Luckily, he was near the Union fleet in Charleston Harbor. The fleet assisted him, the fleet also had very good ships such as the USS New Ironsides, the fleet had 10 more ships to assist in the assault. The battle officially started on July 18th with the shelling of the Fort. In the morning, the Union ships and other artillery intensely bombarded the Forts. The bombardment started at 8:15 but only with land artillery, but later ships did begin to open fire on the Forts. Brigadier General William B. Taliaferro ordered his men to cover Fort Wagner in sand bags to repel the Union artillery fire. Colonel P. C. Galliard’s battalion then took control of the ramparts, an order also from Taliaferro. Shells that weighed more than 400 pounds were fired from the ships onto the island. After the bombardment of the island is finished, the land assault begins. The 54th Massachusetts Infantry is tasked with leading the assault on Fort Wagner along with the African-American Infantry. The Union troops began advancing on Fort Wagner, the Confederate troops were also getting ready to