July 18, 1863
---Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s extended
raid in Ohio continues, with exhaustion beginning to take its toll. Straggling becomes rampant and discipline
begins to erode. The Rebels’ horses are
giving out, and their ride is slowed by the necessity to requisition fresh
horses from local farms and towns. Ohio
militia is waiting for them at every bend in the road.
---Col. Basil Duke, one of Morgan’s
commanders, notes in his memoirs the zeal of the raiders to pillage and spoil
the countryside:
The Provost guard had great difficulty in restraining the men
from pillaging, and was unsuccessful in some instances. . . . This disposition
for wholesale plunder exceeded any thing that any of us had ever seen before.
The men seemed actuated by a desire to ‘pay off’ in the ‘enemy’s country’ all
scores that the Federal army had chalked up in the South…. They did not pillage
with any sort of method or reason — it seemed to be a mania, senseless and
purposeless.
---President Lincoln spends most of
the day closeted with Judge Advocate General James Holt, studying death
sentences given to deserting soldiers.
Lincoln is opposed to the death sentence as a punishment for this
military crime, and usually commutes as many of these sentences as possible.
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| Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment |
---Second Battle of Fort Wagner,
South Carolina – Gen. Gillmore, commander of the Federal troops in
coastal South Carolina, orders an assault to go forward that will capture or
destroy Battery Wagner, the principal fortification on the southern lip of the
mouth of Charleston Harbor. Gen. George
Strong’s brigade being the tip of the spear, the task falls to him again. This time, the all-black 54th
Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is selected to lead the attack.
 |
| Auguste St. Gaudens' monument to Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts in Boston |
After shelling the fort for several days with
41 guns on land, the Navy moves in a half dozen monitors, and they pound the fort, even
knocking the large 32-pounder there off of its carriage. In the bombardment, however, only 8 Rebels
have been killed. Inside the fort are
1,300 infantry under Gen. William Taliaferro.
At dusk, as the 54th moves forward down the beach, 650
strong, the remaining troops in the brigade also move forward in support,
including the 6th Connecticut.
At 100 yards, the Confederate artillery opens up with canister, and the Rebel infantry open fire.
The 54th
endures horrendous losses, but reaches the moat, splashes its way across, and
surges up the outer slope of the fort.
The troops gain the wall and parapet and hold it for a while, although
no supports are advancing to assist.
Shaw is killed while scaling the fort walls, and his men falter.
Part of the 54th assists the 6th
Conn. as it moves forward, but this force withdraws as well. The rest of Strong’s brigade surges forward
and take heavy losses, including the commanders of each regiment and Gen.
Strong himself, who is killed. Another brigade under
Putnam was supposed to advance, but Putnam claims that Gen. Gillmore told him
not to go forward after all. Putnam is
finally convinced to charge, and like Strong’s brigade, his troops lose high numbers:
every regimental commander is shot, as is Putnam himself. The Rebels lose 222 total casualties, but the
Federals lose 246 killed, 890 wounded, and 391 csaptured. Confederate
Victory.
Gen. Seymour, whose division was
assigned to make the attack, wrote about this action in his report:
General Strong was to take the advance. I had informed him
that he should be promptly supported if it were necessary. . . . Half the
ground to be passed over was undulating, from small sand-hills, affording some
shelter, but not so rough as to prevent free movement of troops. That part of
it next the fort was quite smooth and unobstructed to the very ditch.
The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, a colored regiment of excellent
character, well officered, with full ranks, and that had conducted itself
commendably a few days previously on James Island, was placed in front. . . .
Once in advance of our batteries, a few encouraging words
were given to the men and the First Brigade launched forward. It had not moved
far before the fort, liberated somewhat from the pressure of our fire, opened
with rapid discharges of grape and canister, and its parapet was lit by a
living line of musketry. More than half the distance was well passed, when,
present myself with the column, I saw that to overcome such resistance,
overpowering force must be employed. . . . Fragments of each regiment,
however-brave men, bravely led-went eagerly over the ditch, mounted the parapet
and struggled with the foe inside. But these efforts ere too feeble to affect
the contest materially. . . . By a combined and determined rush over the
southeast angle of the fort, the enemy was driven from that portion of the
work. Some hundred men were now inside, with Colonel Putnam at their head. The
bastion-like space between the bomb-proof and the parapet was fully in our
possession. Some of our officers and men mounted the bomb-proof itself, which
completely commanded the interior of the fort. Strong efforts were made by the
enemy to drive our brave fellows out, but unsuccessfully, and rebel officers
and men were captured and sent to the rear.
. . . And now Colonel Putnam, while waiting patiently for expected
succor, and urging his men to maintain the advantage that had been gained, was
shot, dead, on the parapet, as brave a soldier, as courteous a gentleman, as
true a man as ever walked beneath the Stars And Stripes.
General Strong had long since been wounded. Colonel
Chatfield, Sixth Connecticut; Colonel Barton, Forty-eighth New York; and
Colonel Shaw, Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, had fallen, after the most gallant
efforts, in front of their commands; and during the advance of the Second
Brigade I had been struck by a grape-shot and was compelled to retire. . . .
Finally despairing, after long waiting, of further
assistance, the senior officers at the fort withdrew our men (with exception of
about 100, who could not be reached, and who were soon after captured), and
what had been so dearly bought was abandoned to the enemy. . . .
Unsuccessful as we were, the highest praise is due to those
noble men who did their full duty that night. Who can forget, while courage and
generosity are admired by man, that glorious soldier, Strong, or the heroic
Putnam, or Chatfield, the beloved, or Shaw, faithful and devoted upon death.
Many more than these deserve lasting record, of the rank and file as well as of
officers, but the loss of those of high command, and the scattering of the many
wounded who were prominent actors in this scene, with the difficultly of
procuring sufficient information otherwise, compel me to but a meager outline.
On every inch of the sands in front of Fort Wagner will be forever traced in
undying glory the story of the determination and courage of these men.
The 54th Massachusetts
suffers about 42% casualties or more. Shaw
is buried in a mass grave with the bodies of his men, which is meant to be an
insult. In response to this act, Col.
Shaw’s father, George Shaw, issues this public statement:
We would not have his body removed
from where it lies surrounded by his brave and devoted soldiers....We can
imagine no holier place than that in which he lies, among his brave and devoted
followers, nor wish for him better company. – what a body-guard he has!
 |
| Col. Robert G. Shaw |
Although the 54th
Massachusetts is not the first black regiment formed, it is the first black
outfit to be involved in a high-profile battle under the eye of an avid
press. As the story of the desperate
attack on Fort Wagner hits the newspapers, and captures the public imagination,
Northern support for black units strengthens, when it is clear that these
troops are the equal of white soldiers
in every respect.
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