1               Bucks County Intelligencer,  Lecture by Col. Davis.  December 20, 1864  Page 3  Col. 1               1

 

Lecture by Col. Davis.—A lecture was delivered be-

fore the Pennsylvania Historical Society, on Wednesday

evening last, by Col. W. W. H. Davis, of Doylestown, on

“The Siege of Morris Island.”  The lecturer was introdu-

ced at eight o’clock, by Horatio G. Jones, Secretary of the

Society.  He first described Morris Island and the coast

geographically, then the rebel fortifications, which were very

strong, Wagner particularly so.  He then entered at great

length into a narration of the occurrences on the Island.  He

said that General Gillmore had redeemed his promise to take

the west end of Morris Island, but a mistake was made on

July 11th, in the attack upon Wagner, and a severe repulse

was received.  The speaker showed the bloodshed conse-

quent upon the attempts to assault the fort, and then ?

Gilmore became satisfied that it could be taken only by sci-

entific approaches.  Then came the attack on Sumpter.  Our

batteries were planted with labor that no one but a soldier

can understand, and a weight of metal was thrown against

Sumpter heavier than ever before thrown against any fort

in the World.  Then the Swamp Angel battery was built. 

It was commenced on the 4th and finished on the 19th.  The

sand-bags alone, to make its foundation, cost $5,000.  This

gun exploded at the 34th round, throwing a shot further than

ever before was known.  The story of Greek fire being used

was an invention.  A gentlemen came with a missile of the

fort and it was tested, but the case always exploded at the

muzzle of the guns.  The speaker described the bombard-

ment of Sumpter.  Six thousand two hundred and fifty pro-

jectiles were thrown.  The artillery practice was very fine. 

On the last day of the bombardment the Ironside, and other

frigates took part.  Then the work of Wagner began in ear-

nest with sure progress up to Sept. 6th.  The ground around

the fort was literally sown with torpedoes; but they did us

service in one respect, for they prevented sorties by the ene-

my.  The men in the trenches were continually being ex-

hausted by heat or killed by the fire of the enemy.  Three

thousand men had already been buried on that strip of sand. 

This point was then considered the key of Charleston.  On

September 7th the final assault was made.  Powerful calci-

um lights were turned on the fort, so that our sharpshooters

could pick off the men repairing damages.  This was a new

feature of warfare.  For forty hours the bombardment was

continued, and was sublimely terrible.  The fort was said to

be evacuated.  A single sergeant volunteered to go into the

fort to see if the report of a deserter to that effect was true,

and found it to be so.  The fort was a ruin.  Nothing but

the sand remained.  The troops took undisputed possession

of as utter ruin as could be imagined.  The remainder of the

paper described the batteries that threw shells into Charles-

ton.  The first night thirteen shells dropped into the doom-

ed city and every night afterward for some time shells were

regularly thrown into the town.  A single gun in one bat-

tery burst at the four thousand six hundred and fifteenth fire,

a case unparalleled in history.  It threw 138,450 pounds of

? at an expenditure of but one-sixth the powder used in

the ordinary guns.  This place did an amount of service

greater than any other known.  The speaker narrated num-

erous interesting personal anecdotes of soldiers.  His paper

will be placed on the archives of the Historical Society.  At

the conclusion of the reading the thanks of the society were

formally voted to their fellow member for his contribution

to their documentary property.