Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

The South Atlantic Coast, 1861–1863 51
narrowed the island “to about one-fourth or one-third of the width shown on the
latest Coast Survey charts, and that . . . the waves frequently swept entirely over it,
practically isolating that position defended by Fort Wagner . . . , thus greatly augmenting
the difficulty to be overcome in capturing the position, whether by assault
or gradual approaches.” In a few places, Morris Island was less than one hundred
yards wide. 65
What moved Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour, commanding the attack, to put the
tired, hungry men of the 54th Massachusetts in the lead is unclear. Perhaps it was
the regiment’s strength—with 624 officers and men, it was the largest on Morris
Island. Seymour called it a “regiment of excellent character, well officered, with
full ranks.” Seven months after the attack, a witness before the American Freedmen’s
Inquiry Commission testified that he had heard Seymour tell General Gillmore:
“Well, I guess we will . . . put those d——d niggers from Massachusetts in
the advance; we may as well get rid of them, one time as another”; but there is no
corroborating evidence for this. 66
The commander of the leading brigade, General Strong, told the men of the
54th Massachusetts that the enemy was tired and hungry, too, and ordered them
forward: “Don’t fire a musket on the way up, but go in and bayonet them at their
guns.” The 54th Massachusetts advanced at the head of Strong’s brigade, with
rifles loaded but percussion caps not set, in order to prevent accidental discharges.
It was about 7:45 in the evening, still light enough for the attackers to see their way
but dim enough, the generals hoped, to spoil the enemy’s aim. 67
The course of the attack lay along a spit of land between the Atlantic Ocean
and a salt marsh. The distance to be covered was about sixteen hundred yards, the
last hundred to be taken at the double. The 54th Massachusetts formed two lines
of five companies abreast; each company was in two ranks, so the regiment’s
front was roughly one hundred fifty men wide. The regiments that followed,
which numbered fewer men, formed in column of companies from twenty to
twenty-five men wide. As the marsh widened and the beach narrowed, the 54th,
in the lead, became disarranged, veering around the edge of the wet ground and
hitting Fort Wagner at an angle that carried the attackers past part of the fortifications
before they could turn in the right direction. In passing the narrow stretch
between the harbor and the salt marsh, the men of the first-line flank companies
became mixed with the companies of the second line and the men of the secondline
flank companies fell even farther to the rear. “We came to a line of shattered
palisades, how we passed them we can hardly tell,” Captain Appleton wrote.
“Then we passed over some rifle pits and I can dimly remember seeing some
men in them, over whom we ran.” By this time, the supporting naval gunfire had
ceased and the fort’s defenders opened fire on their attackers with short-barreled
65 OR, ser. 1, vol. 28, pt. 1, pp. 13 (“to about”), 15 (“an irregular”); Wise, Gate of Hell, p. 2.
66 OR, ser. 1, vol. 28, pt. 1, p. 347 (“regiment of”); Ira Berlin et al., eds. The Black Military
Experience (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 534–35 (“Well, I guess”).
67 OR, ser. 1, vol. 28, pt. 1, p. 357; Appleton Jnl, pp. 56–57 (“Don’t fire,” p. 57). A percussioncap
weapon fired when the hammer struck the cap, which ignited the charge of black powder that
propelled the bullet. The United States did not adopt standard time zones until 1883 and daylightsaving
time until the First World War. Dusk in July 1863 therefore came an hour earlier than we are
accustomed to think of it.