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THE FORTS OF PENSACOLA.

joined by the rest, he slowly raised the flag, as the band struck up "Hail, Columbia !"

When the United States Government had resolved upon an attempt to send provisions to Fort Sumter, it also determined to reinforce Fort Pickens, which was the only one of the several public works in the harbor of Pensacola which remained in the possession of the Federal Government. The insurgents of Florida had seized all the rest early in January, and now held them with a strong force under the command of General Bragg, of the Confederate army, more honorably known as Captain Bragg, the commander of the battery which did such good service in the battle of Buena Vista, and to whom General Taylor addressed his famous command: "A little more grape, Captain Bragg."

Pensacola being one of the largest and safest harbors on the Southern coast, had been chosen as the principal naval station of the South. Here, accordingly, a large navy-yard and arsenal had been established, and strong works of defence constructed. The principal of these was Fort Pickens, built upon the island of Santa Rosa, a long stretch of low land which intervenes between the harbor and the sea. The fortress rises upon the extreme western point of the island, and commands both the harbor and approaches. It is a bastioned work of great strength and extent, requiring a garrison of one thousand two hundred and sixty soldiers. The walls are of granite- forty-five feet high and twelve feet thick, pierced

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for three tiers of guns, two of which are concreted, and the third en barbette. Its whole armament, when complete, consists of sixty-three forty-two pounders, seventeen thirty-two pounders, fortynine twenty-four pounders, five eighteens, thirteen twelves, six brass fieldpieces, twenty-six brass flank howitzers, thirteen heavy eight-inch howitzers, one thirteen-inch mortar, four heavy teninch mortars, four light eight-inch mortars, four sixteen-inch stone mortars, and five cohorns-making in all two hundred and ten guns. Fort Pickens was begun in 1828, and completed in 1853, at a cost of one million of dollars.

Directly opposite, on the mainland, stands Fort McRae, also a bastioned work of considerable strength, with walls of brick, twelve feet thick, and mounting one hundred and fifty cannon, in three tiers-two under casemates, and the third en barbette. When properly garrisoned, it contains six hundred and fifty men. The guns, like those of Fort Pickens, have a wide range, and, together with the water-battery of eight guns toward the south, Forts Pickens and McRae defend the harbor of Pensacola from every approach in the direction of the Gulf of Mexico.

On the mainland, directly north of Fort Pickens, is another strong bastioned work, called Fort St. Carlos de Barrancas, from the ancient Spanish fortress originally standing upon the same site. It is mounted with forty-nine guns, and requires a garrison of two hundred and fifty men. A strong redoubt is built in its rear to give it ad

ditional support. Forts McRae and Barrancas, together with the navy-yard and arsenal, having been seized by the Confederates, there seemed imminent danger of their getting possession also of Fort Pickens, but they were thwarted in their design by Lieutenant Slemmer, the United States commander. This young officer being on the alert, no sooner discovered their purpose, than he concentrated his little garrison of eighty men within the fort, and kept the enemy at bay until the 12th of April, when the first successful attempt was made to reinforce him. This was effected by the United States man-of-war Brooklyn, and is thus described by one* who shared in the enterprise :

"On Friday, April 12th," says he, "our captain received orders to prepare for landing the troops (Company A, First Artillery) which we brought from Fort Monroe. After sunset, all the boats were hoisted out and dropped astern. Volunteers were called for to man them, and every man in the ship volunteered. After selecting the crews, they were armed to the teeth for covering the landing of the troops. As the enemy threatened to prevent the landing, having stationed coast-guards along shore for that purpose, it was necessary to send a considerable force; so the Sabine and St. Louis' boats were sent to assist our men. After the moon had set, all deck lights were extinguished, to prevent the enemy discovering our movements. Strange to say, the light-house on shore, whose powerful light would

• Correspondent HARPERS WEEKLY.”

make the position of our ships visible, was put out about the same time. Between ten and eleven o'clock the ship got under way, creeping slowly toward the shore and sounding all the way, anchoring in seven fathoms of water, which indicated close proximity to the shore. The boats were then got alongside, and the men disembarked. At this time the ship's deck presented an interesting and lively spectacle, though all was done very quietly, reflecting great credit upon the officers in command. After all was ready, Lieutenant Albert N. Smith, who had command of the boat expedition, shoved off, and the other boats followed in line. He intended landing on the beach near the ship and marching to the fort, a distance of about three miles ; but finding the surf too heavy, he determined to pull into the harbor and land in front of Pickens. successful; the doors of the fort were opened, and the troops entered. In the mean while the Wyandotte carried all the Sabine's marines and put them on the Brooklyn, which, together with the Brooklyn's marines, were to go also. The boats made a second trip, being successful in getting the marines into the fort; but day broke before the boats got out of the harbor, making the sleepy sentinels on McRea and Barrancas rub their eyes in astonishment, not daring to molest the returning party."

