. Gordon's experiences in the Civil War : from his narrative, letters and diary . d in the night, and marched the greater part of its length (aboutten miles, if I remember rightly), and the next day witnessed theattack of the monitors and other men-of-war upon these Thisattack was not successful, and so we were brought back to about April 7, 1863. 14 EXPERIENCES IN THE CIVIL WAR the middle of the island, where we spent the next two or threemonths. General Hunter had been superseded by General Q. A. Gillmore,1who at once began active measures for the reduction of the forts infront
. Gordon's experiences in the Civil War : from his narrative, letters and diary . d in the night, and marched the greater part of its length (aboutten miles, if I remember rightly), and the next day witnessed theattack of the monitors and other men-of-war upon these Thisattack was not successful, and so we were brought back to about April 7, 1863. 14 EXPERIENCES IN THE CIVIL WAR the middle of the island, where we spent the next two or threemonths. General Hunter had been superseded by General Q. A. Gillmore,1who at once began active measures for the reduction of the forts infront of Charleston. Forts were secretly built on the extreme headof Folly Island, and here forty-seven guns were mounted before theConfederates, who were only a few hundred yards away acrossLight House Inlet, suspected what we were doing. Then the troopswent up in small boats, surprised those on the lower end of MorrisIsland,2 just opposite to our cannon, and so all the island up to FortWagner fell into our hands. The accompanying sketch will helpsomewhat in understanding the situation:. JT* a I * , 2. CWU Tt*«*i^[j. TV. JoK»sy>- Lsti Houselx)* G^E QillmarSi ^ O-Vr. OUwr<oK June 12, 1863. July 10, 1863. 15 We did a large part of the work in building the forts I have men-tioned. We did the work in the night; were not allowed to talk aloudlest the Southerners should discover us. As we thus worked for eightconsecutive nights before the attack, we did not take part in it—otherwise I might not be here to tell the story. The attack on FortWagner1 was repulsed with great loss, especially among the col-ored troops. After that the General decided to approach Wagnerby parallels, or zigzag lines of works. This must be done in thenight, and three regiments were detailed to hold the short front line—one regiment one night in every three. Ours, having escaped thedeadly assault, was put upon this perilous duty,2 and for quite a whilewe spent about twenty-six hours
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