230 Nortu Carotina Troops, 1861-’65.

the enemy occupying the gun-chambers and traverses than
they were able to deliver upon my men from the left salient.
While thus engaged I met my aide, who informed me that the
South Carolinians had failed to respond to my order, al
though their officers had pleaded with them, and with a few
of them had gone into the fight; that the assaulting column
had made two distinct charges upon the extreme left and had
been repulsed by the fire of the Napoleon and by the in-
fantry ; that the torpedo wires had been cut by the fire of the
fleet and the electrician had tried in vain to execute my or-
ders ; that, driven from the extreme left, the enemy had found
a weak defense between the left salient and the sally-port in
their third charge, and had gained the parapet and, capturing
two gun-chambers, had attacked the force in the left bastion
on the flank, simultaneously with a direct charge of a fresh
column, and that our men after great slaughter, especially
those at the Napoleon, had been forced to surrender just as
we had repulsed the naval column; that to add to the discom-
fiture of the Confederates, as soon as the Federal battle flags
appeared on the ramparts, Battery Buchanan had opened
with its two heavy guns on the left of the work, killing and
wounding friend and foe alike. Major Reilly had failed to
lead the men to the top of the parapet on the right of the west-
ern salient, firing instead from the two gun-chambers on the
assailants, who were not within range until they reached the
parapet. Had the parapet been manned by fifty determined
men at this point, I do not believe the enemy could have got
into the fort before reinforcements had arrived. Reilly was
a veteran soldier, and showed his indomitable courage later
in the day, but his mistake was fatal. This was dishearten-
ing, but I told Captain Blocker if we could hold the enemy in
check until dark I would then drive them out, and I sent a
telegram by him to Bragg, imploring him to attack, and say-
ing that I could still save the fort.

Notwithstanding the loss of a portion of the work and a
part of the garrison, the men were in good spirits and seemed
determined to recover the fort. We had retaken one gun-
chamber in the charge on the parapet, and since we had
opened on their flank we had shot down all their standard-

 

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THe Derence or Fort FisHer. 231

bearers, and the Federal battle flags had disappeared from
our ramparts. I was encouraged to believe that before sun-
down we could recover all the gun-chambers to the east of
the western salient. Just as the tide of battle seemed to have
turned in our favor the remorseless fleet came to the rescue
of the faltering Federals. Suddenly the bombardment, which
had been confined to the sea face, turned again on our land
front, and with deadly precision; the iron-clads and heavy
frigates drove in our Napoleons and exploded shells in the in-
terior of the sally-port, which had heretofore escaped. They
also swept the gun-chamber occupied by Confederates in front
of those oceupied by the enemy, and their shells rolled down
within the works and exploded in most unexpected quarters,
preventing even company formation. They drove from the
front of the enemy all assailants except those so near that to
have fired on them would have been to slaughter the Fed-
erals.

We had now to contend with a column advancing around
the rear of the left bastion into the interior plane of the fort.
It moved slowly and cautiously, apparently in column of com-
panies and in close order. I met it with an effective infantry
fire, my men using the remains of an old work as a breast-
work and taking advantage of every object that would afford
cover, for we were now greatly outnumbered. The fire was
so unexpected and destructive on the massed columns of the
Federals, that they halted when an advance would have been
fatal to us. With orders to the officers to dispute stubbornly
any advance until my return, I went rapidly to the extreme
southern limit of my work and turned the two mound guns
on the column in the fort. As I passed the different batteries
I ordered the guns turned on the assailants, but on returning
found that only two besides those on the mound would bear
upon them, and these had to be fired over my men. TI or-
dered them, notwithstanding, to be fired earefully with prop-
erly cut fuses, which was done, but it made some of my men
very nervous. I brought back with me to the front every
man except a single detachment for each gun. I was gone
from the fort at least thirty minutes, and on my return found
the fighting still continuing over the same traverse for the