Gillmore’s report
From the breaching of Fort Pulaski to the end of 1863, in order.
Dates and ranks here have been checked against the record rather than carried across from the working manuscript. Where a date could not be settled, the entry says so and the editorial notes carry the reason.
Gillmore's rifled batteries on Tybee Island breach the masonry of Fort Pulaski at about a mile and force its surrender in a day and a half. The result makes his reputation and shapes every assumption he brings to Charleston.
Brig. Gen. Henry Benham's attack on the James Island works fails. The repulse settles the question of a direct land approach to Charleston from the south.
Rear Adm. Samuel F. Du Pont takes his monitors into the harbor and is beaten out of it. The Keokuk, struck about ninety times, sinks off Morris Island the following morning. Confederate salvage crews later recover both her 11-inch Dahlgren guns and mount them in the harbor defenses.
Gillmore is directed to repair to Washington and is subsequently assigned to command in the Department of the South.
He assumes command of the Department of the South — then a brigadier general of volunteers — with coastal positions running from Lighthouse Inlet to St. Augustine. Holdings of secondary value are given up to concentrate force for Morris Island.
Rear Adm. Andrew H. Foote, named to relieve Du Pont, dies in New York before he can go south and take up the command.
Rear Adm. John A. Dahlgren assumes command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, four days before the landing.
Federal troops concentrate on Folly Island, mask batteries at its northern end, accumulate ordnance and conceal every sign of the work by day.
Strong's brigade embarks in small boats on the evening of the 9th. At daybreak the masked batteries open, the infantry crosses Lighthouse Inlet, and by nine in the morning three-quarters of Morris Island is in Federal hands along with eleven heavy guns. Gillmore's commission as major general of volunteers dates from this day.
Brig. Gen. Alfred H. Terry's demonstration up the Stono against James Island draws Confederate strength away from the real attack.
A daybreak assault fails. Federal knowledge of the work has been imperfect, and Wagner proves far stronger than the reports suggested.
After a daylong land and naval bombardment, Seymour's assaulting division goes in at dusk, the 54th Massachusetts at the head of Strong's brigade. The southeast bastion is gained and held nearly three hours before the attack is withdrawn. Strong, Chatfield, Putnam and Shaw are killed or mortally wounded.
Gillmore abandons assault for regular approaches. The right batteries are converted into a defensive line about 1,350 yards from Wagner.
Established on a ridge some 600 yards in advance of the first and about 870 yards from Wagner, with Vincent's Creek closed by timber booms on the left and the Surf Battery sweeping the beach on the right.
The breaching batteries open at ranges of roughly 3,400 to 4,300 yards. Within a week the gorge wall is cratered, guns are dismounted, and Sumter's value as a heavy-gun harbor work is effectively destroyed.
Gillmore demands the evacuation of Morris Island and Fort Sumter, warning that he will otherwise open on the city. Beauregard protests that no time has been allowed to remove non-combatants.
The Marsh Battery's 8-inch Parrott opens on Charleston on the night of the 21st–22nd at roughly four and a half miles, firing incendiary shell. It bursts on its thirty-sixth round on the night of the 23rd.
Saps and batteries are pushed to the ditch of Battery Wagner under constant fire while the monitors keep up pressure from seaward.
The Confederates evacuate both works during the night. Federal troops occupy the north end of Morris Island, Cummings Point included, the next morning.
Gillmore's batteries reopen on Fort Sumter from Morris Island in a second sustained bombardment. See the editorial notes: the packet's chronology dates this 27 October to 9 November, which does not agree with the usual accounts and must be reconciled with Gillmore's own narrative before print.
Charleston remained in Confederate hands. Morris Island did not, Fort Sumter was a ruin garrisoned by infantry, and the lower city lived inside the range of Federal guns for another fourteen months.