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| Fort Wagner, sea front. |
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that fortification, engaging its left or northwest face [its weakest side,1] at a distance of from one thousand to eight hundred yards; firing low and aiming at the central embrasure.”
The commander then knew nothing of the great hawser and its dreadful festoons, that hung in the prescribed path of his warriors.
But it was soon discovered and the silence of the lower Confederate
batteries, and especially of powerful Fort Wagner, as the squadron moved by them — a silence which created the most painful forebodings and suspense — was explained.
The Weehawken, its bow furnished with a contrivance for exploding torpedoes and removing obstructions, went forward, leading the procession of strange monsters of the deep, and at three o'clock came suddenly upon that fearful boom, and could go no farther.
Her propeller became entangled in the horrid net-work, and she seemed subject only to the action of the tide.
The other vessels were drawing nearer and nearer, their people wondering why the Weehawken hesitated, when suddenly the silence was broken, as the heavy barbette guns of Fort Sumter poured a stream of plunging shot and shell upon the thralled vessel.
Rodgers saw that contest there would be fatal to his ship, and he managed to withdraw.
Then, followed by the other vessels, he attempted to pass by Sumter, in the channel between it and Cummings's Point, but was there confronted by the rows of piles.
It was well that he was stopped, for had he gone into the open way through one of the rows, the Weehawken would doubtless have been blown to atoms by the monster torpedo just mentioned.
Meanwhile Dupont was bringing the monitors into position for a simultaneous attack on Fort Sumter, when his ponderous flag-ship, the New Ironsides,2 struck by the tide, became almost unmanageable, and confused the line.
He signaled for the other vessels to disregard her, and take positions for the most effective work.
Lieutenant-Commander Rhind then ran the little Keokuk within five hundred yards of the fort, and hurled upon it her immense projectiles, until she, herself, was riddled, began to sink, and was compelled to withdraw.
The Montauk and Catskill were almost as near, and these, with the remainder of the monitors, poured a tremendous storm of heavy metal on the fort.3 At the same time the guns of Forts Sumter,
1 See notice of the character of Fort Sumter on page 118, volume I.
2 This vessel was built at Philadelphia by Merrick & Sons, at a cost of $780,000. She was of 8,486 tons burden. She was launched in May, 1862. Her armament was of 200-pounder rifled Parrott guns, capable of throwing solid shot six miles, and her complement of men was 500. She did good service during the war, and was accidentally burnt near Philadelphia, in December, 1866.
3 Mr. Swinton, author of Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, who was on board the flag-ship during the action, and sent a graphic account of it to the New York Times, thus depicted the scene in the turret of a “monitor” in action: “Here are two huge guns which form the armanent of each monitor — the one 11, the other 15 inches in diameter of bore. The gunners, begrimed with powder and stripped to the waist, are loading the gun. The allowance of powder, 85 pounds to each charge, is passed up rapidly from below; the shot, weighing 420 pounds, is hoisted up by mechanical appliances to the muzzle of the gun, and rammed home; the gun is run out to the port and tightly compressed. The port is open for an instant; the captain of the gun stands behind. lanyard in hand--‘ Ready, fire!’ --and the enormous projectile rushes through its huge parabola, with the weight of 10,000 tons. home to its mark.”
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