Major Brooks' Journal of Siege Work, Morris Island, July to September 1863, page 18 [Recto]

TitleMajor Brooks' Journal of Siege Work, Morris Island, July to September 1863, page 18 [Recto]
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CollectionsThomas Benton Brooks Papers

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Transcription111; Sunday, September 6th.  I reported for duty last night, and was assigned this morning to my original work on the right by order of the General Commanding.  The sap is progressing today.  One branch is to pass to the left and the other to the right of the bastion of the Fort, thus enveloping it.  Today, as yesterday, men are constantly exposing themselves above the parapets without drawing any fire from the enemy.  Indeed, in the extreme front, there is no danger except from our own fire.  Fragments of our own shell fly back to our trench, in one case inflicting a severe wound.  The Fort is as silent as a natural sand bank which, indeed, it much resembles.  All the outside revetments of the work, its lines and surfaces are destroyed by our fire.  It looms over the head of the sap, a huge shapeless sand bluff.  The firing of the Ironsides is excellent.  An U.S. flag is kept constantly at the head of the sap, that she may direct her fire, so as not to endanger us.  Her shell strike the sea face of the work, just in advance of the flag, ricochet over the parapet, fall, explode very regularly, and search every part of the work that can possibly be reached by a mortar fire.  Standing between the fires, and within a few yards of the point of striking, the opportunity to observe the effect, in the sand, of these huge shells

LocationsMorris Island, Charleston County, South Carolina, United States(32.71573,-79.89037)

TopicsSouth Carolina--History
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Armed Forces
Brooks, T. B. (Thomas Benton), 1836-1900

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RightsU.S. Government Work Learn More