Gen. W. B. Taliaferro, who had commanded a division in Jackson's corps, army of Northern Virginia, and was now serving under General Beauregard, was ordered to take command on Morris island on the 13th of July, and relieved Colonel Graham on the 14th. He reported the enemy had his pickets three-quarters of a mile in front; was busy erecting batteries along the hills 1,300 and 2,000 yards distant; that his riflemen were annoying, and that the fleet had thrown some 300 shell and shot during the day. On the night of the 14th, General Taliaferro ordered Major Rion to make a reconnoissance of the position in front, and gave him command of 150 men for this purpose, detachments from Colonel Graham's garrison—Seventh South Carolina battalion, Twenty-first South Carolina, Twelfth and Eighteenth Georgia, and Fifty-first North Carolina. Major Rion was directed to drive in the enemy's pickets and feel his way until he encountered a supporting force. The duty was gallantly and well done. Rion pushed the pickets back, first upon their reserves and then upon a brigade in position, and moved on them so rapidly that the fire of the brigade was delivered into its retreating comrades. Accomplishing the purpose of the reconnoissance, Rion withdrew to the ridge 200 yards in advance of the fort.
Graham's gallant garrison was now relieved and Fort Wagner occupied by the Charleston battalion, Lieut.-Col. Peter C. Gaillard; Fifty-first North Carolina, Col. Hector McKethan; Thirty-first North Carolina, Lieut.-Col. C. W. Knight; the companies of Capts. W. T. Tatom and Warren Adams, of the First South Carolina infantry (drilled as artillery); Captains Dixon's and Buckner's companies, Sixty-third Georgia infantry and heavy artillery; section of howitzers, De Saussure's artillery, under Capt. W. L. De Pass, and a section of howitzers under Lieut. L. D. Waties, First South Carolina artillery. Lieut.-Col. J. C. Simkins was in command of all the batteries, as chief of artillery.
The right flank was assigned to Lieutenant-Colonel Gaillard, the center to Colonel McKethan, and the left to Lieutenant-Colonel Knight. The mortar battery, which fired at intervals of thirty minutes, was under charge of Captain Tatom. Outside the fort, two of Colonel Gaillard's companies, under Capt. Julius Blake, held the sand-hills along the beach and the face extending from the sally-port to the beach.
The artillery commands fired on the Federal working parties and the monitors at intervals. The bombardment was continued by the fleet throughout the 15th, 16th and 17th, three hundred or more heavy shot and shell being thrown on each of these days. The casualties in the fort were not numerous, and the damage done in the day was repaired at night. Meanwhile the enemy's land batteries were pressed forward, the nearest being within the fort's range.
On the morning of the 18th, the batteries in front and the fleet on the flank opened on Wagner a concentrated fire from guns of the heaviest caliber. The Ironsides, five monitors and the gunboats Paul Jones, Ottawa, Seneca, Chippewa and Wissahickon, steamed within close range. General Gillmore's 10-inch mortars, 10, 20 and 30 pounder Parrott rifles, thirty-six pieces of powerful artillery, all opened on the fort, and kept up the bombardment for the whole day and until 7:45 in the evening. Major Johnson's careful estimate is that the bombardment was from a total of sixty-four guns and mortars. Wagner, Gregg, Sumter, Moultrie and batteries on James island replied, but the fire from the island and from Moultrie was at too great a range to be effective. The bombardment became heaviest about midday, and for nearly eight hours one hundred guns, in attack and defense, were filling the air with clouds of smoke and peals of thunder. Most of the men were kept in the bomb-proof. The gun detachments filled the embrasures with sand-bags and covered the light pieces in the same way, keeping close under the merlons. Gaillard and Ramsay stuck to the parapet on the right, and the gallant battalion stuck to them. With only the protection of the parapet and the merlons, "with an heroic intrepidity never surpassed," says General Taliaferro, "the Charleston battalion maintained their position without flinching during the entire day."
As night came on, General Seymour formed his column of three brigades for the assault. We quote from his report:
It was suggested to me that the brigade of General Strong would suffice, but it was finally understood that all the force of my command should be held ready for the work. The division was accordingly formed on the beach and moved to the front. It consisted of three fine brigades: The First, under Brigadier-General Strong, was composed of the Forty-eighth New York, Colonel Barton; Seventy-sixth Pennsylvania, Captain Littell; Third New Hampshire, Colonel Jackson; Sixth Connecticut, Colonel Chatfield; Ninth Maine, Colonel Emery, and Fifty-fourth Massachusetts [negro troops], Colonel Shaw. The Second brigade, under Colonel Putnam, consisted of the Seventh New Hampshire, Lieutenant-Colonel Abbott; One Hundredth New York, Colonel Dandy; Sixty-second Ohio, Colonel Pond; Sixty-seventh Ohio, Colonel Voris. The Third brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General Stevenson, and consisted of four excellent regiments.
General Strong's brigade was to lead, with the Massachusetts regiment in front; Colonel Putnam's promptly to support General Strong, "if it became necessary," and Stevenson's was held in reserve. The hour of twilight was selected "to prevent accurate firing by the enemy". The bayonet alone was to be used by the assailants. "The Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, a colored regiment of excellent character, well officered, with full ranks, that had conducted itself commendably a few days previously on James island, was placed in front." Then, says Seymour, "the First brigade launched forward. It had not moved far, before the fort, liberated somewhat from the presence of our fire, opened with rapid discharges of grape and canister, and its parapet was lit by a living line of musketry. More than half the distance was well passed when, present myself with the column, I saw that to overcome such resistance, overpowering force must be employed."
Seymour, now wounded, ordered up Putnam, as Strong's brigade "as a mass had already retired, although detached portions, principally from the Forty-eighth New York and Sixth Connecticut, with the colors of those regiments, still clung to the fort." Putnam at first declined to obey General Seymour, alleging that he had Gillmore's order to remain where he was. Meanwhile, portions of the Sixth Connecticut and Forty-eighth New York were vainly endeavoring to scale the parapet or were bravely dying on its crest. Some had gained the crest and the interior of the southeast salient, where the defense was assigned to the Thirty-first North Carolina. This regiment, which had an honorable record, and was yet to distinguish itself on many a field, was seized with panic in the bomb-proof at the first alarm and could not be got to the parapet. The whole bastion was undefended by infantry at the crisis of the attack.
Finally, Putnam came on and met the grape and canister and musketry of the fort, which broke his column to pieces. He gallantly led the mass of survivors against the left bastion, and mounting the parapet, entered the bastion enclosure with a hundred or more of his men. Here they maintained themselves for an hour until finally overcome, Colonel Putnam being killed, and the whole Federal attacking force on the outside of the bastion retreating along the beach. On leaving the field, impressed with the force and character of the defense, General Seymour had twice ordered the brigade under General Stevenson to follow Putnam, but the order was not obeyed, and that brigade took no part in the action. In the above account of the attack we have followed the report of General Seymour.