164 Nort Carorina Troops, 1861-’65.

chusetts (colored), 1,000 strong, was in advance of all and to
be the “enfans perdus.” ‘They formed in two lines ahead of
the brigade. Their commander was Colonel Robert G. Shaw.
He was slender and under the medium height, with light hair,
a beardless face, and looked like a boy of 17 years, when seen
at daylight the morning after the assault, cold and stiff in
death on the very top of our breastworks and at the muzzle of
our best Columbiad with three mortal wounds, either of which
must have been a death wound, a bullet wound through the
forehead, another through the lower body, and a bayonet
thrust in his chest. His Adjutant lay dead only three feet
to his right, and his Sergeant Major about the same distance
to his left. Had the supporting column of 6,000 came to the
relief Wagner would have undoubtedly fallen that night,
but the dreadful slaughter of the assaulting column, their
eries of agony and death so paralyzed them that they broke
in great disorder and fled to the rear. Colonel Shaw with
his colored troops, led the attack. They came forward at a
“double-quick” with great energy and resolution ; but on ap
proaching the ditch they broke, the greater part following
their intrepid Colonel, bounded over the ditch, mounted the
parapet and planted their flag in the most gallant manner
upon the ramparts, where Shaw was shot and bayonetted to
death; while the rest seized with a furious panic acted like
wild beasts let loose from a menagerie. They came down
first on the Ninth Maine, and then on the Seventy-sixth Penn-
sylvania, and broke them both in two. Portions of the Ninth
and Seventy-sixth mingled with the fugitives of the Fifty-
fourth (colored), and could not be brought to the front. The
Sixth Connecticut (Colonel Chatfield) succeeded in passing
through the deadly fire, and made a furious charge on the
southeast angle and took it and held it for three hours, no sup
port having dared to follow across the fatal stretch before the
fort. To retreat was worse than to advance.

During the three hours that this portion of the works “—
held by Colonel Chatfield (it was on top of the bomb-proo:
about thirty feet above the heads of the defenders) several of
our men were shot in the back, while standng ready to defend
the fort from any other advance; when this became known,

DEFENCE OF Fort WAGNER. 165

as it did in a few moments, General Taliaferro, in command
of the fort, called to a Federal soldier on the bomb-proof and
told him to say to his commanding officer that he wished to
speak to him. In a moment an officer came to the edge of the
bomb-proof, inquired what was wanted of him., General
Taliaferro said to him in substance: ‘Your men have fired
into the backs of my men from your position on the bomb-
proof, and have wounded several. Now what I wish to say
is this; ‘If another shot is fired into my men, I will put to
death every officer and man I find up there. You are my
prisoners, If you do not consider that you are, you have my
permission to make your escape, and not one man will be able
to reach his lines.” This quieted matters, and in a short
time the Thirty-first Georgia Regiment and two companies
of the Charleston Battalion deployed 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 dis-
order. The converging fire of the artillery and infantry on
the narrow approach prevented a rally. Few could move
within that fatal area and live. The situation of the works
forbade any feint or diversion, so that the garrison could con-
centrate their attention on one point alone. Besides the in-
creasing darkness rendered more dense by the smoke of con-
flict, 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.

Language has not the power to describe the horrors of the
night of the assault. The shattered column of the enemy was
driven back to the shelter of the sand hills. Four thousand
men had been dashed against Fort Wagner; when reformed
within the Federal lines only 600 answered to their names.
Brigadier-General Strong was mortally wounded and Colo-
nels Chatfield, Putman and Shaw were left dead within our
lines. A desnltory fire of small arms with an oceasional dis-
charge of grape and canister was kept up for a time at an
unseen foe from the ramparts of Wagner. Soon silence and