Subscribe to our Historynet Now! It was not long, however, before his focus shifted from relating recent events to telling her what was about to happen: We are in the extreme advance against Fort Wagner, shot is singing over us from the Rebel guns. As we reached the ditch some one gave an order by the right flank, and Co B on my right, apparently filed off that way. Even if they could breach the fort, it was unlikely the rest of the supporting commands could come to their aid. Prior to this battle, African-American soldiers were considered inferior to white soldiers. From the Rebel Forts shells came screaming over the beach. Soon a lot of wounded are brought in and some of us who can walk are picked up and started down the beach to a hospital boat, as I reach the beach an artillery driver with two horses meets me and offers to take me along with him on one of his pair of horses. You can see photographs of its soldiers and officers in the digital collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Hating the work Montgomery assigned his men and desperate for his regiment to see combat, Colonel Shaw was able to get his command transferred to Brig. HistoryNet.com contains daily features, photo galleries and over 11,000 articles originally published in our nine magazines. Appleton would finally have the chance to drive my boys hard in battle, during which he hoped to climb the exterior slope of a Rebel battery, especially if a white Regiment attacks near us.. Shaw arranged his Regiment (624 men) in a column of wings, with the muskets at the shoulder and bayonets fixed. Historian (and Harvard president) Drew Gilpin Faust writes that the system that collected information on casualties during the Civil War was ad hoc and inadequate. Carney was the first African-American to be awarded the Medal of Honor in the nations history. No one from his appearance could have told that a single apprehension of danger to himself was in his thoughts. After three months of training at Camp Meigs, near Boston, the regiment was ordered to South Carolina in late May finally, as one officer noted, en route for rebellious soil. Initially the 54th was placed under the command of Colonel James Montgomery, who ordered his two regiments to keep busy looking for guerrilla forces while executing total war on the local populace, destroying crops and burning any building he felt could be used for the Confederate cause, including private homes. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. John W.M. Just then three bullets ripped into his body, killing him instantly. This firing on us from the rear must be stopped and I order Lieut. The bombardment rose in intensity as the afternoon waned. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ Already needy for supplies and trade goods from Europe, the loss of the port put an even greater strain on the Southern economy. Inexplicably, the second brigade of Union assaulters commanded by New Hampshire Colonel Haldimand Putnam didnt begin his assault until 8:30, a full 45 minutes since Shaws men stepped off. Capt[ain] Jones laid silent with his feet toward our lines. THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING VETERAN JOURNALISM - JOIN SOFREP+ , William Carney, the First African-American to be Awarded the Medal of Honor. Gen. Strong came in front of the Regiment, and addressed the men, telling them that he was a Massachusetts man and that he knew they would uphold the honor of the old [Bay] State. Though still tired from the fighting on the 16th and hungry, the men in the regiment understood the significance of leading the attack on the fort.
Finding it impossible to hold the crest of the parapet, we were so near the enemy as to be able almost to touch them, and they were able to use cannon rammers, and hand spikes in the melee. Soon bullets began to come from our lines, and fall thickly among us. The time came in the late fall of 1862, before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect Jan. 1, 1863. At the bottom of the slope, the bearer of the colors was killed. You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article. The Confederate Brig. I ordered a Sergt to pick him off, but he could not, so Capt Pope and I, fired at him at the same time when he next showed himself, and he disappeared, and we saw no more of him. We passed the light house blown up by the Rebels, and earthworks taken from them, and after passing the sand hills came out on a more level expanse of sand, near the old Beacon house. Gilmore set his sights on Charleston, the place where the Civil War began with the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter. A grenade bursts and nearly cuts my thumb off, and the pistol twirls around on my fore finger. In the final analysis, the 54ths casualties numbered 281: 54 killed; 179 wounded; 48 whose bodies were never identified. Appleton wrote Higginson, I am desirous of serving our country in connection with the colored troops now being raised.. Dont fire a musket on the way up, but go in and bayonet them at their guns. Our little Colonel to outward appearance as calm as ever, walked slowly up and down in front of the lines. On battalion stayed on post while the rest of the troops rode out the bombardment in safety below in their bombproof. Although the war ended before his command could be called to field service, Appleton remained at Fort Warren, which had become a prison for senior Confederate officials, including Vice President Alexander Stephens. Soldiers, Faust writes, often took the duty of informing families upon themselves, writing letters so that people could know for sure what had happened to their loved ones. The terrible roar deafened us, as we pressed on, at last, we reached the moat of the fort. I am made to lie down and given a cup of coffee, where I laid down on the sand a body had just been removed. Emerson was but 17 yrs old and as brave as a little lion, most of our officers were very young, Pope but 19, Poor [Lieutenant] Cabot Russel but 18. etc. Shaw waved his sword and urged the men into the vortex of fire.
