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pilot and third officer of the Baltic, was given command of the hazardous expedition. Why it failed of being prosecuted is not definitely stated. Doubtless, a careful reconnoissance showed every approach to the fort to be so swept with cannon as to render certain destruction inevitable. The fleet therefore lay off the harbor, and received Anderson, to steam away to the North. The Powhatan had not appeared off Charleston at all. Her mission was to Fort Pickens.

Re-enforcement of Fort Pickens,

Pickens was successfully re-enforced on the night of Friday, April 12th. The orders came on Friday, by a bearer of dispatches from Washington, to re-enforce immediately, at all hazards. The Brooklyn steam sloop, taking on board the marines from the frigate Sabine and the sloop St. Louis, bore up as close to the outside shore of Santa Rosa island as the beach would permit. The boats were then lowered and pulled away around the end of the island, silently passing within range of the guns of forts McRae and Barrancas, without being observed. The landing was effected in safety. Lieutenant Albert W. Smith had command of the enterprise. This success induced the order for all the marines of the squadron to embark in small boats. These were taken in tow by the Wyandotte, and drawn into the harbor until the range of the rebel guns was reached, when the boats were cut loose and pulled in, in silence. The second landing was successfully made, and Pickens was safe from the threatened assault of the six thousand troops which Bragg was prepared to launch upon the fort at any moment. On Tuesday, the 16th of April, the Atlantic steam transport arrived, heavily laden with troops, stores, ordnance, ammunition, horses for heavy service, fascines for batteries, &c., &c., all under the direct charge of Captain Meigs, of the U. S. Engineer Corps. The Powhatan steam frigate arrived April 17th. The Illinois steam transport arrived April 20th, laden, as was the Atlantic, with every appliance of war necessary to place Pickens out of danger. Under Captain Meigs' skillful management the entire cargoes were landed on the beach of the south side of Santa Rosa island, by small boats. The horses were slung in a crane

and dropped overboard to be towed into shore. The troops had previously landed, while the vessels of war were so disposed as to cover the operations in event of an attack, which was looked for every moment. The success of this enterprise intensely angered the enemy, when it became known to them, since it placed the fort beyond their grasp. When the news reached the North, as it soon did by the return of the Atlantic, it diffused a sense of relief to all. Captain Meigs received, as he richly merited, the thanks of his loyal countrymen.

The Harper's Ferry Destruction.

The evacuation of Harper's Ferry was consummated on the night of Thursday, April 8th. The secession of Virginia, and the prospective descent upon the Capital, placed the little garrison at the Ferry in danger of capture. Lieutenant R. Jones, in command of the post, was on the alert, keeping himself fully informed of the movements of the conspirators. On Thursday he became aware of the approach of the wellarmed detachment of State troops commissioned to seize the arsenal, stores, buildings, &c., and to retain them for their treasonable purposes. He therefore immediately prepared to burn and blow up the entire property of the Government, and to retreat toward Pennsylvania. Early in the evening the little garrison, consisting of but fifty men, commenced preparations for destroying the arsenals and arms in case of necessity. Planks and timbers were cut up to ignite the buildings. They emptied their mattresses, filled them with powder, and carried them into the arsenals. No suspicion was aroused among the people. The arms, fifteen thou sand in number, were then placed in the best position to be destroyed by the explosion, and splints of boards and straw were piled up in different places in the shops. At nine o'clock, Lieutenant Jones being advised of the advance of not less than two thousand men, who expected to be upon the place by midnight, he at once proceeded to the work of destruction. The windows and doors of the building were opened, that the flames might have free course. When all was ready, the fires were started in the carpenter-shop, the trains leading to the powder ignited, and

DESTRUCTION

OF THE GOSPORT NAVY-YARD,

& C.

111

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Destruction of the Gosport Navy - yard.

his men marched out. The cry of fire alarm- | the stores, the munitions, ed the town; and just as the officer and his the valuable machinery, remen were entering the lodge to escape, an flects a shadow upon the excited crowd pursued him, threatening ven- judgment of the administration of Mr. Lingeance upon him for having fired the build- | coln, which will not be wiped away by the ings. Wheeling his men, he faced the mob. only excuse offered that of military neThe order, "present arms!” rang out on the cessity. The story of that stupendous imnight air, and the mob melted away before molation upon the shrine of treason has been the gleaming gun-barrels leveled at their variously told; but the following appear to heads. The company then fell into line and be the facts. struck up the canal into the woods, to pursue its weary way to Hagerstown, which place it reached at seven the next morning. From thence the company proceeded by omnibuses to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where it arrived unannounced.

It became known, before the fall of Sumter, that, in event of Virginia's secession, she would seek to "appropriate" the Gosport Navy-yard. Anticipating this, Government, instead of reenforcing the place to a defensive position, preferred an evacuation—as if such a course would reassure the Virginia people of Mr. Lincoln's good faith in professing to desire only peace.* Stores, under orders for shipment to the Navy-yard, were withheld. Some authorities assert that, prior to the affair of April 21st, several cargoes of stores and property were reshipped to North

The destruction was nearly complete. The Virginia troops, to the number of three thousand, poured into the place during the night and the following morning to find their coveted prize nothing but charred ruins. The armory was not so far destroyed, however, as to render the machinery hopelessly beyond repair; but Virginia ingenu-ern stations. It is certain one cargo was ity was not able to make much use of the fine and complicated mechanism which the fire could not consume. Harper's Ferry was thus transferred to the hands of the rebels, and, ere long, became a point around which much military interest centered. The Baltimore and Ohio railway passed into disloyal control, and ceased from that date to connect the East and West-a severe blow to Washington, but a severer one to Baltimore, for the Monumental City" quickly became a city of deserted marts and ruined commercial enterprises.

