The following is from the book

In The War For The Union
1861-1865

by Abraham J. Palmer, D.D.
written in 1881-1885

CHAPTER V (Part 1)

Morris Island -- June 1 to July 17, 1863.

(Part 1) General Gillmore succeeds General Hunter --_The Department of the South --Operations against Charleston --Admiral Dahlgren succeeds Admiral DuPont --General George C. Strong --The "Fighting Brigade" --June 19, Leave Fort Pulaski --Companies G and I Remain --At St. Helena Island --Folly Island --Batteries --Flotilla --Lighthouse Inlet --July 10, the Assault on Morris Island --(Part 2)--Death of Captain Lent --The Run up the Beach --The Fatal Halt --Casualties --July 11, Assault on Fort Wagner by Seventh Connecticut, Ninth Maine, and Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania --Their Repulse --Confederate accounts of it --Building Batteries --A Confederate Sortie -- Companies C and D in the Trenches --Lieutenant Tantum and the Rebel --Wilgus.

In the early summer of 1863 the National Administration determined upon a vigorous attempt to take the city of Charleston.
     The attack of the ironclads under Admiral DuPont had been unsuccessful, and the Admiral did not seem very sanguine of another attempt.  Thereupon the Government removed him from the command of the fleet, and ordered Admiral Foote to succeed him.  Admiral Foote died, however, a few days afterwards, while on his way back to his new post of duty, and Admiral Dahlgren became the new commander of the Sough Atlantic Squaadron.
     At the same time General David Hunter was succeeded in command of the land forces by General Quincy A. Gillmore.
     The new General and the new Admiral were to co-operate.
     The soldiers in the Department of the South knew now that their hour had come, and they welcomed Gillmore heartily, and anticipated the campaigns with great joy.  All felt that there might be serious fighting, but no one then conceived that we were about to enter upon the most fatal and the mose fruitless campaign of the entire war.
     General Gillmore seems to have been reluctant to undertake the work of the capture of Charleston, if we may judge by the following letter, which is supposed to have been influential in securing him the command:

New York, May 23, 1863
General G. W. Cullum, Chief of Staff, to the General-in-Chief.

General:  It has come to my knowledge that my name has been mentioned to the Secretary of War in connection with the reduction of the forts in Charleston Harbor, and it has been urgently suggested to place me in a position where I could direct and control the operations of the land forces against that place.  Two or three communications from prominent men here have been sent to the Secretary.
     It is not necessary to inform you, who are so well acquainted with me, that I am not in the habit of pushing myself forward or thrusting my professional opinion unmasked upon the notice of those in authority,  In my daily intercourse with gentlemen of my acquaintance I am, however, always free to answer questions; and I have at sundry times, and in sundry places expressed the opinion that the forts in Charleston Harbor could be reduced by the means (naval and military combined) now available in the Department of the South, increased by a suitable number of the best heavy rifled guns, provided these have not been sent there since I left the Department one year ago.
     I have also said that I am willing to risk my own reputation upon the attempt, as I did at Pulaski, provided I could be allowed the untrammelled execution of my own plans (as at Pulaski ), except so far as they involve co-operation from the navy.
     You are at liberty to show this letter to the General-in-Chief or any one else.
     I expect to remain here until the evening of the 27th instant, and then go directly to Cincinnati.
Very Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Q. A. Gillmore, Brigadier-General

 
It is asserted that General Gillmore was selected for the position because of his superior skill as an engineer, and that the new movement against Charleston was at the suggestion of the Hon. Horace Greeley.  Whereupon General Hunter, smarting under the removal from his command, addressed an angry letter to the famous editor of the New York Tribune, in which he reminded him of his former outcry  "On to Richmond" --"in which," wrote the irate General, "you wasted much ink, and other men shed some blood."
     On June 3d the orders were issued for General Gillmore to succeed General Hunter, and on June 12th Gillmore reached Hilton Head, and immediately assumed command.  We had had some acquaintance with him during the operations on Dawfuskie Island in the siege of Fort Pulaski, but he was now to become our immediate commander, under whom we were destined to march on many long campaigns and to pass through many fiery battles.  Gillmore found in the Department of the South nearly 18,000 troops of the finest quality;  for they were veterans, having been two years in the service, and they were volunteers who had rushed to arms in the summer of 1861, at the President's first call for men.  They were, therefore, the best blood of the Republic, and their long service had given them every advantage of discipline and drill.  True they has had little experience in battle, but they had been strangely prepared by the years of training and inaction for the desperate work that now awaited them.  Although the Department of the South did not extend far into the interior, it ran a long way parallel with the coast, and Gillmore was required to picket a line 250 miles in length, besides garrisoning forts and posts at various places.  He was only able, therefore, to concentrate about 11,000 troops for his immediate operations against Charleston.  He had, however, 80 guns of the heaviest caliber, and was supplied with materials for carrying on a siege possibly superior to those which any General had ever before possessed in all the history of war.
     General Gillmore's plan of operation, briefly stated, was:
     "First.  Make a descent upon and take possession of the south end of Morris Island.
     "Second.  To lay siege to and reduce Battery Wagner, a strong earthwork near the north end of the island about 2600 yards from Fort Sumter.  The reduction of Battery Wagner would necessitate the fall of Battery Gregg on Cumming's Point.
     "Third.  From the positions thus secured to demolish Fort Sumter, and to cooperate with the navy in a heavy artillery fire when it should be ready to move forward.
     "Fourth.  The iron-clad fleet to remove the channel obstructions, run by the batteries on Sullivan and James Islands, reach the city, and compel its surrender."

