At ten o'clock on the night of July 28th, orders were issued to construct Battery
Meade and Battery Rosecrans in the second parallel.
The positions were laid out and work begun on them before midnight. Work progressed rather slowly, however, because the
Confederate sharpshooters picked off every man who stuck his head above the parapet.
Several men were wounded at a distance of thirteen hundred yards. Consequently all the work that required any exposure was done at night.
Another cause of delay was the lack of earth; when trenches were dug more than three feet deep the spring tides flooded them.
Besides, the work was frequently interrupted by finding dead bodies, either in coffins or wrapped in blankets only.
On an old map
Morris Island was called “
Coffin land” ; it had been used as a quarantine burying-ground for
Charleston.
In spite of such discouragements, the men standing in front of the headquarters at the bottom of the page continued their labors.
By August 17th the five immense Parrott guns stood ready to fire against
Sumter.
Thus the
Federal army advanced, parallel by parallel, toward Battery Wagner at the end of
Morris Island, until the final “flying — sap” took them up to its very walls, and it was carried by assault.
But the defenders had other strings to their bow, as
Gillmore's amphibious diggers discovered.
Though now occupying the stronghold that commanded the harbor from the south, the
Federals got no farther.
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“ ‘Ware sharpshooters!’
” --serving the Parrotts in battery Meade |
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Headquarters of the field officer of the second parallel |
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