FOUR YEARS UNDER FIRE AT FIV CHARLESTON. IVE years ago Charleston sat like a queen upon the waters. With the Ashley on the west and the Cooper on the east, her broad and beautiful bay covered with the sails of every nation, and her great article of export affording employment to thousands of looms, there was no city in the broad South whose present was more prosperous or whose future seemed more propitious. Added to its commercial advantages were those of a highly cultivated society. There was no city in the United States that enjoyed a higher reputation for intellectual culture than the metropolis of South Carolina. With this high intellectual culture were associated a refinement of taste, an elegance of manner, and a respect for high and noble lineage which made Charleston to appear more like some aristocratic European city than the metropolis of an American State. Combined with the English cavalier element which originally peopled the State there has always been a strong admixture of the descendants of old Huguenot families, who fled to this part of the world upon the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Some of these families, tracing their descent even back to a prior emigration from Italy into France, claim as their ancestor one of the Doges of Venice. The Huguenot element has always been strongly evinced in the society of Charleston, not only in peculiarity of taste and of feature but likewise in ecclesiastical organization. The present Huguenot Church is the third which has stood upon the site-the first organization of the congregation occurring about 1690-and is distinguished by a liturgy which for beauty of expression and simplicity of style is unsurpassed by that of any other religious body. The act which ushered in this momentous change was the passage of the ordinance of secession on the 20th December, 1860. No one living in Charleston at the time that event occurred can ever forget the scenes by which it was accompanied. No sooner had the bells of St. Michael's announced the fact than the wildest frenzy seemed to seize the whole population. The air was rent with huzzas; the national ensign was every where supplanted by the emblem of State sovereignty; palmetto branches were borne in triumph along the streets, bales of cotton were suspended on ropes stretched from house to house, on one of which was inscribed in large letters, "THE WORLD WANTS IT;" while the stirring notes of the Marseillaise, afterward exchanged for those of Dixie, met the ear at every corner. When the night had set in the sky was lurid with the glare of bonfires, and the ground fairly shook beneath the double-quick of all the young men of the city under arms and apparently eager for the fray. Some there were who viewed all this with tearful eye and deep though suppressed emotion. Notwithstanding the confident assertion of Mr. Rhett, of the Mercury, that he would drink all the blood that would be shed, they saw the future lurid with all the horrors of civil strife. Among these was the venerable Judge Pettigrew. Walking along the streets of Columbia when the secession furor was at its height, and being accosted by a stranger with the inquiry "Where the insane asylum" was to be found? his reply was, "My friend, look around you; the whole State is one vast insane asylum." The first overt act of hostility which followed the passage of the ordinance of secession was the firing upon the Star of the West. It is true that, previous to this, Major Anderson had been compelled through threats of violence to evacuThe general appearance of the city was in ate Fort Moultrie, and that it had been taken keeping with the historical precedents of the possession of by the South Carolina Militia; people. Its churches, especially those of the but no gun had yet been fired, no act had been Episcopal denomination, were of the old En- committed which might be regarded as a direct glish style of building, grand and spacious but and open defiance of the United States Governdevoid of tinsel and useless ornament. Its li- ment. This was reserved for the following 9th braries, orphan asylums, and halls of public of January. The resident in the lower part of gathering were solidly constructed, well fin- the city, looking out of his window that mornished, and unique as specimens of architect-ing, at first saw nothing particularly noticeable Its dwellings combined elegance with in the bright blue bay which lay stretched out comfort, simplicity with taste. The antique appearance of the city and its European character was the remark of almost every one who visited it. Mr. Gilmore Simms has in this Magazine* described the Palmetto City as it was before se ure. cession. But all this is now changed. Except to an occasional blockade-runner the beautiful harbor of Charleston has been sealed for four long years; its fine society has been dissipated if not completely destroyed, while its noblest edifices have become a prey to the great conflagration of 1861, or have crumbled beneath the effect of the most continuous and terrific bombardment that has ever been concentred upon a city. June, 1857. before him, flanked by the low, shelving shores of Sullivan's and Morris islands, and embracing the grim, gray walls of Sumter. Soon, however, the top-masts of a vessel were seen to rise slowly above the horizon. As it approached every eye was strained to catch its form, and every ear opened to hear the reception which its arrival might evoke. Soon a white puff of smoke was seen arising over the gray sands of Morris Island, and the ear caught the faint report of a gun. Another, and then another, till the far-sighted of us could see the balls ricochetting over the waves