     The army was to take the lead in all but the fourth of these distinct operations.
     Of the several plans for operations against Charleston which were practicable, that by James Island had been feebly tried at Secessionville in June 1862, and had failed.  Moreover, the navy could render but little assistance.
     Also, the plan of forcing an entrance in to Charleston Harbor by the fleet had been attempted and had failed on April 7, 1863.
     The plan was adopted --by way of Morris Island --had the two advantages;  it had never been tried, and co-operation of army and navy were practicable.  Therefore it was adopted --unhappily, we might add, for it proved in many ways to be disastrous;  but it was far easier to criticize campaigns when you are writing after the event than to anticipate the difficulties beforehand.
     There were certain other advantages which the Morris Island plan possessed.
     Our forces were already in possession of Folly Island.  To cross over Lighthouse Inlet and secure the lower end of Morris Island was believed to be practicable, and it proved to be.
     Moreover, the fleet had always a safe harbor close at hand, --in North Edisto Inlet, --which was no slight consideration, as the monitors were not supposed to ride safely in stormy waters.
     The mistakes were (as are now apparent) that the possession of Morris Island would decide the fate of Charleston, and that Fort Sumter would capitulate, as Fort Pulaski had done when breached by our guns.
     Another has truly written that --

 
  Fort Sumter was regarded as the chief obstacle in the way of the navy in any attempt which it might make to enter the harbor.  If that fort could be reduced, or its defensive power destroyed, the fleet, it was argued, could readily remove the obstructions, force an entrance into the harbor, and compel the surrender of the city, when the evacuation of the harbor defenses would necessarily follow.  It was admitted that the navy alone could not capture Sumter, or even so cripple it as to render it harmless.  That must be done by the combined land and naval forces, and General Gillmore had been selected to command the Department of the South and Admiral Dahlgren the South Atlantic Squadron, for the express purpose of carrying into execution the plan of operations which the former had proposed for the reduction of Fort Sumter and then the capture of Charleston.

 
It will now be necessary, in order that the reader may inderstand the operations about to be described, that some description of the locality, soon be so familiar, should be given.  I gladly avail myself of an article by General Samuel Jones of the Confederate army, which is at hand:

 
The city of Charleston is at the extremity of the narrow peninsula between the Cooper and Ashly rivers.  James Island, to the south and east, is separated from the city by Ashley River, and from St. John's Island, to the south and west, by the Stono River.  In greatest extent from north to south it is about nine miles, and from east to west about seven miles.  On its sea front it is bordered by a narrow sand-bank extending from the entrance to Charleston Harbor to Stono Inlet, about eleven miles in length.  About three and three quarters miles from the northern extremity this bank has been cut through by the waters of the ocean, thus dividing it into two islands.  The northern part of Morris Island, the southern Folly Island.  The channel between them is called Lighthouse Inlet.  These islands are separated from the firm land of James Island by Folly River and Creek, Vincent's Creek, and impassable marshes, which are subject to overflow by very high tides, and are intersected by numerous tortuous, narrow, but deep streams.
     The northern extremity of Morris Island, which is called Cumming's Point, and Sullivan's Island to the northeast, border the entrance to Charleston Harbor.  Fort Moultrie is near the western end of Sullivan's Island and distant twenty-seven hundred yards from Cumming's Point, on which the Confederates had constructed a work called Battery Gregg.  Fort Sumter was a brick work of three tiers of guns built on an artificial island or foundation south of the channel, nearly midway between Sullivan's and James Islands, about 1760 yards from Fort Moultrie on the former, 1980 yards from Fort Johnson on the latter, 1390 yards from Cumming's Point, and three and a half miles from the city of Charleston.
     About 1300 yards from Cumming's Point, at a very narrow part of Morris Island, was an earthwork of considerable development and strength called Battery Wagner, which extended from the beach on the east to Vincent Creek on the west, presenting to the southward a front of about 275 yards.
     The island is wider at its southern than its northern part, the south extremity on Lighthouse Inlet being about one thousand yards in width.  Its surface is irregular and broken by sand ridges, forming at many points secure shelter for troops.  It is an area of about four hundred acres, its middle point is five and three eighths of a mile from the nearest point of Charleston, and the main channel into the harbor is parallel to and about an average distance of twelve hundred yards from it.
     This small sand island has been thus minutely and tediously described, because it was destined to be the camp home for nearly two years of many thousands of men;  it was to become famous as the scene of a siege which will be memorable in military history and one of the most formidable bombardments of which there is any record, the scene of great labor and exposure, much desperate fighting, of sickness and death in all the frightful forms incident to the war and to wasting fevers.

