aring, and capable of any heroism; men
whom nothing could daunt and few things subdue. Now, weary,
travel-stained, with the mire and the rain of a two days' tramp;
weakened by the incessant strain and lack of food, having taken nothing
for forty-eight hours save some crackers and cold coffee; with gaps in
their ranks made by the death of comrades who had fallen in battle but a
little time before,--under all these disadvantages, it was plain to be
seen of what stuff these men were made, and for what work they were
ready.

As this regiment, the famous Fifty-fourth, came up the island to take
its place at the head of the storming party in the assault on Wagner, it
was cheered from all sides by the white soldiers, who recognized and
honored the heroism which it had already shown, and of which it was soon
to give such new and sublime proof.

The evening, or rather the afternoon, was a lurid and sultry one. Great
masses of clouds, heavy and black, were piled in the western sky,
fringed here and there by an angry red, and torn by vivid streams of
lightning. Not a breath of wind shook the leaves or stirred the high,
rank grass by the water-side; a portentous and awful stillness filled
the air,--the stillness felt by nature before a devastating storm.
Quiet, with the like awful and portentous calm, the black regiment,
headed by its young, fair-haired, knightly colonel, marched to its
destined place and action.

When within about six hundred yards of the fort it was halted at the
head of the regiments already stationed, and the line of battle formed.
The prospect was such as might daunt the courage of old and well-tried
veterans, but these soldiers of a few weeks seemed but impatient to take
the odds, and to make light of impossibilities. A slightly rising
ground, raked by a murderous fire, to within a little distance of the
battery; a ditch holding three feet of water; a straight lift of
parapet, thirty feet high; an impregnable position, held by a desperate
and invincible foe.

Here the men were addressed in a few brief and burning words by their
heroic commander. Here they were besought to glorify their whole race by
the lustre of their deeds; here their faces shone with a look which
said, "Though men, we are ready to do deeds, to achieve triumphs, worthy
the gods!" here the word of command was given:--

"We are ordered and expected to take Battery Wagner at the point of the
bayonet. Are you ready?"

"Ay, ay, sir! read