in the direction from which the steamer was approaching. Had it kept on its course Sumter, whose ramparts were now glistening with bayonets, and whose shotted guns were protruding from every port, might have made the attempt to protect her, and there would have been enacted, though doubtless with greater honor to the United States Government, the combat which occurred three months later. But the Star of the West turned its prow and sped back to the open sea whence it came. There is a little incident connected with the discharge of that first gun of the war which I have upon the testimony of one of the first ladies of the city. When ordered to fire, the cadet who held the lanyard of the gun was seen to hesitate. "How can I,” he exclaimed, “fire upon that flag which I have been taught to respect and reverence from my youth? But a stern duty compels me;" and with that the iron messenger went speeding on its course. to the South without the shedding of a single drop of blood." When the old State flag, riddled with shot, was brought from the Stevens battery up to the city and carried through the streets, the excitement was tremendous. Church-bells rang out their peals of joy; handkerchiefs waved from every window; friend embraced friend in a wild delirium of delight; while the whole mass of the population, believing that the North must yield to such a display of Southern valor, pressed upon the heels of the horseman and actually did homage to the ensign which he bore aloft. may meet with," remarked one of the first citizens of the State, "there is not the least doubt in my mind about our eventual success." "We may have reverses," said the Rev. Dr. Palmer, "but the policy of Providence from the time of the dispersion at the Tower of Babel has been the disintegration of nations. He allows them to grow large and unwieldy, as this nation has grown, and then, to promote the interests of civilization and of His kingdom, He breaks them asunder, as He will eventually break asunder this mighty people." Let us now pass over the time which intervened till the occupation of Morris Island by the Union troops. It was a time of varied sorrow and gladness. Now the news of some vicJust three months after the firing upon the tory, like that of Bull Run, would stir the whole Star of the West occurred the attack upon Fort | heart of the city, and cause it to beat high with Sumter. The whole previous night the people hope. Then some defeat, like that of Port Royal, of Charleston had spent in anxious expectation. would equally depress it. But, upon the whole, It had been rumored that the opening of the there was the most confident assurance in recontest would take place within the next twenty-gard to the result. "Whatever drawbacks we four hours, but whether it would occur at midnight or at the early dawn it was impossible to conjecture. At just four o'clock in the morning, before the gray light had begun to break in the east, we were all aroused by the report of a heavy gun fired from one of the adjoining islands. It was the signal to open, and in five minutes the air was filled with the whizzing of shot and the explosion of shell. The famous iron battery on Cumming's Point, constructed by Stevens, the cashier of one of the city banks, belched forth flame and smoke at an interval of every three minutes, and sent its shot crashing against the very walls of the defiant fort. This was continued till the day broke, and the sun was up before Major Anderson saw fit to make any reply. Having, like a discreet commander, first refreshed his men and put every thing about the fort in fighting trim, he opened alike from barbette and port batteries. There was not a man who witnessed that scene who was not struck with admiration at the regularity and precision of Sumter's fire. Gun for gun and volley for volley, the heroic Major paid the rebels back in their own coin. Had the fort contained a supply of mortars as well as cannon, and a full complement of men, well provided with the necessaries of life, the strife might have continued for weeks instead of days, and the fort never passed into other hands than those of its rightful owners. But the hostile mortarbatteries, inaccessible to mere shot, first drove the Union soldiers from the use of the barbette guns, then set the fort on fire and compelled its surrender. Let me here state positively that in this combat there was not a single rebel, as there was not a single Union soldier, killed. The only destruction of life which occurred took place at the bursting of the gun with which Anderson saluted his flag upon the evacuation of the fort. It was the remark of Judge Huger, made in my hearing, that "Providence seemed determined to accomplish his decrees in regard The dread of the Monitors, which made their appearance about this time, was very general throughout the city. None had seen one except at a great distance, but every one had heard the most fabulous accounts of their formidableness and power. So lively was the apprehension created by them that batteries went up like magic on the shores around the bay. Sullivan's Island became one vast line of earthworks, the most formidable of which was Battery Bee, on its extreme western point. Earthworks were also thrown up along the shores of James Island. Fort Sumter was immensely strengthened. Castle Pinckney received a new armament. Fort Ripley, an entirely new fort, was constructed of palmetto logs in the centre of the bay. The beautiful Battery walk, the favorite promenade of the Charleston ladies and gentlemen, was partially torn up, and bristled with heavy guns. Then followed the submersion of torpedoes in the harbor and the organization of a company of