The second battle, though disastrous, is known to history for the heroics of the Colored unit, the 54th of Maine. The color bearer became an overnight hero. His story was told in the Academy Award-winning movie, 'Glory.'
This post is the same conflict told through the eyes of a soldier in the Sixth of Connecticut.
Attack on Fort Wagner, South Carolina
We left off our post here with the first assault on Fort Wagner. Our grandpa Merrick was wounded, but his company held the south end Morris Island. They prepared to attack the fort. How wounded was grandpa Merrick? How much did he participate in this conflict?
It was determined to assault Fort Wagner and capture it with the bayonet. The Seventh Connecticut was to lead the charge, supported by the Ninth Maine and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania. Early on the morning of the 17th (July 1863), before the lark was awake, this command silently moved forward, drove in the rebel pickets and with a cheer rushed into the ditch and up the parapet, but met a very stubborn foe, who poured grape and cannister into their ranks. The Ninth Maine, instead of supporting them, wavered, at such a fearful fire, and ran away, while the Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania stood their ground. But the battle was against fearful odds, and they were obliged to retire and give up the contest.
The Sixth lay all night in the rifle pits before Wagner, in a drenching rain, keeping a sharp look out for any surprise. On the morning of the 18th they came into camp wet and covered with sand, weary enough to lay up for a rest; but there is no rest for the soldier in time of war. Scarcely had we brushed off the sand and got a bite of pork and crackers before we were ordered to join in the assault on Wagner at dark. ...
The gunboats shelled the rebel fort incessantly, plowing up great heaps of sand with one shell, and another perhaps would fill up the crevice. The broadsides from the New Ironsides were terrific, and the five monitors in line, together with five other gunboats, seemed to pour shell enough into Wagner to start several first class iron foundries. Shot and shell crashed above and within it and we wondered if half of them accomplished their mission. Before night came, hardly a gun boomed from Wagner, and many seemed to think an easy victory was within reach. As twilight approached the whole command lay under cover of the sand hills, waiting for the order to advance.
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts (colored regiment) were given the post of honor, the right of the first brigade, which position belonged to the Sixth; but at the request of Col. Shaw of the Fifty-fourth, who wanted the black troops to distinguish themselves, Col. Chatfield granted them their wish. ... .
The command formed silently on the beach; the men seemed impatient to move as the scene became exciting. “Close column, by companies,” was the order given, and the first brigade was off for its work. Steadily forward we moved, while the gunboats still roared away. At a given signal they ceased their fire and the order passed to charge. The rebels waited till we were within range and then poured a volley into our ranks from their guns on the parapet, while the riflemen rattled their bullets from the small arms. The Fifty-fourth wavered for a moment, and that moment was fatal to them; they broke and fled.
On pressed the Sixth through the iron hail, picked our way through the abatis (a field fortification consisting of an obstacle formed of the branches of trees laid in a row, with the sharpened tops directed outwards, towards the enemy), descended the ditch and climbed up the steep sides of the fort, and gaining the parapet, was among the rebels. The flash of a thousand rifles poured into us, followed in quick succession by hand grenades. Shrapnel, cannister (a cylinder packed with shot and used as ammunition in a firearm) and grape (ammunition consisting of a number of small iron balls fired together from a cannon) were freely showered into the ranks, while we leaped down to the casemates and bomb-proofs, driving the enemy before us in great confusion. They entered their rifle pits and checked our further advance.
The night was so dark it was hard to distinguish friend from foe, and a signal from the rebels turned the fire of Fort Sumter and Battery Gregg upon the angle of the fort which we held. In vain did we look for help from the second brigade. Many a brave soldier had sealed his loyalty with his blood, and Gens. Strong and Seymour, Col. Chatfield and others, were badly wounded and carried to the rear. We were virtually without any commanding officer to lead us.
To wait for daylight would have been sheer madness, and the supporting brigade, terrified by the deadly cannonade, instead of relying upon the bayonet to accomplish the work, stopped and fired. The rebels saw the mistake and rallied upon the Sixth, which stood almost alone within their works. The charge was repulsed, but after remaining for about three hours under such a deadly fire, we escaped as best we could, with terrible loss. Had the second brigade supported us in time, no doubt we could have held it. The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment rallied soon after they faltered and came up to the left angle of the fort, where they finally did good service. Here Col. Shaw met his death.
