The Edisto Rifles at Fort Wagner
by Sgt. William Valmore Izlar, Edisto Rifles
On the first day of September, 1863, a battalion of the Twenty-fifth Regiment, the Edisto Rifles being one of the companies, composed a part of the garrison of Fort Wagner the last five days it was held by the Confederate forces, and was among the last troops to leave when it was evacuated at 11 o'clock on the night of the sixth of September. The Federal flag was flying over one angle of the fort while the Confederates marched quietly out of the sally-port on their way to Cumming's Point to make their escape in small boats to Forts Johnson and Sumter. This was successfully accomplished, with the loss of only one boat, containing Major F.F. Warley, of Second Artillery, and a few other soldiers, captured by the enemy. It is indeed singularly remarkable that a larger number were not made prisoners.
 |
|
Sgt. William Izlar |
The duty in Wagner was so arduous and exhausting that the garrison had to be relived every few days . The detachment from the Twenty-fifth Regiment, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Pressley, went into Wagner on the night of the first day of September, being about the last troops ever sent there. I consider the duty in Wagner the most fearful experience of the four years in the war; especially the last three days and nights. No water, no sleep, very little to eat, and all the while fifteen inch shells were being hurled in broadsides against the fort and the silent and suffering, but faithful garrison, by the powerful armament of the enemy's fleet. At the same time from quite a number of Coehorn mortars, which the Federal engineers had succeeded in placing very near the fort on the land side, an incessant shower of shells were being thrown over the parapet, falling promiscuously all over the interior of the fort and parade.
On one of the vessels in the harbor the enemy had placed a revolving calcium light, which when turned on the fort made it almost as light as day and therefore it was impossible for the garrison and engineers to repair at night the damage sustained by the fort in the day's bombardment. Sentinels, posted on the parapet behind large sand bags for protection, were frequently knocked fifty feet by the projectiles thrown by the frigate New Ironsides, which had taken a position about five hundred yards from the fort and was firing broadsides from fifteen inch guns every few minutes. Moses Rawlinson, a member of the Edisto Rifles, met his death in this manner.
The mangled dead lay thick on every side, and their fast decaying remains under a hot September sun impregnated the atmosphere with a sickening noisome odor. Occasional showers of rain falling on these putrefying bodies, and seeping through the sandy soil, rendered the water supply, which to the large extent was obtained by digging shallow holes in the sand and sinking barrels therein, entirely unfit for use, and repulsive to smell. All of this, added to the groans of the dying and shrieks of the wounded, was enough to cause the stoutest heart to shudder and blanch the cheeks of the bravest of the brave.
During these terrific bombardments by the fleet and land batteries, it was impossible for the troops to remain exposed, and they were kept in the bombproof, except for sentinels and a few gunners. The bombproof was built of very heavy timbers and covered with ten or fifteen feet of sand. When the Ironsides would fire a broadside of shells from her fifteen inch guns, the impact against the bombproof would cause the whole structure to quiver to its foundation, and the sand to fall in showers through interstices of the timbers down on the sweltering soldiers. It was horrifying to think that at any moment the fabric might give way and every one be buried in the wreck. Before the fort was evacuated the sand had been knocked off in one place down to the timbers. The charge of the Light Brigade was a holiday parade in comparison to the experience in Wagner.
After Hagood's brigade went to Virginia, it went into a charge with about seven hundred men and retired with about two hundred. Though the carnage was fearful it lasted but a short time and was, therefore, preferable to the long spunout suffering and nervous strain in Wagner.