men called "Tigers," who, in spite of shot and shell, were to board the Monitors as they came up the bay, and planting ladders against their smoke-stacks, to throw bags of powder and other explosive compounds into the furnaces beneath. So numerous were the preparations for defense, that it was certain no vessel could come up to the city without running the gauntlet of at least three concentric circles of fire. Some time after all these vast preparations | to the enemy much valuable information which had been completed, on a bright sunny day, would be made use of in case of an attack on about the hour of noon, Colonel Rhett tele- the city. graphed from Fort Sumter to the city that Thus affairs went on till the early part of July, "The turrets are coming!" and over the low flat 1863, when just at daybreak one morning the land of Morris Island we could see the smoke- people who lived on the Battery were aroused stacks of the Monitors moving slowly along. by a sharp, rapid fire of musketry. So sudden One after another they came in solemn file, fol- was it and so in contrast with the quiet of the lowed by the long black hulk of the New Iron- preceding days that it took every one by sursides, and took their stations near the fort. prise. It was soon discovered to proceed from Then followed discharge after discharge from the neighborhood of the southern extremity of the heaviest guns which had ever been brought Morris Island, and later information developed into naval warfare, answered by long, rever- the fact that the Union troops had opened a berating peals from the batteries on Sullivan, masked battery on Folly Island and seemed deJames, and Morris islands. The very earth termined to force their way across the narrow and sea shook under the terrific din. At one strait which separates it from Morris Island. time the Ironsides floated directly over a sub- How they contrived to elude the rebel generals ʼmarine torpedo, and must inevitably have been in the erection of this battery was a mystery.* blown up, had not the apparatus by which it The surprise, however, was complete. The soliwas to have been fired failed to elicit the neces-tary company of artillerymen which had been sary spark. After some hours the Monitors stationed there were soon driven back, and thus withdrew, having made but a slight impression upon the walls of the fort. The result of this combat inspired the Charlestonians with great hope. It relieved them of those fearful apprehensions which they had entertained in regard to the Monitors, and convinced them that they were by no means irresistible. an entrance effected through the only door by which an approach to Charleston could have been made. In vain had an attempt been essayed over James Island; in vain had the Union gun-boats endeavored to force the Stono; in vain had Sumter been assailed by the powerful armament of the Monitors. The Charlestonians began to exult over their secure and impregnable position, and avow their belief that all the armies of the world could not force their way to their metropolis, when the action of the 10th of July suddenly convinced them of their error and filled them with the gravest apprehension. There was no one so blind but could perceive that the charge of great negligence must be laid at the door of some one of their generals; but whether Beauregard, who had supreme command, or Ripley, who acted as his subordinate, and was intrusted with the particular supervision of the batteries, should be arraigned was long a In anticipation of a conflict with the Monitors, great numbers of military men had flocked to the city from all parts of the South. As a consequence, the hotels and public promenades were crowded with officers, and the greatest dissipation prevailed. Balls and parties followed each other in rapid succession; gambling saloons were opened and drove a thriving business; loose women frequented the streets, impudently accosted passers-by, and filled the hotels with their presence. Nor were these evil influences encouraged and promoted by officers of inferior rank alone.. Military men, high in station, and regarded as the principal supports of "the Confederacy," by their immoral bearing, succeeded in bringing themselves into disgrace, and tainting with suspicion the character of heretofore reputable women. At no time during the war have those high moral influences which have been brought to bear upon the Union soldiers, by means of the Christian Commission and other religious associations, pervaded the armies of the South. Both officers and men were swept away by the same current of dissoluteness and vice, till in many cases whole armies became pest-houses of immorality and ir-ner had been chased ashore just south of the entrance to religion. The Charlestonians at this time also began to experience trouble with their slaves. Many were induced to follow the example of Robert Small, and in small boats running the gauntlet of the rebel batteries, to join the enemy. So frequent did this become that negroes were finally forbidden to occupy boats in certain parts of the harbor for fishing purposes, and the inhabitants of the city were deprived of one of their principal articles of diet. These runaway servants, it was well known, carried with them this was effected: "Between the middle of June and the 6th of July, ordnance and ordnance stores were quietly accumu lated at Folly Island. The following armament [10 batteries with 47 guns and mortars] was secretly placed on the north end of Folly Island, completely masked from the enemy's view by sand-ridges and undergrowth. It was necessary that the attack on Morris Island should be a surprise in order to insure success. Secrecy