Capt. His account below begins as the regiment waited to launch the attack on Fort Wagner. He was a noble figure, and his words were applauded by the men. A wounded soldier of my company lay with his back against the fort, his broken arm across his body, he was taking cartridges from his box tearing them and laying them in his wounded arm, for Lieut. Appleton returned to continuing efforts to capture Charleston. James Jewell and Eugene Van Sickle, who teach history at North Idaho College and the University of North Georgia, respectively, are working on a book based on the journal. Coming back to the beach I meet a mounted officer with his staff, to him I tell my story that we hold one bastion of the Fort and if reinforced can probably take it and that I will go back with the fresh troops. With casualties mounting, President Abraham Lincoln approved the formation of all-black regiments. The seats around the sides of the cabin and the carpeted floor are covered with wounded officers. The 54th Massachusetts marched thru Boston on May 28 after completing its initial training at Camp Meigs in Massachusetts. Among their volunteers were two sons of noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The structure under the cannons (called a bombproof) could shelter over 1000 troops and had a sandbagged roof approximately 10 feet thick which made it impervious to any shelling. As we sat there we talked of trifles, and every body seemed perfectly cool and calm. You cant do this. Several voices answered I. Colonel Shaw who stood near him took his cigar from his lips and said quietly I will. Gen. Strong said he was sorry that we must go in to the fight tired, and hungry, as we were, but the enemy were tired and hungry too, as they had been under heavy fire all day. Things were beginning to turn in favor of the Union by July 1863; General Grant took Vicksburg on the Mississippi River which split the Confederacy in two. newsletter for the best of the past, delivered every Wednesday. Before it was over, Appleton was among the more than 40 percent of the regiments men who became casualties, including 14 of 22 officers. At any rate I went off into a dead sleep and when I woke it was morning and we were out to sea. The 54th Massachusetts lost 281 men including 54 dead and 48 unaccounted for and presumed dead, almost 40 percent of the command. Although the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the Unions earliest Black regiments, had fought a spirited skirmish two days earlier, many believed leading the assault on Fort Wagner was the true test to answer the question if enlisting African Americans to fight for their freedom would work. Not one man stood on the parapet when I left it. Our lines were about sixteen hundred yards from the fort. The authors want to thank the West Virginia and Regional History Center for permission to use this portion of John Appletons postwar journal. After a while, we were ordered forward and commenced our march up the sandy road, in the middle of the island[.] On July 16, the regiment finally engaged in combat operations, no less to save a white regi-ment the 10th Connecticut Infantry from possibly being cut off during a heavy skirmish at Grimballs Landing on James Island. Gilmores plan was to seize Morris Island, where its guns controlled the inner harbor. Appleton served with the unit performing guard duty in and around Boston before it was federalized in May 1862 and sent to garrison Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. I could hear the rattle of the balls on the men & arms. Lincoln was initially opposed to the idea but relented under the pressure to raise more troops. He asked who was the color sergeant, and then asked who would pick up the flag, and carry it on in case he should be hit or fail. If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry it on? Shaw stepped forward and said, I will. The men cheered in a deafening roar.
Unlike his future commander, Shaw, Appleton had not immediately joined one of the regiments that headed south to fight. Wilkie James [Lieutenant Garth Wilkinson James], our adjutant, came up to me and said we have the most magnificent chance to prove the valor of the colored race now, and as he spoke accidentally discharged his revolver. I believe he [Shaw] told Ned Hallowell, our Major, that he thought he would not come out of the fight, but would be contented if he could have lived a little longer with his wife. I tell him that certainly does not mean wounded men ordered to Hospital. Appleton was initially commissioned a second lieutenant, one of the all-white officers in the embryonic regiment, in February 1863 and sent out on recruiting duty. One man in particular with a broad brimmed hat hit some one of our men every time he fired. Certain he had married just before we left the State.
This was the opportunity for which the regiment and its commander, Col. Robert Gould Shaw, had been lobbying for some time now. All contents 2022 The Slate Group LLC. The defenders unleashed a fusillade of hand grenades down the slope and took out all of the attackers except Carney who was wounded. The men was to move at quick time to within one hundred yards of the Fort and then charge at a double. Strong tried to push more troops into the opening, sending men from the 48th New York, 3rd New Hampshire, 76th Pennsylvania Zouaves, and the 9th Maine into the fray. Our arms were loaded, but by order no [percussion] caps were put on the guns. Like us onFacebook, follow us on Twitter@slatevault, and find us onTumblr. The Fort held fourteen cannons, the largest, a 10-inch (250mm)Columbiadthat fired a 128-pound shell. But General Thomas Stevensons men were never given the order to advance. When Union forces were withdrawn from Florida. John W.M.
