Part 25 (1/2)
”Many of our officers were now so elated with the apparent result of demolition, that they urged General Gillmore to allow them to a.s.sault the fort as soon as it became dark.
General Gillmore yielded to the solicitations of the officers, but very reluctantly, for he was not convinced that the proper time had arrived; but the order was finally given for the attack to take place just after dark. Fatal error as to time, for our troops in the daytime would have been successful, since they would not have collided with each other; they could have seen their foes, and the arena of combat, and the fleet could have a.s.sisted them with their guns, and prevented the landing of the re-enforcements from Charleston.
”It was a beautiful and calm evening when the troops who were to form the a.s.saulting column moved out on to the broad and smooth beach left by the receding tide.
”The last rays of the setting sun illumined the grim walls and shattered mounds of Wagner with a flood of crimson light, too soon, alas! to be deeper dyed with the red blood of struggling men.
”Our men halted, and formed their ranks upon the beach, a mile and more away from the deadly breach. Quietly they stood leaning upon their guns, and awaiting the signal of attack. There stood, side by side, the hunter of the far West, the farmer of the North, the stout lumber-man from the forests of Maine, and the black Phalanx Ma.s.sachusetts had armed and sent to the field.
”In this hour of peril there was no jealousy, no contention.
The black Phalanx were to lead the forlorn hope. And they were proud of their position, and conscious of its danger.
Although we had seen many of the famous regiments of the English, French, and Austrian armies, we were never more impressed with the fury and majesty of war than when we looked upon the solid ma.s.s of the thousand black men, as they stood, like giant statues of marble, upon the snow-white sands of the beach, waiting the order to advance.
And little did we think, as we gazed with admiration upon that splendid column of four thousand brave men, that ere an hour had pa.s.sed, half of them would be swept away, maimed or crushed in the gathering whirlwind of death! Time pa.s.sed quickly, and twilight was fast deepening into the darkness of night, when the signal was given. Onward moved the chosen and ill-fated band, making the earth tremble under the heavy and monotonous tread of the dense ma.s.s of thousands of men.
Wagner lay black and grim in the distance, and silent. Not a glimmer of light was seen. Not a gun replied to the bombs which our mortars still constantly hurled into the fort. Not a shot was returned to the terrific volleys of the giant frigate Ironsides, whose sh.e.l.ls, ever and anon, plunged into the earthworks, illuminating their recesses for an instant in the glare of their explosion, but revealing no signs of life.
”Were the rebels all dead? Had they fled from the pitiless storm which our batteries had poured down upon them for so many hours? Where were they?
”Down deep beneath the sand heaps were excavated great caverns, whose floors were level with the tide, and whose roofs were formed of huge trunks of trees laid in double rows. Still above these ma.s.sive beams sand was heaped so deeply that even our enormous sh.e.l.ls could not penetrate the roofs, though they fell from the skies above. In these dark subterranean retreats two thousand men lay hid, like panthers in a swamp, waiting to leap forth in fury upon their prey.
”The signal given, our forces advanced rapidly towards the fort, while our mortars in the rear tossed their bombs over their heads. The Fifty-fourth Ma.s.sachusetts [Phalanx Regiment] led the attack, supported by the 6th Conn., 48th N. Y., 3rd N. H., 76th Penn. and the 9th Maine Regiments.
Onward swept the immense ma.s.s of men, swiftly and silently, in the dark shadows of night. Not a flash of light was seen in the distance! No sentinel hoa.r.s.ely challenged the approaching foe! All was still save the footsteps of the soldiers, which sounded like the roar of the distant surf, as it beats upon the rock-bound coast.
[Ill.u.s.tration: AT FORT WAGNER.
Desperate charge of the 54th Ma.s.s. Vols. in the a.s.sault on Fort Wagner, July 18, 1863.]
”Ah, what is this! The silent and shattered walls of Wagner all at once burst forth into a blinding sheet of vivid light, as though they had suddenly been transformed by some magic power into the living, seething crater of a volcano!
Down came the whirlwind of destruction along the beach with the swiftness of lightning! How fearfully the hissing shot, the shrieking bombs, the whistling bars of iron, and the whispering bullet struck and crushed through the dense ma.s.ses of our brave men! I never shall forget the terrible sound of that awful blast of death, which swept down, shattered or dead, a thousand of our men. Not a shot had missed its aim. Every bolt of steel, every globe of iron and lead, tasted of human blood.
”'Forward!' shouted the undaunted Putnam, as the column wavered and staggered like a giant stricken with death.
”'Steady, my boys!' murmured the brave leader, General Strong, as a cannon-shot dashed him, maimed and bleeding, into the sand.
”In a moment the column recovered itself, like a gallant s.h.i.+p at sea when buried for an instant under an immense wave.
”The ditch is reached; a thousand men leap into it, clamber up the shattered ramparts, and grapple with the foe, which yields and falls back to the rear of the fort. Our men swarm over the walls, bayoneting the desperate rebel cannoneers.
Hurrah! the fort is ours!
”But now came another blinding blast from concealed guns in the rear of the fort, and our men went down by scores. Now the rebels rally, and, re-enforced by thousands of the chivalry, who have landed on the beach under cover of darkness, unmolested by the guns of the fleet. They hurl themselves with fury upon the remnant of our brave band. The struggle is terrific. Our supports hurry up to the aid of their comrades, but as they reach the ramparts they fire a volley which strikes down many of our men. Fatal mistake!
Our men rally once more; but, in spite of an heroic resistance, they are forced back again to the edge of the ditch. Here the brave Shaw, with scores of his black warriors went down, fighting desperately. Here Putnam met his death wound, while cheering and urging on the overpowered Phalanx men.
”What fighting, and what fearful carnage! Hand to hand, breast to breast! Here, on this little strip of land, scarce bigger than the human hand, dense ma.s.ses of men struggled with fury in the darkness; and so fierce was the contest that the sands were reddened and soaked with human gore.
”But resistance was vain. The a.s.sailants were forced back again to the beach, and the rebels trained their recovered cannon anew upon the retreating survivors.
”What a fearful night was that, as we gathered up our wounded heroes, and bore them to a place of shelter! And what a mournful morning, as the sun rose with his clear beams, and revealed our terrible losses! What a rich harvest Death had gathered to himself during the short struggle!
Nearly two thousand of our men had fallen. More than six hundred of our brave boys lay dead on the ramparts of the fatal fort, in its broad ditch, and along the beach at its base. A flag of truce party went out to bury our dead, but General Beauregard they found had already buried them, where they fell, in broad, deep trenches.”
Colonel Shaw, the young and gallant commander of the 54th Regiment, was formerly a member of the famous 7th N. Y. Regiment. He was of high, social and influential standing, and in his death won distinction. The confederates added to his fame and glory, though unintentionally, by burying him with his soldiers, or as a confederate Major expressed the information, when a request for the Colonel's body was made, ”we have buried him with his n.i.g.g.e.rs!”
A poet has immortalized the occurrence and the gallant Shaw thus: