Battle of Fort Wagner by Riley McCusker https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p en-us 2023-08-29 22:40:09 UTC 2023-08-30 01:18:13 UTC hello@padlet.com The Assault - July 18, 1863 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677307332 It was a Union attack on a Confederate fort on Morris Island, outside Charlestown; it was a Confederate victory. There were 1,689 casualties in total, with 1,515 of those being Unionists and 174 of them being Confederates. The battle started July 18, 1863, and consisted of two attacks by the Union. The first attack was spearheaded by the first all-black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Infantry. They successfully scaled the parapets, but were driven back after intense hand-to-hand combat. After that failure, the Unionists resorted to siege tactics, which caused the Confederates to abandon the fort on September 7, 1863. Quincy A. Gilmore was the Union general, P. G. T. Beauregard was the Confederate general.
The reason the Unionists wanted Fort Wagner, and Morris Island as a whole, was because they wanted to demoralize the Confederates by taking Charlestown. Charlestown was a symbol of secession for the North and independence for the South, it being the place where the original 7 secessions were decided. However, despite the siege eventually working and the Unionists having control of Charleston’s waters, it was not until much later that Charleston itself was captured.

]]> 2023-08-29 22:45:36 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677307332 Fort Wagner & Surrounding Land: 1863 - 1865 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677338876 2023-08-29 23:39:20 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677338876 Fort Wagner Battle Plan: 1863 - 1865 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677340171 2023-08-29 23:41:11 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677340171 Storming Fort Wagner: 5 July, 1863 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677342863 2023-08-29 23:44:57 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677342863 Bombardment of Fort Wagner, Charleston, South Carolina: 29 August, 1863 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677343900 2023-08-29 23:46:24 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677343900 The Attack on Fort Wagner – The Stormers Advancing Under Fire: 18 July, 1863 rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677344714 2023-08-29 23:47:40 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677344714 Fort Wagner Troop Movement - American Battlefield Trust rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677351019 2023-08-29 23:55:23 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677351019 Political Significance rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677354520      This battle was one of the several attempts the Union made to capture/surround Charlestown. The belief was that by taking Charlestown, the South would lose its fervor and capitulate to the North. Charlestown had a lot of political significance, being the city where the secession originated and was agreed upon.]]> 2023-08-29 23:59:29 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677354520 Cultural Significance rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677357477 Charleston was a cultural hub of the South at the time. The Southern elites lived and partied in Charleston; it was a major port in the South, importing dresses for Southern ladies and weapons for soldiers, and exporting cotton.]]> 2023-08-30 00:03:00 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677357477 Social Significance rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677358019 This battle was also the inspiration for the 1989 motion picture “Glory”, which depicts the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the first all-black regiment, and their attack on the fort. It was the first feature film to focus on the role of African Americans soldiers in the Civil War, and is one of the most accurate and powerful about the Civil War ever made.]]> 2023-08-30 00:03:43 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677358019 Union Primary Source: Boston Gazette - Press Coverage of Assault rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677385299 A Boston Gazette newspaper article produced August 3, 1863, while the siege was underway and after the battles were over. The first paragraphs include updates on the siege and how confident General Gilmore is of victory. The rest of the article is an unknown correspondent’s take on the battle and the recovery afterwards. The Boston Gazette  is a well-respected and semi-reliable newspaper. The purpose of this article is to inform the populace and to increase fervor for the war. This seems like a useful document, as it relays the events of the battle in a clear, if in a somewhat fanciful way, and fleshes out the extent the 54th Massachusetts regiment had on the outcome of the battle. Therefore, a historian could pull from this article that this battle had major effects on African American enlistment into the Union army throughout the rest of the war. However, there is very little information about the Confederate’s actions, limiting the document to a purely Union viewpoint, and the events may be over-dramatized in order to sell better.

]]> 2023-08-30 00:27:34 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677385299 Confederate Primary Source: rmccusker25 https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677445404 Couldn't find one in time :P]]> 2023-08-30 01:13:04 UTC https://padlet.com/rmccusker25/my4o7zuv7phz298p/wish/2677445404