Across these ditches at Fort McAllister, through entangling abatis, over
palisading, the Federals had to fight every inch of their way against the
Confederate garrison up to the very doors of their bomb-proofs, before the
defenders yielded on December 13th. Sherman had at once perceived that the
position could be carried only by a land assault. The fort was strongly
protected by ditches, palisades, and plentiful abatis; marshes and streams
covered its flanks, but Sherman's troops knew that shoes and clothing and
abundant rations were waiting for them just beyond it, and had any of them
been asked if they could take the fort their reply would have been in the
words of the poem: "Ain't we simply got to take it?" Sherman selected for
the honor of the assault General Hazen's second division of the Fifteenth
Corps, the same which he himself had commanded at Shiloh and Vicksburg.
Gaily the troops crossed the bridge on the morning of the 13th. Sherman
was watching anxiously through his glass late in the afternoon when a
Federal steamer came up the river and signaled the query: "Is Fort
McAllister taken?" To which Sherman sent reply: "Not yet, but it will be
in a minute." At that instant Sherman saw Hazen's troops emerge from the
woods before the fort, "the lines dressed as on parade, with colors
flying." Immediately dense clouds of smoke belching from the fort
enveloped the Federals. There was a pause; the smoke cleared away, and,
says Sherman, "the parapets were blue with our men." Fort McAllister was
taken.
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1911, PATRIOT PUB. CO.]
[Illustration: A BIG GUN AT FORT McALLISTER