16. The artillery bombardment began on July 18, 1863
Shortly after 8 o’clock in the morning of July 18, one week after Strong’s failed assault of Fort Wagner, Union batteries began to pound its walls. As planned, just over half of the garrison sheltered in the bombproof. The rest, South Carolina troops under Lieutenant Colonel Gaillard, remained on the fort’s walls, taking what shelter they could. There were simply more men in the garrison than the bombproof could hold. The Union land-based guns were soon joined by those on the Navy ships, which sent both shot and shell into the fortifications. The pounding went on throughout the day. By midafternoon New Ironsides closed to within 300 yards of the fort.
The ship was accompanied by ironclad monitors, raftlike turreted vessels which carried one or two guns of immense size. At one point, Fort Wagner’s flag was shot away but a replacement appeared on the walls before Union officers could ask if the facility had surrendered. The entire area of the island and the sea about the ships were covered in thick, heavy, dark smoke from the guns and the bursting of shells. The fort seemed to change shape as the sand was shifted about by the impact of shot and the bursting of shells. After a full day of pounding, just as the sun was about to set, the massive bombardment suddenly increased in ferocity briefly, before coming to a halt.