🏰 Fort Wagner

Fort Wagner or Battery Wagner was a beachhead fortification on Morris Island, South Carolina, that covered the southern approach to Charleston Harbor. Named for deceased Lt. Col. Thomas M. Wagner, it was the site of two American Civil War battles in the campaign known as Operations Against the Defenses of Charleston in 1863, in which United States forces took heavy casualties while trying to seize the fort. The Union Army's second assault on Fort Wagner, the Second Battle of Fort Wagner, included African American soldiers from the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and 3rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. Josiah T. Walls, who went on to become a United States Congressman from Florida, was one of the soldiers.