and the 9th Maine Regiments…. The silent
and shattered walls of Wagner all at once burst
forth into a blinding sheet of vivid light, as
though they had suddenly been transformed by
some magic power into the living, seething crater
of a volcano! Down came the whirlwind of destruction along the beach with the swiftness of
lightning! How fearfully the hissing shot, the
shrieking bombs, the whistling bars of iron, and
the whispering bullet struck and crushed through
the dense masses of our brave men! I never
shall forget the terrible sound of that awful blast
of death, which swept down, shattered or dead,
a thousand of our men. Not a shot had missed
its aim. Every bolt of steel, every globe of iron
and lead, tasted of human blood. . .
"In a moment the column recovered itself, like a gallant ship at sea when buried for an instant under the immense wave.
"The ditch is reached; a thousand men leap into it, clamber up the shattered ramparts, and grapple with the foe, which yields and falls back to the rear of the fort. Our men swarm over the walls, bayoneting the desperate rebel cannoneers. Hurrah! the fort is ours!
“But now came another blinding blast from concealed guns in the rear the fort, and our men went down by scores. . . . The struggle