July 18, 1863 found the Union once again trying to subdue the birthplace of the Civil War, Charleston, South Carolina. This campaign, which had started in April, was focused on capturing one of the several well-placed forts around Charleston Harbor named Fort Wagner.
After several months of preparation, troops landed on the fort's island on July 10 and the first assault on Fort Wagner took place at dawn on July 11. More than 300 Union troops were lost in that valiant, but futile effort.
The second assault on Fort Wagner slated for July 18 was preceded by an eleven hour Union bombardment by land and sea. While the cannons did some damage within the fort, the walls were protected by deep sand, as was the fort's large bombproof shelter where most of the garrison was huddled.
The Union ground assault was to be led by the now famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the first black regiment in the US Army. Backing them up would be nine more Union infantry regiments; the 6th Connecticut, 48th New York, 3rd New Hampshire, 76th Pennsylvania, 9th Maine, 7th New Hampshire, 62nd Ohio, 67th Ohio, and the 100th New York.
Brian C. Pohanks at Civil War Trust has an excellent writeup on what happened before and after that point that I will excerpt, but you should read the whole thing:
Suddenly, a mounted general and his staff rode up before the assembled ranks. The officer was handsome and smartly dressed, and grasped the reins of his prancing gray steed with white-gloved hands. Brigadier General George C. Strong pointed down the stretch of sand to the sinister hump of a Confederate earthwork that loomed amidst the roiling smoke and spitting fire of the guns. Loudly, Strong asked, ‘Is there a man here who thinks himself unable to sleep in that fort tonight?’ ‘No!’ shouted the 54th.
The general called out the bearer of the national colors, and grasped the flag. ‘If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on?’ After the briefest of pauses, Shaw stepped forward, and taking a cigar from between his teeth responded, ‘I will.’ The colonel’s pledge elicited what Adjutant Garth Wilkinson James later described as ‘the deafening cheers of this mighty host of men, about to plunge themselves into the fiery vortex of hell.’
As the sun set, the 54th and the trailing regiments moved out along the sand toward Fort Wagner. The bombardment tapered off to nothing as they got closer and the mostly unscathed garrison emerged to man the defenses and load the handful of cannons that had not been rendered useless.
‘A sheet of flame’ flashed out, James recalled, ‘followed by a running fire, like electric sparks!’ The blazing muskets and cannons reminded James of the fireworks he had seen illuminating the Arc de Triomphe during a Paris Bastille Day celebration. But the thud of hot lead into human flesh, and the screams of the dying, brought home the terrible reality of what lay before them. With a flourish of his sword, Shaw led his black soldiers into the vortex.
With men falling on all sides, the 54th surged over the sharpened wooden stakes that ringed the fort and through the water-filled ditch. In some places, shelling had filled the moat with sand, while elsewhere the water was knee- to-waist-deep. Hallowell and James were among those who fell wounded before gaining the ramparts, but Shaw kept his feet, clambering up the sandy slope with a knot of determined survivors. As he crested the flaming parapet, Shaw waved his sword, shouted ‘Forward, 54th!’ and then pitched headlong into the sand with three fatal wounds.
Like I said, read the whole thing, because the battle didn't end with Shaw's death or the 54th being repulsed. Those other nine regiments entered the fray and also met their own glory and anguish.
After two hours of brutal and bloody struggles to take the fort, the Union forces withdrew. They had sustained 246 killed, 880 wounded, and 389 captured. The defenders lost 36 killed, 133 wounded, and 5 captured.
The Union general was forced to concede that they could not take Fort Wagner by force and settled in to reduce it by bombardment and siege. Finally, during the night of September 6, 1863 the Confederates accepted that occupying Fort Wagner was no longer tenable and abandoned it.
The man who actually answered Gen. Strong's call that night was awarded the Medal of Honor for his deeds. Though other black soldiers received their medal earlier, the valiant actions of Sergeant William H. Carney came first:
When the color sergeant was shot down, this soldier grasped the flag, led the way to the parapet, and planted the colors thereon. When the troops fell back he brought off the flag, under a fierce fire in which he was twice severely wounded.
The white commander of the 54th, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, was buried with his men in a mass grave outside the fort the next day, which was intended to be an insult by the Confederate commander. Shaw's father, however, refused to see it that way:
"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!
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