 
A further and more minute description of the portions of the island where we operated will be given as the account proceeds, but the above, with the help of a good map, should give the intelligent reader a satisfactory conception of the locality.
     To Brigadier-General George C. Strong, a young man but a gallant soldier, who had already "won his spurs" in the war, there was intrusted the delicate task of selecting a picked brigade of six regiments out of the entire department, with which he was to make the desperate assaults that Gillmore knew would have to be made at the capture of Morris Island.  Not more than one brigade of troops could be handled in such narrow quarters;  it was therefore necessary that the brigade should consist of the very best soldiers.  General Strong finally selected the following six regiments:  Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, Sixth and Seventh Connecticut, Forty-eighth New York, Third New Hampshire, and Ninth Maine.  They were known in the Department, as they are destined to be known in history, as "Strong's Fighting Brigade."  It was esteemed a high honor to be one of the picked regiments, but it was an honor that cost many brave fellows their lives.  The brigade won its fame in a single month of time, during which it fought three famous battles, and suffered losses not elsewhere equalled among the same number of men in the whole history of the war.  Its brave and honored commander fell at its head on the fiery parapets of Wagner.  It was destined for immolation and immortality.  On June 18th General Gillmore came to Fort Pulaski, and on the evening of that day a telegraphic dispatch was received by the submarine cable, ordering eight companies of the regiment to prepare cooked rations and be ready for embarkation in the morning.  As may be imagined, great excitement prevailed in the fort at the receipt at last of marching orders.  We had been chosen as one of the "picked" regiments.  We were in high spirits at that, and because our long and monotonous life on garrison duty was at an end, and at last we were to meet the enemy in battle.  We little knew what desperate work was before us, nor could we anticipate how cruel and how fatal it would be.  Two companies were to be left behind for the garrison of the fort and for picket duty on Tybee Island; the companies selected were G and I.  They remained with great reluctance, yet they escaped entirely the perils of the fatal campaign on Morris Island.  Rations were hastily cooked, and next day we left our old quarters in the casemates, which had been our home for a whole year, and embarking on the steamer Ben De Ford, anchored off Tybee Island for the night, and on the next day, June 20, landed at St. Helena Island --where the brigade was to rendezvous --and went into camp.
     The next two weeks were spent in brigade drill and organization.  We liked our brilliant brigade-commander, General Strong,  the more we saw of him, and we formed a high opinion also of the quality of the regiments with which we were associated.
     We missed the Forty-seventh New York, but for the Sixth and Seventh Connecticut especially we had a deservedly high respect.  On July 4th we left St. Helena Island by ship and landed on Folly Island.
     General Vogdes had been in possession of Folly Island since the preceding April, had cut roads through its impenetrable jungles, erected batteries at the various points, and kept the island thoroughly picketed throughout.  Folly Island is about seven miles in length, and not over a mile in width at its broadest point.  On the west it is separated from James Island by Folly River and a succession of marshes;  on the east it is bordered by the sea;  Lighthouse Inlet on the north separates it from Morris Island.  The inlet is about six hundred yards in width.  The whole surface of the island was a mass of thorns and briars;  but we cleared a place among them as best we could and went into camp.  General Vodges had succeeded in erecting batteries unobserved by the enemy on the north end of the island, or more properly on Little Folly Island, which easily commanded the enemy's works on the south end of Morris Island.  They were designed to cover the passage of the troops over Lighthouse Inlet, when they should attempt to carry Morris Island by assault.  The batteries were so completely masked by thick forests of pine and palmetto, that their very existence was absolutely unknown to the enemy.  They were made of sand and marsh sod, embrasured and redetted, with magazines and bomb and splinter proofs, and in twenty days after they had begun Gillmore had forty-eight heavy guns in position upon them.  The plan of attack was as follows:  "Strong's Fighting Brigade" was to be embarked in launches in the night, and at the signal of the first gun from the batteries, in the early morning, was to row across Lighthouse Inlet, land in the surf on Morris Island, and carry the island by assault.  It was a bold project, exposing the men to great danger, liable to many contingencies which might thwart it, but it was deemed the most practicable plan by which Morris Island could be taken.  The Confederate fortifications on Morris Island at that time consisted of eight one-gun batteries and two mortar batteries --one for two mortars, and the other for one.  All were detached and stretched along the sand ridge, designed to protect the beach, and they were incomplete.  Rifle-pits or infantry epaulments were also made, extending westward towards Oyster Point.  According to the account of General Beauregard, they were manned as follows:  612 infantry, 289 artillerists, 261 cavalry - a total of 1162 men.  The part of Strong's brigade which was to assail them numbered between two and three thousand.
     To divert attention of the enemy from Morris to James Island, General A. H. Terry with some three thousand troops, was now sent up the Stono, landed on James Island and made a feint against the enemy there, but it is doubtful if that had any effect to withdraw troops from Morris Island. (Continued in Part 2)

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Index and Introduction
Preferatory Letter  by Abraham J. Palmer
Chapter    I     II     III     IV     V   VI    VII    VIII    IX    X     XI
Roster and Record    Company A   B   C     D    E    F    G    H    I    K    Band
Stories of the 48th not in the book
Illustrations

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