Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 10.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[537] and Little Folly Rivers. Brigadier--General Hagood succeeded in driving the enemy, about two thousand in number, from James Island, and inflicting upon him a serious loss in killed and wounded, capturing fourteen negroes belonging to the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts regiment. Not the least important of these operations was the engagement with the sloop of war Pawnee, by two sections of Napoleon guns, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Del. Kemper, in which the steamer was injured and forced to retire. General Hagood's loss was three killed, twelve wounded, and three missing. The enemy withdrew entirely from James Island, to Battery Island, when General Hagood advanced his pickets, and the ground has been held to the present date, twenty-second July.

At Battery Wagner and on Morris Island, our troops continued their work of repair, subject to a continued shelling from gunboats and monitors at long range.

On the seventeenth, the enemy's vessels all disappeared from the Stono, and his troops were concentrated on Little Folly and Morris Islands. Firing from the enemy's fleet and land batteries was kept up during the day on Battery Wagner, which interfered seriously with the transportation to Cummins' Point. This has had, ever since, to be carried on at night.

On the night of the seventeenth, the Thirty-first North Carolina regiment relieved Colonel Oldstead's command of Georgia troops, and Captain Craven's company of the Twentieth South Carolina volunteers.

The work of repair and preparation was proceeded with during the night, and at daylight on the eighteenth, the enemy's land and sea batteries opened a feu d'enfer upon the devoted work. The practice was rapid in the extreme, from the Ironsides, from the monitors, and from all the wooden gunboats which, without exposing themselves, could get the range. According to Brigadier-General Taliaferro's estimate, over nine thousand shot and shell were thrown; but, as if by the special interposition of Providence, our loss was slight. Indications of an assault at dusk were apparent, and the guns of Sumter and Battery Gregg were in preparation to open fire over Battery Wagner on the columns of the enemy. Brigadier-General Hagood was relieved from the command of James Island, to be in readiness to support or relieve Brigadier-General Taliaferro, and Colonel Harrison's Thirty-second regiment of Georgians proceeded to the reinforcement and relief of the garrison. While in passage, the assault commenced, which was bravely met and repulsed with terrific slaughter on the part of the enemy by the heroic garrison and its commander, Brigadier-General Taliaferro, who directed all the operations until the final repulse.

In his report the details of the assault and its repulse are set forth, and I cannot do more or better than to second his commendations of those brave officers and men who stood the tempest of shot and shell and sent back the column of the enemy from their work, with a loss which may safely be computed at about three thousand in killed, wounded and prisoners. Brigadier-General Hagood, with Colonel Harrison's regiment, assisted in the final repulse. of a party who had made a lodgment in the south-eastern salient of the battery.

The carnage of the enemy in the confined space in front of Battery Wagner, was extreme. The ditch and glacis were encumbered with the slain of all ranks and colors, for the enemy had put the poor negroes, whom they had forced into an unnatural service, in front, to be, as they were, slaughtered indiscriminately. The white Colonel who commanded them fell with many officers of the regiment, the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, and the colors under which they were sent to butchery by hypocrisy and inhumanity, fell draggled in blood and sand in the ditch, a mournful memorial of the waste of industry.

This result was not accomplished without a loss on our part of brave officers and men, though of those who in the struggle battled for the right, the proportion who fell was far less than that of their enemy.

In this engagement, our loss in killed, wounded, and missing, was one hundred and seventy-four. Among the officers, whose loss we have to lament, and whose position and services entitle them to special mention, were Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Simkins, of the First South Carolina infantry, Captain William H. Ryan, Charleston battalion, Captain W. T. Tatum, First South Carolina infantry, who were killed ; and Major David Ramsay of the Charleston battalion, who was severely wounded. Other gallant officers and soldiers fell, whose names are mentioned in the reports of their several commanders, and whose memories should be cherished by a grateful country. While the assault on Battery Wagner was progressing, Battery Gregg, under Captain Lesesne, and the batteries of Fort Sumter, under Colonel Alfred Rhett, kept up a continuous fire upon the ground over which the enemy advanced, until Brigadier-General Taliaferro advanced his pickets to the front, when they ceased, and the narrow field of battle was quiet for the night.

Brigadier-General Taliaferro, who had been in command and on trench duty for five days, was relieved in the morning, by Brigadier-General Hagood.

This report, ending with the second repulse of the enemy from Battery Wagner, will be continued from that time. The operations of the enemy from that date, within the limits of my command, have changed their character. In closing it, I have the honor to express my high appreciation of the distinguished services of Brigadier-General Taliaferro, who commanded the troops in Battery Wagner with great ability and gallantry, and repulsed the memorable assault of the eighteenth, and of the excellent conduct of Brigadier-Generals Hagood and Colquitt, as evidenced in the attack on the enemy's position, on the sixteenth. Besides these, Colonel