was therefore an essential element in the preparations. Most of the work on the batteries, and all the transportation to them, was accomplished at night, and in silence. Moreover, all signs of work had to be carefully concealed by day. One fortunate circumstance favored these operations. A blockade-run [* General Gillmore thus explains the manner in which Light-house Inlet, within point-blank range of our batteries, engaged in wrecking this vessel by night and day (an operaand while the enemy on Morris Island were industriously tion which we could easily have prevented) our batteries were quietly and rapidly pushed forward to completion. They were ready to open fire on the 6th of July. The fact that forty-seven pieces of artillery, with two hundred rounds of ammunition for each gun, and provided with suitable parapets, splinter-proof shelters and magazines, were socretly placed in battery in a position within speaking-dietance of the enemy's pickets, exposed to a flank and reverse view from their tall observatories on James Island, and to a flank view at pistol-range from the wreck, furnishes by no means the least interesting and instructive incident of this campaign."—EDITOR HARPER'S MAGAZINE.] matter of dispute. FOUR YEARS UNDER FIRE AT CHARLESTON. The feeling of recrimination | followed great breaches; then fragments would eventually ran so high between the two generals topple down into the water below. The Souththat Ripley was forced to resign, and the Charles-erners worked incessantly to repair these damwere nightly sent down, and large forces of netonians were thus deprived of the services of one ages. Vessel-loads of sand and other materials of the best artillerists in the Southern army. It may not be amiss just here to relate the groes were kept constantly at work. At one impressions formed in regard to the character time a portion of the wall fell, burying beneath of Beauregard, who during most of this event- it a number of the garrison. At another time ful period held command in the city. By all a Federal shell caused the explosion of a quanthe Charlestonians he was held in high respect, tity of ammunition, and destroyed many valuHe was gentlemanly in his able lives. Captain Harleston, a very promiseven admiration. bearing, fluent and affable in conversation, re- ing young officer, who was intrusted with the markable in his military capacities as an engi- command, was struck down while inspecting neer (as the fortifications around Charleston the injuries done to the fort, a loss which was testify), and versed as a strategist. But he was felt to be irreparable. greatly deficient in moral courage, and in the power to enforce discipline among his troops. This was manifest in the battle of Shiloh where, after virtually achieving a great victory, he lost its results in the dispersion of his soldiers to secure the plunder which the Northern troops had It was also exhibited in the left behind them. shameful and execrable conduct of many of the soldiers under his command which were stationed within the precincts of the city. All the disasters which he experienced may apparently be traced to this deficiency. But Beauregard likewise labored under great disadvantages from the inveterate prejudice which existed in the So strong mind of Jefferson Davis against him. was this prejudice that it was exhibited even in the most trivial military arrangements, and served to increase that sentiment of hostility toward Davis which began to be evinced in the minds of the people of Charleston soon after the Like General Jo commencement of the war. Johnston, Beauregard had the malignity and power of the administration pitted against him. Having obtained a foothold on Morris Island, the Union troops slowly advanced by a system of parallels till they arrived within gun-shot of batteries Wagner and Gregg, which the rebel troops had erected on the extreme northern point of the island, and nearest to the city. With their Parrott guns they could even command the walls of Sumter. And now com- But notwithstanding these apparent calami- The superiority of a fortification of débris or The successful defense of Wagner and of other points of attack about the city was also owing to the possession by the Confederates of [* General Gillmore says: "Fort Wagner was found to indeed, than the most exaggerated statements of prisoners be a work of the most formidable character-far more so, had led us to expect. Its bomb-proof shelter, capable of one of the most severe bombardments to which any earthcontaining from 1500 to 1600 men, remained intact after into the bomb-proof by breaching failed from want of work was ever exposed. The attempt to form an opening time. The heavy projectiles were slowly eating their way into it, although their effect was astonishingly slight. Indeed the penetration of rifle projectiles, fired into a sand parapet standing at the natural slope, or approximately along the line of least resistance, or one departing slightly 80, is but trifling. They are almost invariably deflected from it, scooping out in their progress a small hollow, the contents of which are scattered but a short distance. Under such circumstances the general effect produced by firing a large number of successive shots within a small area of say from fifteen to twenty feet square, is by no means commensurate with the necessary expenditure of ammunition."