The Sixth Regiment and the Connecticut colors were the first in the fort that night. The color-bearer, a German named Gustave DeBouge, was shot through the forehead while carrying the colors in the assault, and fell dead upon the flag, his life blood staining them through. Several brave ones who were near seized them, but they also fell either dead or wounded. Captain Frederick B. Osborn of Co. “K,” as brave an officer as ever wore shoulder straps, finally succeeded in pulling them from under the bodies and bearing them off in triumph. Our flags were much shattered and torn, but both were saved from the enemy.
In leaving Wagner that night, the ditch we crossed was filled with the dead and wounded, and we were compelled to step upon their bodies in making our escape. Many fell wounded upon the beach, and as the salt water surged over their bodies and in their wounds, their groans and cries were terrible to hear. Men begged piteously to others more fortunate, to remove them out of reach of the incoming tide. Our return to camp was attended with almost as much danger as our advance, and many brave men who were spared through the terrible ordeal in the fort, were either killed or wounded in returning to the rear. ... Our loss was quite heavy, considering the force engaged; the Sixth being exposed to the deadliest fire, their ranks were pretty well thinned out and the total figures footed up to 141 killed, wounded and missing. Many of the wounded brought off the field died the next day. ... .
A large influx of surgeons arrived from the North a few days after the battle, many of whom were mere boys, having hardly attained their majority, without experience, and many without common sense, came to Morris Island to assist in caring for the wounded. A slight wound in the limb was sufficient cause for them to amputate, and many suffered amputation of limbs that with proper treatment could have been spared to them. The writer saw a surgeon’s table improvised on a sand bluff, where these “would-be-surgeons” were using the scalpel knife in severing the arms and legs of the wounded, and a great pile lay beside them. Many a victim protested against this outrage, but was told that it was the only thing that would prolong life. The victims in many cases died soon after the operation.
Fatigue duty fell unusually hard upon the troops on the island, and every night found the Sixth in the trenches, building batteries or hauling heavy guns to the front. Under fire every day and night, the regiment suffered the loss of many members by wounds and death. While at the front one day a flag of truce came from Wagner, borne by a rebel Captain named Tracy. Capt. Tracy of the Sixth met him and found that he wanted to negotiate for an exchange of prisoners. Gen. Vogdes was informed and the terms agreed upon.
On Friday, July 24, a large steamer bearing our wounded, came down the harbor and ran alongside of one of the monitors. It was said she was a blockade runner and had recently ran the blockade. Upon her decks were Englishmen dressed in the height of fashion, talking loudly of the superior intellect of the southern chivalry. The steamer Cosmopolitan, which had recently been fitted up as a hospital ship, ran alongside and delivered up the rebel wounded and the rebels gave us 205 Union soldiers. They also reported that they had amputated the limbs of 25 and that 50 had died on their hands.
We also learned that they were so indignant because our government employed negro troops, that when they found Col. Shaw’s (Commander of Maine's 54th Colored unit) body they dug a deep trench and put the body in and then threw 25 dead negroes top of it. This circumstance we learned to be a fact, the pickets in our front having reported the same thing to us. The Sixth Regiment, so shattered in the charge of the 18th and depleted in numbers, was ordered to Hilton Head to recruit and care for the large numbers who were wounded. We landed there on the 31st of July.
Old Sixth Regimen: Its War Record, 1861-5 Chap. V
54th Massachusetts: The Civil War in Four Minutes
*Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc. - are used here generically to include relatives such as fourth great grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.
George Leonard Merritt: Union Soldier
Part 1: Okefenokee Merritt Family Part 5 Burning of Jacksonville
Part 2 George Merritt and Lydia Stewart Part 6 Brothers-In-Law in Arms
Part 3 From the North Part 7 Civil War Stories: Deserters
Part 4 A Connecticut Yankee Part 8 Yankee in the Swamp
*Note: Relationships, such as grandmother, 2nd great, etc., are expressed from the perspective of the grandchildren of Willis Edgar and Carrie (known as) Mae (Merritt) Musgrove.
Terms of relationship - grandmother, uncle, aunt, cousin, etc. - are used here generically to include relatives such as fourth great grandfathers, great grand uncles, second cousins twice removed, etc.
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