Note number 18, regarding fatigue details, pagea 2

TitleNote number 18, regarding fatigue details, pagea 2
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CollectionsThomas Benton Brooks Papers

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TranscriptionAbout three fourths of the manual labor was simply shoveling sand; one half of the remainder was carrying engineer material, the balance in various kinds of work.  About three fourths of this work was executed during the night time, and at least nine tenths of it under a fire of artillery or sharp shooters of both.  The sharp shooters seldom fired during the night.  The artillery fire was most severe during the day.  Thirty-five projectiles fired by the enemy at our works per hour was called heavy firing although sometimes more than double that number were thrown.  In the order of their number the projectiles were from smooth bore guns, mortars, and rifled guns.  The James Island batteries were from 2000 to 4000 yards from our works.  Fort Sumter and Battery Gregg were respectively about 3500 and 2100 yards.  Fort Wagner was from 1200 to 100 yards.  The total number of casualties in the working parties and the guard of the advanced trenches, not including the main guard of the trenches, during the siege was about 150.  When it is considered that on an average over 200 men were constantly engaged in their duties being under fire for nearly fifty days the number of casualties is astonishingly small.  The camps at which the fatigue parties were quartered and fed were, in order to be beyond the reach of the enemy's fire, two miles from this

TopicsUnited States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
Armed Forces
South Carolina--History

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