Colonel Edward N. Hallowell, former commander of the famed 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and wounded at Fort Wagner, led one of the brigades including his former unit now consisting of over 700 men.
Sergeant Major Joseph Thomas Wilson later wrote about this fort:[1] "No better position could be found for a defense, as the only approach to it, was by a narrow embankment about 200 yards long, where only one could walk at a time.
The dead men were Private James P. Johnson of Company F, a barber 21 years of age from Owego, NY, and First Lieutenant E.L. Stevens, the latter being the last Federal officer killed in action during the war.
[3] Stevens was killed by 14-year-old Burrell H. Boykin, a member of the Confederate Home Guard whose family owned the land the Union troops were moving through.
[4] Union troops pursued the fleeing Southerners unsuccessfully, and the mill was burned to the ground according to Major General William T. Sherman's "Scorched Earth" policy.