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In the meanwhile, General Gillmore ’s working parties, ever on the increase,were gradually hut surely extending their trenches and mining opera-tions nearer and nearer to Battery Wagner. On the 26th our rifle-pitsin front of the work were assailed by an overpowering force and taken,and on the 1st of September the fire on Sumter was so intense as to effectits virtual destruction. The following extract from the Engineer ’s report,forwarded at that time to the War Department , will give an idea of thecondition of the work:
“ Toward noon the effect of the fire was to carry away at one fall four rampart arches onnorth-east front, witli terre-plein platforms and guns, thus leaving on this front only one archand a half, which are adjacent to the east spiral stair. Some of the lower easemato piers ofsame front have been seriously damaged, rendering unsafe the service of two guns hithertoavailable in that quarter. On the exterior, the chief injury done is to be noticed at south-eastpan-coupe and two next upper casemates on east front. From these localities the scarp wall hasfallen away completely and left the arches exposed, as well as the sand filling half down to thefloor of the second tier.”
Tlie next day six monitors, together with the Ironsides , opened fire on thefort, using the heaviest projectiles, namely, 8-inch Parrotts, rifle-shells, and11 and 15 inch smooth-bore shot and shell. Sumter remained silent. It hadnot one single gun in working order with which to reply. The following isan extract from my report to the War Department :
“ The north-east and north-west terre-pleins had fallen in, and the western wall had a crackentirely through from parapet to berme. The greater portion of the southern wall was down,the upper east magazine penetrated, and lower east magazine wall cracked ; the eastern wallitself nearly shot away, and large portions down; ramparts gone, and nearly every casematebreached. The casemates on the eastern face were still filled with sand, and gave some pro-tection to the garrison from shells. Not a single gun remained in barbette, and but a singlesmooth-bore 32-pounder in the west face that could be fired as the morning and evening gun.”
While Sumter had thus been made a mass of crumbling ruins, the enemy,except at short intervals, spared no effort to effect the demolition of Wagneralso. In spite of the ability and determination of the several commanders—Taliaferro, Hagood, A. II. Colquitt, Clingman, It. P. Graham, Harrison, andL. M. Iveitt—who, in turn, were placed there; in spite of the almost super-human energy and pluck of its garrison and working parties to repair, atnight, the damage done during the day, it became evident, on the 5th ofSeptember, that any further attempt to retain possession of it would resultin the useless loss.of the garrisons of both Wagner and Gregg. The enemy’ssap had reached the moat of the former work. The heavy Parrott shells usedagainst its parapets had breached them and knocked away the bomb-proofs.It had become impossible to repair the damages done.
Colonel Rhett and his artillery command of regulars had already beentransferred to the batteries forming the inner defenses, which were nowalmost entirely completed, and mostly armed with the very guns of Sumter.Major Stephen Elliott, with an infantry force taken from various regimentsin and around the city, had been put there to hold the rnpis of the fortagainst any storming parties of the enemy, and to give the morning andevening salute to the Confederate flag, still floating to the breeze. Major