What Is The Battle Fort Wagner Of 1863

The Battle of Fort Wagner of 1863

The Civil War was triggered by the disagreement between the Southerners and the Northerners over the rights and roles of slaves. The majority of the Southerners believed slaves should have been used for the provision of free labor, while the majority of the Northerners believed that slavery was inhuman and immoral. The Confederate States of America was a Southern country formed by the Southern states’ leaders to break off from the United States. The president of the Confederacy was Jefferson Davis, former senator of Mississippi, while the president of the United States was Abraham Lincoln. The United States forces were referred to as Union forces or the Federal forces, while the Confederacy forces were referred

Major General Quincy Gillmore, who was the commander of the Federal Union, had decided to use the Morris Island as a means of recapturing Fort Sumter, which had been captured by the Confederacy in June 1862. The Union forces had planned to first attack Fort Wagner on the southern part of the Morris Island and then move to attack Battery Gregg in the northern part. This could enable the forces to place guns and attack Fort Sumter from a range until submission (Urwin, 2000). The plan was thought to work successfully, since the Union forces outnumbered the Confederate forces. Fort Sumter was well placed to enable the capture of Charleston city, which was a stronghold of the Confederacy. Gillmore ordered the initial assault on Fort Wagner on 11 July 1863, which was successfully repelled by the Confederacy. The Federals unleashed a heavy artillery barrage on Fort Wagner one week after the first assault. The barrage did not destroy the fort, neither did it demoralize the occupants of the fort. Gillmore decided to use a siege operation after two assaults on Fort Wagner had failed. The siege began at Fort Sumter which was heavily attacked from a range using heavy guns. The shelling destroyed Fort Sumter though it had massive masonry walls. Gillmore ordered for shelling of Charleston after the Confederates’ commander ignored the demand for evacuation from the city. The shelling did not manage to scare the Confederates away from the