66

Destruction of the The destruction of the
Norfolk (Gosport) Norfolk Navy - yard was
Navy-yard, &c.
the next disaster-the ex-
tent of which it is hard to measure even at
the end of time at which we write. That
that magnificent property in buildings and
material—that immense depot of stores, ord-
nance, and munitions that road of fleets
and harbor of recourse for the Home Squa-
dron and ships in ordinary, should have been
left helpless and exposed to seizure, is not
the least of the crimes which attach to Mr.
Buchanan's administration; and, that all was
given up to the flames and waters, without
any effort to save the vessels, the ordnance,

returned, but it was one which had. not broken bulk at all, having arrived after the evacuation had been determined upon. The Report of the Investigating Committee (hereafter referred to) stated explicitly that the amount of property destroyed exceeded the sum generally fixed upon as the total loss— showing that but little property could have been removed. That it might have been removed, who can doubt? Who shall say that the two thousand cannon, and ammunition enough for a campaign, could not have been quietly sent to Fortress Monroe, the week prior to their hasty abandonment ? That they ought to have been removed, at

* See Appendix, page 480, for Cassius M. Clay's statement to the Editor of the Nashville Democrat, dated Washington, April 20th, representing that Mr. Lincoln would use force only in defense of the capital. Mr. Seward said the same thing in his communication of April 22d, to Governor Hicks. See

also Mayor Brown's statement of his interview with Mr. Lincoln, April 21st. The evacuation of Harper's Ferry, it is stated by Mr. Clay, was ordered

to favor the peace policy; and though no mention is made of Gosport Navy-yard, its evacuation would seem to have been ordered from the motive ascribed for the withdrawal from Harper's Ferry.

Destruction of the Gosport Navy - yard.

all hazards, it needed but little military prescience to declare, since their desertion placed the revolutionists in possession of the very materiel requisite to enable them to take the field immediately. Those Norfolk guns throughout all the war proved potent agencies for injury. They appeared upon almost every field of battle, and gave to Manassas and Yorktown some of their best artillery and siege ordnance.

The Pawnee-having returned from Charleston to Washington on the evening of Friday, April 19th, with an extra detachment of of ficers and marines, and with Commodore Paulding on board, steamed down to Fortress Monroe, to take on board the entire Massachusetts Third, Colonel Wardrop, and with it to proceed to the Gosport station, where the troops were to assist in the work of destruction.* With the Commodore's flag at her peak, the Pawnee started at seven o'clock, Saturday evening, for the station. At halfpast eight she was in Gosport harbor. There lay the first-class frigates, Cumberland and Merrimac, the fine corvette Germantown, the first-class sloop Plymouth-all afloat, and mostly ready for immediate service. Also the frigates Raritan and Columbia, both afloat with their armaments aboard. Also the old liners Pennsylvania (armed and in the stream), and the Columbus and Delaware, in use as store and practice ships. On the stocks, housed, was the immense hulk of the never launched line-of-battle ship New York,

The Pawnee landed her forces at the dock. The Massachusetts Fourth was detailed as guard to the several gates and avenues of approach, to cover operations within the yard, and docks. The marines from the Pennsylvania, Cumberland and Pawnee were then put to the work in hand. All the books, papers and archives of the station were transferred to the Pawnee. The movable portion of the Pennsylvania's furniture and stores were transferred to the Cumberland. This done, the work of destruction commenced. One who was present, wrote:

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Destruction of the Gosport Navy - yard.

stroyed. Carbines had their stocks broken by a blow from the barrels, and were thrown overboard. A large lot of revolvers shared the like fate. Shot and shell by thousands went with hurried plunge to the bottom. Most of the cannon had been spiked the day and night before. There were at least fifteen hundred pieces in the yard — some elegant Dahlgren guns, and Columbiads of all sizes.

"It is impossible to describe the scene of destruction that was exhibited. Unweariedly it was continued from nine o'clock until about twelve, during which time the moon gave light to direct the operations. But when the moon sank behind the western horizon, the barracks near the centre of the yard were set on fire, that by its illumination the work might be continued. The crackling flames and the glare of light inspired with new energies the destroying marines, and havoc was carried everywhere, within the limits of orders. But time was not left to complete the work. Four o'clock of Sunday morning came, and the Pawnee was passing down from Gosport harbor with the Cumberland, the coveted prize of the Secessionists, in tow-every soul from the other ships and the yard being aboard of them, save two. Just as they left their moorings, a rocket was sent up from the deck of the Pawnee. It sped high in air, paused a second, and burst in shivers of many-colored lights. And as it did so, the well-set trains at the ship-houses, and on the decks of the fated vessels left behind, went off as if lit simultaneously by the rocket. One of the ship-houses contained the old New York, a ship thirty years on the stocks, and yet unfinished. The other was vacant; but both houses and the old New York burnt like tinder. The vessels fired were the Pennsylvania, the Merrimac, the Germantown, the Plymouth, the Raritan, the Columbia, the Dolphin. The old Delaware and Columbus, worn out and dismantled seventyfours, were scuttled and sunk at the upper docks on Friday.

"I need not try to picture the scene of the grand conflagration that now burst, like the day of judgment, on the startled citizens of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and all the surround

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