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BY WILLIAM S. STRYKER, BREVET LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, U. S. V., A. I). C. TO GENERAL GILLMORE.

T he Confederate attack on Port Snmter markedthe beginning, and the second and third bom-bardments by the Union guns the middle period ofthe civil war. Morris Island and Polly Island, twolow sand-reefs, constitute the southerly bounds ofthe outer harbor of the city of Charleston . MorrisIsland, which is nearly four miles long, containsabout four hundred acres of sand dunes and saltmarshes; the portion of the island lying towardJames Island being formed almost entirely of verysoft morasses, and traversed by deep bayous andcrooked creeks in every direction.

The Union troops under Major-General QuincyA. Gillmore , the Tenth Army Corps, in the earlymorning of July 10th, 18(33, crossed Liglit-housoInlet from Folly Island and captured a large por-tion of Morris Island. [See p. 58.] The Confeder-ate forces still held Cumming’s Point Battery andBattery Wagner on that part of Morris Island near-est to Port Sumter and to Charleston . On the 1 3thday of July, 1803, General Gillmore directed Lieu-tenant Peter S. Michie, United States Corps of En-gineers, — now Colonel Michie, a professor in theMilitary Academy at West Point,— to make an ex-amination of the marshes on the left of our positiontoward Charleston and ascertain if it were possibleto construct a battery from which to liro into thatcity. In compliance with this order he spent sometime in the examination of the swamp districtof Morris Island, and then reported the resultof his investigations to the commanding general.On tlie morning of July 1 (1th General Gillmore ,■while at breakfast, told Colonel Edward W. Sor-rell, Volunteer Engineers,— now General Sorrell,the distinguished civil engineer of New YorkCity, — of the great desirability of securing a posi-tion from which Are could bo opened upon the cityof Charleston , and directed him to inquire into

the matter. As soon as breakfast was finished,Colonel Serroll and Lieutenant Nathan M. Ed-wards, of his own command, started across themarsh, carrying a fourteen-foot plank betweenthem. When the mud would not bear them theysat on the plank and pushed it forward betweentheir legs. Whon, again, tho soil appeared stiflei',(hey carried the plank until they reached the softmud onco more. And so the first examination wasmade in open view of threo Confederate forts andtwelve batteries, and on a day of most intense heat.However, a spot was found where the mud seemedof slight depth and where the city of Charles-ton could bo distinctly seen. A position was se-lected by Colonel Sorrell, as he says in his officialreport, “at a point bearing from tho south-west-erly end of tho hard ground a course by magneticcompass north 40° west, to a point from whichtho bearing to Port Sumter is north 12° east, andto the old boacon-light south 8(>° east.” Thisplaco was about 7000 yards from Charleston . Inthe evening Colonel Serroll reported to GeneralGillmore that ho believed a battery could be con-structed at a placo which he indicated on the map,and suggested that it bo made of sand-bags with aplatform of grillage. IIo thought a gun weighingnot over 10,000 pounds could be placed on skidshaving a hearing of I 00 square feet and takenacross the marsh, in the same manner in whichBonaparte took his field-piocos over tho Alps on thesnow. lie estimated that 2800 men could carry,in one night, filled sand-bags sufficient in numberto make tho battery; that (10 soldiers could carrythe platform; that 450 men could put the guninto the battery, and 35 men could carry themagazine.

For sevoral days after tho report was preparedcareful examinations were made by Colonel Serrelh

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