My company & Williams & Popes & Graces in advance. Betraying his sense of imminent danger, he wrote one last line before turning his full attention to the Confederate position, telling his wife, [W]e will meet in heaven if not on Earth, kiss [our two-year-old daughter] Mabel.. Read Next: William Carney, the First African-American to be Awarded the Medal of Honor. The heavy daylight bombardment preceding the attack failed to do much damage to Brig. Just as we did so a shell from the enemy exploded at one of the guns and over the smoke I saw a mans cap fly high in the air. For a moment the whole dark scene disappears, and I see my wifes face apparently close to me, soon I get my scattered senses to gether, and find that my rubber coat which I had worn in a roll across my right shoulder has been cut nearly in two, that I have a hole in my blouse from which the blood flows, and I cautiously probe the wound in my back with my finger, thinking the missile had gone into my chest. We were marching by the flank right in front, that is in column of four men abreast, Co. B in front and my Company A behind them. This is a list of the men missing from the 54thMassachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regimentthe first unit of black soldiers to be formed in the North during the Civil Warafter their assault on Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863. When the enemy laid their muskets on the traverse to fire on us, the muzzles project on our side, and we shoot them hardly an arms length away. A conscientious hospital chaplain might be the one to compile and release a casualty list to newspapers soon after an engagement; a less conscientious one might neglect such a duty. This early casualty list tallied the men still missing after the assault on Wagner. As Strongs brigade assembled for the attack, Shaw organized his regiment into two assault columns.
And many dead lie along the sand. In that campaign, Union forces were sent to Florida to take control of the northern sector of the state and deprive the Confederacy of untouched farmlands there. After making an amphibious landing on the southern half of the island on July 10, Gilmores men surprised and routed the Rebel troops and could have taken Wagner but he stopped short. He remained at home in Massachusetts for three months, finally reporting for duty back in South Carolina on October 24, 1863. Jones falls heavily against me and before he can answer my question of sir are you hurt? a piece of shell strikes me in the right breast a crushing blow, and lays me beside him. The ferocity of the fighting at Grimballs Landing was only a precursor for what followed two days later when the 54th led the twilight attack against Fort Wagner. I think we all loved him at first sight. The Southern troops covered their cannons with sandbags and hunkered down. The Southern soldiers quickly deployed along the walls and loaded the six cannons that had survived the all-day bombardment. By the time they arrived at the ditch, the battle had disintegrated into a bloody chaos. All this time the guns of the fleet and shore batteries had been thundering away Prove yourselves men, said the Colonel, as we started. They negotiated the palmetto stakes, crossed the ditch, which in many places had nearly filled in with sand from the shelling and up the parapet. At the point on the beach where the sand narrowed the approach to just 100 yards wide with the swamp on the left and the ocean to the right, the Massachusetts men were forced together forming a V with Shaw leading from the front. As the cannon shot flew over us he said[,] boys dont mind them, they have been firing at me all day and could not hit me.. I was in front of the company and leaped down into the water, followed by all the men left standing. The Colonel planted the colors on the traverse next the service magazine on the left of the curtain, and the fighting was now about them. All Rights Reserved. But first, theyd have to take Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg on the upper third of the island. He assured her, The fight is over and [I] am out safely with two slight wounds, very slight, thank God. Given the obvious difficulty he had writing, whether due to his wounds or circumstances aboard the hospital ship, it is doubtful his additional words eased Marys concerns. Action would shortly follow, as Union forces continued their efforts to knock out or capture Confederate installations protecting Charleston Harbor, which included masonry forts like Forts Sumter and Moultrie, and earthen installations such as Forts Wagner and Gregg (which the Confederates instead called batteries). On the left bastion the enemy rallied and opened an enfilading fire with muskets upon us. At least she knew he was alive; however, she must have been shocked when he listed so many of his fellow officers among the dead, wounded, and missing. I find that the bones grate and give way under the pressure, but that there is no free hole in the chest, and that it is only some broken ribs. The 54th led the Union group that attacked the fort, near Charleston, South Carolina, after a day of bombardment from the Union navy. Appleton distracted himself from the anxiety of approaching battle by writing a letter to his wife, Mary. When he came over to our end of the line, he once stood and looked fixedly on me, I was the only officer standing up at the time, it seemed as if he was about to speak, but he did not.
The fire became terrible shell, canister, and musket balls tore through us. At 8:15 a.m. Union artillery began to fire on Wagner. Bayonets, musket butts, revolvers and swords and musket shots, were all used, but our small number and our disadvantage in being up against the sky told heavily. helped up the gang plank, the passengers in the ambulance find themselves on a crowded boat. 
