Our entire line was drawn up in close proximity to the Confederate position, and at one point on the extreme left the contending forces were reported to be only fifteen yards distant! During a lull in the fury of conflict, the two central figures in the Union army, Grant and Meade, were seen on an eminence in anxious consultation, and the question, "Will the assault be renewed?" was asked along the lines. A writer for the New York Times speaks as follows concerning the relative positions of the fighting hosts:

"One portion of our line retained all day a position within fifteen yards of the Rebel works. This heroic band was the brigade of Colonel McKean, a brigade of Gibbon's division of Hancock's corps, and numbering about eight hundred men. The conduct of these eight hundred is as splendid a stroke of heroism as ever lit up the story of the 'glory we call Greece, and the grandeur we call Rome.' Through the livelong day, these men held their line, within fifteen yards of the enemy, and all his forces could not dislodge them. Repeatedly during the day the Rebels formed double columns of attack to come over the work and assail them, and the officers could be heard encouraging their troops, saying to them, There are only four or five hundred of themcome on!' But the moment the Rebels showed themselves above their parapet, a line of fire flashed out from behind the earthen mound, where those eight hundred heroes stood in a new Thermopylæ, and many a Rebel threw up his arms and fell prone under their swift avenging bullets.

"The sequel of this bit of history is as curious as the deed itself-for while the Rebels dared not venture out to assail McKean's men, neither could he nor his command recede from the perilous position. He could not get back to us-we could not go forward to him. In this dilemma, the ingenious device was hit upon of running a 'sap,' or zigzag trench, up from our line to his. In this way a working party were able to dig up to where they lay, begrimed with powder and worn down with fatigue, and a few hours ago they were brought safely away,

'all that was left of them, left of six hundred!' But McKean, their gallant leader, he came not away alive. Since eleven in the morning, he had lain behind the bulwark his valor defended, a corpse, While preparing to resist a Rebel assault, he fell. pierced by the bullet of a sharpshooter, and after living for an hour or two in an agonizing death-in-life, begging his staff officers to put an end to his misery, his heroic soul forsook the turmoil of this weary, warring world.”

Just

All day this position was retained, neither army making any decided demonstrations of attack. after dark, however, a fierce charge was made by the enemy on Hancock's Corps; but the brave boys of the Second dealt them such deadly volleys from musketry and artillery that the charge, though desperate, resulted only in terrible loss of life. The enemy evinced a bravery in this charge which could not fail to call forth the admiration of those who witnessed it. Their ranks, torn open at every discharge from our guns, closed steadily up and pressed forward to our

very breastworks, some even scaling the parapets, though only to fall dead in the act. But their most desperate efforts to carry the intrenchments were in vain, and their broken ranks fell back through the gloom of the night to their old position.

Thus the curtain fell on the last act in the battle of Cold Harbor-a fight neither lost nor won: for Cold Harbor remained ours in defiance of every endeavor of the enemy to take it; but the Chickahominy, at that point, remained their's, defying in turn all our valor and skill.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

FORT WAGNER.

Site of the Fort.-First Assault.-Bombardment from the Fleet.Heaven's Artillery.-The Advance at Night.-The Colored Regiment.-Furious Assault and Terrible Slaughter.-Bravery of Colored Troops.-Death of Colonel Shaw.-Waiting under a Hailstorm of Death.-The Possession of an Hour.-Repulse and Losses. Wagner Impervious to Assault.-Progress of the Siege.-The Swamp Angel."-Fort Sumter in Ruins.-Calcium Lights.-The Enemy Driven to the Wall.-Wagner Evacuated.-Spoils of Victory.

'HE story of Fort Wagner possesses for me a peculiar

T

and personal interest, on account of having first listened to its recital in detail from the lips of one of the colored participants, while I was held a prisoner in Charleston jail yard. Sergeant Johnson was a fullblooded and intelligent negro, and gave me an interesting history of the captivity of himself and comrades after the final bloody assault of the eighteenth. They were free negroes living in the state of Massachusetts, but were tried on a charge of leaving their masters and joining the Union army. Happily, the abolition of slavery renders such mockeries in the name of justice no longer possible, and gradually the long-suffering and down-trodden race is being placed on the merit of character instead of color.

On the south side of the entrance to Charleston Harbor lies Morris Island—a sand formation washed

up by long accumulations of debris swept outward from the beach, and inward from the wide ocean. Cumming's Point is at the northern extremity of this island, and southward, down the beach, on a narrow peninsula of sand, Fort Wagner faces the sea. Early in July, 1863, a combined military and naval expedition was organized by the Federal Government for the purpose of taking possession of Morris Island, and reducing Fort Wagner.

On July tenth, a lodgment on Morris Island was effected, and the infantry of the attacking force was pushed forward to within six hundred yards of Fort Wagner. In a dispatch to General Halleck, from Morris Island, dated July twelfth, General Gilmore says "We now hold all the Island except about one mile on the north end, which includes Fort Wagner, and a battery on Cumming's Point. *

*

On the morning of the eleventh instant, at daybreak, an effort was made to carry Fort Wagner by assault. The parapet was gained, but the supports recoiled under the fire to which they were exposed, and could not be got up. Our loss in both actions will not vary much from one hundred and fifty in killed, wounded, and prisoners."

But the effort to reduce Fort Wagner by assault was not thus easily relinquished, and another attack was determined upon, which took place on the eighteenth of July. A bombardment from the fleet was to have opened at dawn on that day, but a terrible storm which burst over land and sea, dampened our powder and caused a delay of six hours. At half past twelve o'clock the attack began, and a rain of fire fell upon