Fort Wagner battle game: the night assault on Morris Island
A strip of sand between the marsh and the sea, barely wide enough for one regiment, and a sand fort at the end of it. Fort Wagner is one of the four Forgotten Fields in Civy War, and it is free.
One scenario, playable from either side. Every battle runs five minutes on the clock against a Green, Regular or Veteran enemy: the attacker has to break the line before nightfall, the defender has to hold.
Fort Wagner
Free · Forgotten Fields
July 18, 1863 · dusk
As the Union, storm Fort Wagner and open the way to Charleston. Strong's brigade goes first: the 54th Massachusetts, then the 6th Connecticut and the 48th New York for the bastion on the ocean side, with the 3rd New Hampshire, 76th Pennsylvania and 9th Maine. Putnam's brigade follows.
As the Confederacy, hold the fort and make them cross the sand. The 51st and 31st North Carolina, the Charleston Battalion and the fort's guns man the parapets the moment the shelling stops, and the 32nd Georgia lands from Charleston during the assault. Watch the southeast bastion by the sea: if it is left empty, they will get in.
The battle
In July 1863 Union forces under Quincy A. Gillmore landed on Morris Island to attack Charleston Harbor. Fort Wagner, a sand and earth fort across the island's narrow neck, stood in the way. A first assault on July 11, led by the 7th Connecticut, reached the parapet and was thrown back.
On July 18 the fleet and the land batteries shelled the fort from noon, but its garrison sheltered in the bombproof. At dusk the 54th Massachusetts, a regiment of Black soldiers, led the attack, and its colonel, Robert Gould Shaw, was killed on the parapet. The 6th Connecticut and 48th New York got into the southeast bastion, which the 31st North Carolina had failed to man, and held it for hours in the dark; Colonel John Chatfield of the 6th was mortally wounded. With no support they were driven out. Union losses were over 1,500, the Confederate fewer than 200.
The assault failed, and Wagner was abandoned only after a seven-week siege. But the courage of the 54th changed minds across the North and sped the recruiting of United States Colored Troops.
Free or paid
Free. Fort Wagner is one of the Forgotten Fields, four lesser-known battles fought in part by Connecticut regiments, all free with no purchase. The map is Robert Knox Sneden's drawing of Gillmore's earthworks in front of the fort, from the Library of Congress.
Thirteen battles, the Drill Field and the Field Manual are free. The Historical Campaigns, Grant's Campaigns and The Western Campaigns are optional one-time purchases that restore on every device signed in to the same Apple ID.
