Combined Magazine, Telegraph Office, Latrine, Morris Island

Civil War Field Fortifications

Magazines

Combined Magazines

Magazine, Telegraph Office, and Latrine, Morris Island

Federal forces on Morris Island, South Carolina had the double objectives of capturing Confederate Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg while also bombarding and reducing Fort Sumter to allow the Federal fleet to penetrate Charleston Harbor. After two unsuccessful assaults on Fort Wagner the Federal army was compelled to conduct an attack by regular approaches. Morris Island was quite long, but very narrow and imposed space limitations that hampered siting and construction of the Federal's siege and battering works. This compelled the Federal army to adapt their works to fit the ground in ways that would not normally be considered either expedient or safe. Batteries for heavy artillery aiming at Fort Sumter or Fort Wagner often had to be constructed immediately in rear of and fire directly over batteries for lighter guns and howitzers.

One of the products of the Federals' need to use their limited space as efficiently as possible was this combined magazine, latrine, lookout post, and telegraph office which was constructed behind the center of the second parallel. The magazine chamber was raised and fully framed with heavy timbers and planking. Sandbags rather than frames were used to revet the gallery walls and the gallery was turned once to exit the covering mass on the unengaged side under cover of the splinter proof telegraph office. Frames and sandbags were used to line the walls and roof of the telegraph office while the covering mass above the office was given less thickness than the section over the roof of the magazine. The sandbag revetted latrine was, naturally, placed on the far side of the structure well away the entrances to the gallery and telegraph office. The lookout post was formed by stacking sandbags along the slope of the covering mass and raising the courses of bags high enough to provide bullet proof cover for one or two men.

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