Battery D First Rhode Island Light Artillery in the Civil War

by George C. Sumner

Sergt. Gray soon discovered that the position of his gun (in barbette) was a failure, because of the ease with which the rebel infantry could prevent his men from loading the piece—they being obliged to expose a considerable portion of their bodies in the performance of that duty. Ordering the piece taken down from its elevated position, the sergeant had it run into the embrasure upon his right, from which he rapidly poured round after round of canister among the mass of rebels that were charging the bastion on the north side.

Either the rapid and terribly destructive work of this gun, or the desire of the enemy to find some easier way of entering the fort, caused them to swing away from this point around to the western front, and soon our sergeant noticed that there was apparently no enemy in his front. Not being of the kind to throw away ammunition, and having in mind the necessity for observing economy in its use, after taking the precaution to load the piece with double canister, and have the number four affix his friction primer, with the lanyard held taut in his hand, he awaited events.

It was only a moment before the head and shoulders of a rebel officer appeared above the brow of the ditch, who, after a hurried glance around, sprang into the embrasure, rushed up to the muzzle of the gun and placing his sword upon it, ordered its surrender. William Mills, the number four, turned to his sergeant and asked, "Charlie, shall I let him have it?" "No," replied Gray, "don't waste a double round of canister on one d——d fool." Not long, however, did the sergeant have to wait for more victims. Before his words were hardly spoken three more brave rebels had followed their leader. Gray gave the order to "Fire!" and when the smoke cleared away not a vestige of the four heroes who had stood before that gun a moment before remained.

This seemed to quiet the enemy on the northern front of the bastion, but a fresh column now commenced a furious assault upon the western front, the noise and confusion of which attracted the attention of Sergt. Gray, who, glancing around to the embrasure in his rear, discovered that the gun from a New York battery, which occupied it, was evidently in trouble. Hurrying across, he ascertained that the horses had run away with the limber, thus depriving the gun of ammunition.

Sergt. Gray had the gun replaced with his own, and during the remainder of the battle, ably and heroically supported by the men of the fourth detachment, did such efficient service that although many desperate attempts were made to drive them from their position, none were successful.

Benjamin's twenty-pound Parrotts had opened fire at the same moment with our own, and were sweeping the opposite side of the glacis with double canister.

The infantry support in Fort Sanders consisted of the Seventy-ninth New York and two companies of the Twenty-ninth Massachusetts. These men were posted along the parapets and angles of the fort, every place that would afford opportunity for a shot at our assailants being fully occupied. Full cartridge-boxes, with hundreds of extras, were placed in front of each man, to facilitate the most rapid work. Men who could not find a place in the line were employed to load muskets and pass them to their comrades who were in position.

Soon we were in the midst of the very hottest work, the enemy charging in "Column by division, closed en masse," and although the entanglement prostrated many, the weight of the column carried them over it to the edge of the ditch, the formidableness of which caused them to momentarily hesitate. Then it was that the terrific fire from the double-shotted guns of our artillery and closely posted infantry, delivered almost in their faces—not ten yards distant—caused them to melt away as grass before the mower's scythe, and jump into the ditch for safety; but, alas! no sooner had they reached the ditch than Lieut. Benjamin had some of his twenty-pound Parrott ammunition with fifteen second fuses brought into the bastion of the fort, and lighting the fuses with a burning stick they threw them through the embrasures or rolled them down the parapets into the ditch.

Acts of heroism followed each other in rapid succession; the brave rebels were making every effort to scale the twenty feet from the bottom of the ditch to the parapet, under the greatest difficulties; digging with their fingers into the slippery surface they would raise themselves up the embankment for a short distance, only to lose their hold and slide back into the ditch; and if perchance one did reach the top without being shot on the way up, the moment his head showed above the parapet it would be pierced with a bullet, and back he would roll into the ditch. Two or three times the enemy succeeded in reaching the top of the parapet, upon which they placed their flags, but they were instantly killed.