THE ARMY BEFORE CHARLESTON IN 1863.

65

been struck by sixty-one net tons of metal, thrown with a breachingcharge at comparatively short ranges, and yet the injury inflicted could easilyhave been repaired in eight or ten hours.

These operations left the whole of Morris Island in our possession, and0l ’t Sumter in ruins and destitute of guns. A powerful armament wasCounted on the north end of the island, to cooperate with the monitors^hen they should move in, and to prevent the remounting of guns on Forthiuter. Early on the morning following the capture of Battery Wagner,he admiral, under a flag of truce, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter.

w as refused. On the night of the 8th a naval assault was made on theh'W'k about midnight, and repulsed with considerable loss.

^ prominent historian of the war states, on the alleged authority of thettaval commander, that army cooperation was expected in this assault incompliance with previous arrangement. As this statement is entirely desti-. °f truth, the admiral could not have made it, and must have beenmisunderstood in what he did say. Although I had ordered an assault forle same evening by two small regiments, before the admiral’s intentionsXVei ‘e known to me, he was told, in response to a request for information on

that

point, that the boats with the storming party could not leave their ren-

Zv ous in the small creek behind Morris Island until midnight, on account

de:

°t low tide; and yet at 10 p. m. the naval column left the fleet, advancedOhickly to the attack, and by midnight had been repulsed. \ No assistancet l^°m the land forces was expected or desired. In point of fact, it wascclined. Each party was organized without any expectation of aid from therie r, and no reference to any expected cooperation from the army was madey the admiral, or by any of his subordinate commanders in their officialre Ports of the assault. ☆

« wmieral Elliott [Confederate] reports in his journal, November 20th, thatj a t 3 o’clock a detachment of the enemy’s barges, variously estimated at fromto nine in number, approached within three hundred yards of the fort. °pened fire with musketry. Most of the troops got into position veryo m<%, but in spite of all instructions commenced a random fire into the airq" part of many, at the distant boats on the part of others.” And thee Heral adds afterward that “ no rockets were sent up because positive attacksre not made.” From this Colonel Alfred Roman, in his “ Military Opera-s of General Beauregard,” makes the statement that “another boat attack^ IJla de by General Gillmore ’s forces against Fort Sumter resulting in utter0 . . 11 W as had been the case with the former attempt”; and another writer,b°ing still further, asserts that the admiral ordered his pickets to cover the

assault;

lu g party—in sharp contrast with the behavior of the commanding

gneral at thot:

^hat

time of the naval repulse on September 9th. This may enliven

Pur otherwise have been dull reading, perhaps, but nevertheless it is

^ j ^ f '^ 0n • No such attack was ordered, attempted, or even contemplated by

affc er I*® attack seems to have been made soon tary of the Navy, 1863; and also official corre-twe 6n «^t. The Confederates place it he- spondence in “ Engineer and Artillery Operations•fe g ' ana 2 a. m.— Editors. against the Defenses of Charleston Harbor in

6 papers accompanying report of Seere- 18GU.”—Q. A. G-. .