-ED. HARPER'S MAGAZINE.] the Union code of signals. From the walls of Sumter they could decipher with ease every communication which passed between the army and the fleet, and thus became cognizant of intended movements on the part of the Northern troops in time effectually to resist them. of the city. A few moments served to convince them of their error, for the sound was repeated, and this time with such unmistakable distinctness as to remove all doubt from the mind of even the most dubious. It was also noticed that the sound was each time preceded by the faint flash and reverberation of a gun located appar Just previous to the bloody assault on Wagner I was sitting upon one of the seats of the Bat-ently on the southeastern extremity of James Isltery promenade in the city when a colonel passed by who had been in command of a battery on James Island. Upon inquiring of him the news, he informed me that an assault on Wagner would be attempted at a certain time, and that the Southern generals were making busy preparations to meet it. When I asked him how the information was obtained, he confidentially told me of the possession of the Union code of signals by the Confederate officers. Upon further inquiry as to how the Southerners were fortunate enough to obtain this code, he said that some days previous a Union signalmaster had been captured on the beach, and when he had been locked up in prison the services of a clever fellow were secured, who was to array himself in Federal uniform and feign himself a captured Union officer. He was then to be surrounded by a guard, marched to the jail, and confined in the same cell with the signalofficer, where it was understood he was to obtain his confidence, and elicit from him the desired information. The device succeeded beyond the most sanguine anticipation! The Union soldiers wounded and captured at the bloody assault on Wagner were brought up to the city on boats, and placed in a large brick warehouse in Queen Street, near to Church Street. It was in the month of July, when the heat is more intense than during any month in the year. The locality was close and confined, and the consequence was that they died by scores. I am not prepared to say that no other locality could have been obtained for them. I fear that the military authorities of Charleston will find it difficult, in this instance at least, to acquit themselves of the charge of a want of due consideration toward a prostrate and wounded foe. The high sense of magnanimity and honor, on the possession of which they were accustomed to pride themselves, was at this time entirely absorbed in feelings of resentment and vindictive ness. There are events in a man's life which he never forgets; there are scenes which never fade from his sight, and sounds which are ever fresh in his hearing, though he attain a century of years. I can never forget, and there are many others who can never forget, the impression which the sound of the first shell thrown into Charleston made upon the mind. It was near midnight, and, with the exception of a few of the more wakeful ones, the whole city was buried in slumber. Suddenly, and without the least premonition, a whizzing, shrieking sound was heard above the roofs of the houses, which was conjectured by some to be a rocket sent up from one of the signal-stations in the lower part and. The fact then became evident, and was soon corroborated by the shouts of the people in the streets, that the Federals were shelling the city. Had the advent of the final judgment been announced it could not have created greater surprise and consternation. The sidewalks were soon filled with flying women and children hurrying to secure in the upper part of the town a refuge beyond the reach of the deadly missiles. The excitement was increased by the breaking out of a fire reported to have originated by the explosion of one of the shells. These first shells, it was subsequently ascertained, were thrown from the Swamp Angel Battery, located in a marsh to the southeast of James Island, the erection of which had escaped the observation of the Southern generals. This marsh, it was calculated, was four miles from the nearest point of the city, and the shells were consequently thrown a distance of four miles and a half. And yet this was by no means equal to what the Union artillerists subsequently attained, for when they had taken possession of Battery Wagner they sent their shells three or four blocks above Citadel Green—a distance approximating to five and a half or six miles. The great difficulty which has always been experienced in throwing shells to such enormous distances consists in the great elevation which must thereby be given to the gun. When a horizontal shot is fired the retrograde motion of the gun caused by reaction is comparatively easy. It slides along the rail on which it rests until the force is spent, without the least injury to itself. But it is not so when the gun is elevated to a great angle. Then the concussion, instead of expending itself horizontally, drives the gun almost perpendicularly into the ground, and unless carefully guarded against will be certain to disable it. This was illustrated in the first attempts of the Union army to shell the city at such enormous distances. The guns at first almost invariably became disabled, and it required a considerable time to attain the perfection which they subsequently exhibited in the demonstrations made from Forts Gregg and Wagner. Again, it is a well-known fact that a new gun will fire to a much greater distance than one that has been subjected to much use. This is owing to the grooves of the gun being sharp and unworn, whereby the shell fits the more compactly, and the whole blast of the powder is made available. We always knew in Charleston when a new gun had been mounted, by its length of range, and, however great the distance which it attained, always comforted ourselves with the reflection that the next shot would be sure to fall short. |