Fort Wagner (Morris Island, South Carolina)

Morris Island · South Carolina · Civil War

History & Significance

Fort Wagner was constructed during the summer of 1862 to guard the main ship channel at the entrance of Charleston Harbor and block the threat of a Union advance from the south along Morris Island that would bring Fort Sumter within the range of Northern siege artillery. The First Battle of Fort Wagner occurred on July 11, 1863, with only 12 Confederate soldiers killed as opposed to 339 losses for the U.S. side.

The Second Battle on July 18, 1863, was the Union attack led by the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, one of the first major American military units made up of black soldiers. Although a tactical defeat, the publicity of the battle led to further action for black U.S. troops in the Civil War and spurred additional recruitment that gave the Union Army a further numerical advantage in troops over the South.

The Confederates abandoned the fort on September 7, 1863, after resisting 60 days of shelling, it having been deemed untenable because of the damage from constant bombardment, lack of provisions, and the close proximity of the Union siege trenches to Wagner. Within twenty years of the Civil War, the remnants of the fort had been washed away by erosion on Morris Island; a group of three ex-servicemen traveled to the fort in May 1885 and reported that the entire fort and approaches to it had washed away into the ocean.

Map

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Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Wagner
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Fort_Wagner
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-54th-massachusetts-and-the-second-battle-of-fort-wagner.htm
• https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/fort-wagner
• https://www.masshist.org/database/viewer.php?item_id=2521&pid=3
• https://www.loc.gov/resource/gvhs01.vhs00230

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