32d " " 
 
 I2th Georgia Battalion 
 
 Staff. 
 
 Totals 
 
 44 
 
 9 
 I 
 no 
 
 lOI 
 
 39 
 
 58 
 3 
 
 62 
 
 9 
 18 
 
 115 
 
 109 
 
 46 
 
 66 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 3 
 3 
 I 
 
 18 
 
 60 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 5 
 
 22 
 
 TO 
 
 8 
 4 
 4 
 
 56 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 62 
 
 118 499 145129I543 149 
 
 ARMAMENT OF FORT WAGNER, AUGUST 21, 1863. 
 
 (Commencing on East, or Sea Face.) 
 
 1. 8-inch S. C. Howitzer on curtain, bearing on the land ; in good working 
 
 order, 
 
 2. lo-inch Columbiad on sea face ; unserviceable chassis ; disabled. 
 
 3. lo-inch Columbiad on sea face, to bear on beach ; in good working order. 
 
 4. 32-pounder Smooth-bore on sea face, to bear on beach ; in good working 
 
 order. 
 
 5. 8-inch Siege Howitzer on land face in salient ; in good working order. 
 
 6. 42-pounder Carronade on land face ; in good working order. 
 8-inch Naval Shell Gun on land face ; in good working order. 
 32-pounder Smooth-bore on land face ; in good working order. 
 32-pounder Smooth-bore on land face; carriage injured, but could be 
 
 worked. 
 8-inch Naval Shell Gun on land face ; carriage much injured, but could 
 
 be worked. 
 32-pounder Carronade on land face. 
 
Confederate Defence of Morris Island. 55 
 
 12. 32-pounder Carronade on land face. 
 
 13. 8-inch Siege Howitzer on land face. 
 
 14. lo-inch Mortar at Western gorge. 
 
 15. 32-pounder Carronade at Western gorge. 
 These last five in good working order. 
 
 ARMAMENT OF BATTERY GREGG. 
 
 One lo-inch Columbiad. 
 One g-inch Dahlgren. 
 Detachment of Light Artillery, 
 
 Garrison — Infantry, 794 ; Artillery, 240 ; Cavalry, 10 ; Sharp-shooters, 14 ; 
 Total, 1,058. 
 
 Every effort has been made to procure a correct roster of 
 the Engineers, Surgeons, Chaplains, Sharp-Shooters and 
 Signal Corps serving on Morris Island, but the responses 
 were so ineagre that to avoid an invidious distinction the 
 partial list is not published. 
 
 R. C. GILCHRIST, 
 Late Major C. S. P. Artillery. 
 
013 673 620