[89] with the wide Ogeechee. His deployment was necessarily slow and difficult, and, strange to say, it took him till after half-past 4 in the afternoon to get every man in position as he desired. The whole command, officers and men, understood exactly what they were to do. At last the bugle was sounded for the impulse, “and at precisely five o'clock the fort was carried.”
Hazen acted very wisely when he gave instructions to do what all infantry commanders are now obliged to do: use thin lines. He made his as thin as he could, the result of which was that none of his soldiers were hit by the garrison until they were very near. Of course, at close quarters the fighting between men of equal determination was fierce and bloody.
Not far outside the works other torpedoes were encountered, many. of which were exploded as the feet of the men struck them, in many instances blowing and scattering the men in fragments.
Hazen's last clause in his story is graphic indeed. “The line moved on without checking, over, under, and through abatis, ditches, palisading, and parapets, fighting the garrison through the fort to their bombproofs, from which they still fought, and only succumbed as each man was individually overpowered.” Twenty-four of Hazen's officers and men were killed and 110 officers and men wounded in this assault. They captured, including the killed, 250 men and officers, 24 pieces of ordnance, 10 tons of ammunition, quantities of food, small arms, and the animals and equipments of a light battery, horses and officers, and private stores in abundance which had been placed within Fort McAllister for safety.
The morning in which Hazen left King's Bridge,
