Through the whole afternoon there had been a tremendous cannonading of
the fort from the gunboats and the land forces: the smooth, regular
engineer lines were broken, and the fresh-sodded embankments torn and
roughened by the unceasing rain of shot and shell.
About six o'clock there came moving up the island, over the burning
sands and under the burning sky, a stalwart, splendid-appearing set of
men, who looked equal to any daring, and capable of any heroism; men
whom nothing could daunt and few things subdue. Now, weary,
travel-stained, with the mire and the rain of a two days' tramp;
weakened by the incessant strain and lack of food, having taken nothing
for forty-eight hours save some crackers and cold coffee; with gaps in
their ranks made by the death of comrades who had fallen in battle but a
little time before,--under all these disadvantages, it was plain to be
seen of what stuff these men were made, and for what work they were
ready.
As this regiment, the famous Fifty-fourth, came up the island to take
its place at the head of the storming party in the assault on Wagner, it
was cheered from all sides by the white soldiers, who recognized and
honored the heroism which it had already shown, and of which it was soon
to give such new and sublime proof.
The evening, or rather the afternoon, was a lurid and sultry one. Great
masses of clouds, heavy and black, were piled in the western sky,
fringed here and there by an angry red, and torn by vivid streams of
lightning.
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