Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/178

 172 Southern Historical Society Papers.

nance officers ; Captain Burke, quartermaster ; Lieutenants Meade and Stoney, aides; Dr. J. C. Habersham, surgeon-in-chief ; and Captain H. D. D. Twiggs, inspector-general.

THE GARRISON

was composed of the Fifty-first North Carolina, Colonel H. Mc- Kethan ; the Thirty-first North Carolina, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles W. Knight; the Charleston battalion, Lieutenant- Colonel P. C.Gail- lard; the artillery companies of Captains J. T. Buckner and W. J Dixon, of the Sixty-third Georgia regiment, and two field howitzer details of Lieutenant T. D. Waties, of the First South Carolina Reg- ular Artillery. All the artillery was under the immediate command of Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Simkins, of the First South Carolina Regular Infantry. Let it be borne in mind that the entire garrison, according to official reports, numbered on the i8th of July thirteen hundred men only. These troops had relieved a few days before Olmstead's Georgia regiment, Capers', Hanvey's and Basinger's Georgia battalions, Nelson's South Carolina battalion, and the artil- lery companies of Mathews' and Chichester under Lieutenant-Colonel Yates, of South Carolina. They had participated gallantly in re- pelling the assault of the nth of July, and needed relief from the heavy work and details to which they had constantly been subjected.

THE FORCE OF THE ENEMY

opposed to this artillery and infantry force of " Wagner " consisted of four heavy batteries on the island, mounting forty-two siege guns of heavy calibre, and the naval squadron of iron-clads and gun-boats carrying an armament of twenty-three of the most formidable guns ever before used in the reduction of a fortification, making an aggre- gate of sixty-four guns. In addition there were six thousand veteran infantry within the batteries on the island, ready for the assault. To say that the outlook to the garrison of "Wagner" was appalling, but feebly expresses the situation.

THE BOMBARDMENT BEGINS.

On the morning of the i8th I was invited to breakfast with Dr. Harford Cumming, of Augusta, Georgia, as assistant-surgeon in the fort. Our repast consisted of some hard crackers and a tin bucket of fresh butter, sent the doctor from home ; a most tempting meal