This text is part of:
[244]
regular sap.1 The limits of this history will not permit a detailed account of this most interesting period of the history of Battery Wagner and Fort Sumter.
In Major Johnson's book the full record will be found, and in the reports and correspondence published by act of Congress, the history and progress of the siege are related in every particular.
The following incidents embracing a period of fifty days are given from the records: On July 20th the fort was subjected to a combined attack by the batteries on land and water, and on the 23d, the second parallel was opened within 870 yards of the fort.
Another attack from the fleet and the batteries followed on the 24th, and for five hours the fort was assaulted by the bombardment.
During this period Wagner, Gregg and the batteries from James island fired incessantly on the enemy's working parties.
Daily for the remainder of the month of July, the fleet assaulted the fort, and the land batteries fired throughout the night.
On August 10th the third parallel was established, 540 yards distant. During this night Wagner, Sumter and the James island batteries drove off the enemy's working parties.
The heavy guns of the enemy being advanced, he opened breaching batteries on the gorge wall of Sumter, firing over Wagner, and the fleet engaged Fort Sumter.
Covering the period August 16th to 26th, Major Johnson makes the notes following:
August 16th.
Engineers' working force, 350 to 450, having been engaged day and night for six weeks, has
1 In his final report he said: ‘The formidable strength of Fort Wagner induced a modification of the plan of operations, or rather a change in the order previously determined upon. The demolition of Fort Sumter was the object in view as preliminary to the entrance of the ironclads. . . . To save valuable time, it was determined to attempt the demolition of Sumter from ground already in our possession, so that the ironclads could enter upon the execution of their part of the programme, . . . and arrangements were at once commenced, and the necessary orders given to place the breaching guns in position. Arrangements were also made to press the siege of Fort Wagner by regular approaches.’
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.