rushed like a crowd of maniacs back to the rear. The Defense of Charleston Harbor, p. 104.Colonel Shaw was killed; and as his men, with a few brave exceptions, rushed back, they, General Seymour reported, ‘fell harshly upon those in their rear.’ The other regiments of Strong's brigade continued their forward movement, but fell in heaps before the riflemen of the two Carolinas. Two of General Strong's regiments had been affected by the panic of the negro regiment, and soon the whole First brigade was routed. General Strong was mortally wounded. Meantime Putnam's brigade, after some delay, was daringly led by him against the left of the fort. This part of Wagner had been assigned to the Thirty-first North Carolina. That regiment, however, General Taliaferro states in his report, could not be induced to occupy its position, and hence Putnam, though exposed to a flank fire from the other troops, met no severe fire in his front. He and about a hundred or more of his most determined followers effected a lodgment, and for more than an hour held their place inside the fort, although their comrades had been repulsed. General Taliaferro called for volunteers to dislodge Putnam. Maj. J. R. McDonald of the Fifty-first North Carolina, and Captain Ryan of the Charleston battalion, both offered their services. Ryan's company was accepted, but failed. Whenever, however, any of Putnam's men showed themselves, the Fifty-first North Carolina opened upon them. Colonel Putnam was killed, and his force—approached in rear by some Georgians who, with General Hagood, had crossed over during
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had been withdrawn from the walls and covered with sandbags.
They were, at sight of the infantry, run into the embrasures, and cleared for action.
Shaw's negro regiment of 600 men advanced at a double-quick, but broke at the ditch of Wagner under the withering fire of the Charleston battalion and the Fifty-first North Carolina, and, says Major Johnson,
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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