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The Rebel Troops Engaged.

CAPTURE OF THE FORTS

unteers, Colonel Jones; the Ninth South Carolina volunteers, Colonel Haywood; a battalion of German artillery, under Colonel Wagener; about thirteen hundred men in all -enough to serve all the guns in the most efficient manner. They had also a field battery with five hundred troops stationed at a point a short distance above Hilton Head, where they anticipated our transports would undertake to land their forces for a flank movement, preparatory to carrring the fortification by assault. The forts, or batteries, opposite were manned by four hundred South Carolina volunteers.

Condition of the Forts.

The flight of the garrison evidently was a panic. A correspondent said: "The road which the retreating rebels took was strewn for miles with muskets, knapsacks, blankets, cartridgeboxes and other valuables that they had thrown away in their flighs. They retreated across the island to Seabrook, a distance of half a dozen miles, where they took boat for Savannah. Even the wharf at Seabrook was strewn with valuables, carried thus far and abandoned at the last moment." Another person, present with the first landing party, thus daguerreotyped the scene presented within the work: "The effects of our fire were to be seen on every hand. On the line along the front, three guns were dismounted by the enfilading fire. One carriage struck by a large shell, was shivered to pieces, dismounting the heavy gun mounted upon it, and sending the splinters flying in all directions with terrific force. Between the gun and the foot of the parapet was a large pool of blood, mingled with brains, fragments of skull and pieces of flesh, evidently from the face, as portions of whiskers still clung to it. This shot must have done horrible execution, as other portions of human beings were found all about it. Another carriage to the right was broken to pieces, and the guns on the water fronts were rendered useless by the enfilading fire from the gunboats on the left flank. Their scorching fire of shell which swept with resistless fury and deadly effect across this long water front, where the enemy had placed their heaviest metal, en barbette, without taking the precaution to place tra

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Condition of the Forts.

verses, between the guns, did as much as anything to drive the rebels from their works, in a hurried manner. The works were ploughed up by the shot and shell so badly as to make immediate repairs necessary. All the houses and many of the tents about the work were perforated and torn by flying shell, and hardly a light of glass could be found intact, in any building where a shell exploded. The trees in the vicinity of the object of our fire, showed marks of heavy visitations. Everything, indeed, bore the marks of ruin. No wonder, then, that the rebels beat a hasty retreat. I can, and do, cheerfully bear testi. mony to the gallant and courageous manner in which the rebels maintained their position under a hot fire, and fought at their guns where many would have fled." The severest fighting was done by Colonel Wagener's German artillery. Without them the fort could not have sustained the conflict one hour. The Wabash fired, during the action, nine hundred shots, being all eight, nine, ten and eleven-inch shells, with the exception of a few rifled-cannon projectiles of a new pattern, used simply as a matter of experiment. The Susquehanna fired five hundred shots, the Bienville one hundred and eightyfive. The average of the gunboats and the other smaller ships was set down at one hundred and fifty each. There were, in all, sixteen vessels engaged. From all of them were fired not far from thirty-five hundred shot and shell at the two forts (Walker and Beauregard), the four-gun battery, and at Tatnall's fleet," which beat such a hasty retreat on Monday.

66

The Number of Shots Fired.

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