He was

This landing of marines was, however, but a temporary provision. The regular reinforcements soon arrived and took their place. The transport steamer Atlantic was the first to arrive, with four

REINFORCEMENT OF FORT PICKENS.

hundred and fifty men, sixty-nine horses, and large supplies of food and muniApril tions. She sailed from New York 16. on the 7th of April, and having stopped on her way at Key West to take on board additional men and supplies, arrived on the evening of the 16th off the island of Santa Rosa, and anchored four miles from the shore, close to the frigate Sabine. The Sabine, 50 guns, was the flag-ship under Captain Adams, the commander of the squadron, which was composed in addition of the steam-corvette Brooklyn, 14 guns, the corvette St. Louis, 22 guns, the Water-Witch, Crusader, the Wyandotte and Mohawk, each 10 guns, for some time stationed off Pensacola. Immediately after the arrival of the Atlantic, the operation of landing her reinforcements began. Taking in tow the small boats of the fleet, some twenty in number, and the night having closed in and all lights being put out, the steamer stood in toward the shore and anchored within a mile of Fort Pickens. The guns of Fort McRae and of the water batteries, in command of the rebels, were in direct range, and signal rockets were firing from Fort Pickens, indicating the expectation of an attack. The first boat from the Atlantic pushed off at half-past nine o'clock, containing Colonel Brown, the commander, who was to supersede the intrepid subaltern, Lieutenant Slemmer. The other boats containing the troops soon followed, and before midnight the most of the officers and troops had reached the fort in safety. On the next morning, at an

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early hour, the rest of the men April were landed, with the exception of 17. the artillerists of Barry's Flying Artillery. To land these with their horses, the Atlantic weighed anchor and moved. to a point, three and a half miles distant from Fort Pickens, but within a half a mile of the beach of the island of Santa Rosa. The troublesome work of landing the horses did not commence before noon, and continuing all night, was not completed until next morning.

The steamer Powhatan, Commander David D. Porter, had in the mean April time arrived, and in two days 17. after was followed by the transport steamer Illinois, which had been April detained by the effects of the se- 19. vere weather to which she had been exposed. The Illinois brought three hundred men, a number of horses, five hundred muskets, and also a large quantity of munitions of war and provisions. The troops were landed in safety during the next morning, but three days passed before the horses, forage, the ordnance, provisions, and general stores were conveyed to the shore. Four of the horses on board the Illinois had perished during the stormy passage, one was drowned alongside the ship, another had his neck broken while landing through the surf, and a third died from exhaustion. During the debarkation, the steamers Powhatan and Brooklyn took such a position that they could at the same time. shield the transports under the cover of their guns, and prevent the enemy on the mainland from attempting to invade

the island, and thus obstruct the land- gathered on on the mainland opposite.

ing.

The rebel General Bragg was reported Colonel Brown now being the senior to have had under his command, at officer, assumed the command of Fort various times, no less than ten thousand Pickens. He succeeded, with additional men, who were kept busily strengthening men and defences, in keeping at bay the works in the harbor and entrenching the large forces of the Confederates their camp.

CHAPTER XIV.

Divided Opinion of the North in regard to the Political Causes of the Civil Quarrel.-Uniformity of Sentiment in regard to the Attack on Fort Sumter.--The National Dignity insulted.-Necessity of Striking in behalf of the National Honor.-The cry of the Masses.-Their faith in the indissolubility of the Union.-The Flag to be again raised all over the United States.-The Opinions of the Press. -War pronounced to be inevitable.-Change of Sentiment.-Union Sentiment of a Journal once threatened by the Mob for its Sympathy with the South.-The Tirades of the Ultra-Republicans.-An Ultra-Republican Paper on the Unity of Feeling.-The Proclamation of President Lincoln.-Its effect at the North.-Enthusiasm of the People.-A sudden and universal blazing of the "Stars and Stripes."-Scarcity of Bunting.-Patriotic Waistcoats and Boddices.-Patriotic Neckerchiefs and Mantillas. - Patriotic Shopkeepers and Patriotic Customers.-Patriotic fervor of the Newspapers.-Flowers of Rhetoric.-A fervid Leader. Exceptional cases of protest at the North against the President's Proclamation.-Bold dissent in New England.-An Appeal in behalf of the Secessionists from Maine.-An Opposition to the War from Connecticut.—A vigorous word for the Union from Kentucky. - Call for Militia.-Circular of the Secretary of War.-Quotas of Militia of each State.-The Patriotic Response from the North.-The Refusal and bold Defiance of the Slave States.-The Auswer of the Governor of Virginia.-Answer of the Governor of Missouri.-Answer of the Governor of North Carolina.-Answer of the Governor of Kentucky.-Answer of the Governor of Tennessee.-Poetical Response from President Jefferson Davis.—His Privateering Proclamation.—His Call for Soldiers.-The effect of his Proclamation at the North.-Opinion of Privateering, which is pronounced Piracy.-President Lincoln's Proclamation.—A Blockade announced.-Southern Privateers to be dealt with as Pirates.

1861.

ALTHOUGH Opinion at the North, in re- | acknowledged that an appeal to arms gard to the political causes of the civil quarrel, was still widely divided, there was hardly but one sentiment concerning the blow which had been struck by the rebellious South at Fort Sumter. It was almost universally felt that the dignity of the nation had been insulted in this violence to its flag, and that it had become necessary, in order to vindicate the national honor, as well as to preserve the national existence, to meet force with force. The few who were less sanguine as to the issue even

was absolutely obligatory, were it only to assert the idea of government, and thus save the country from anarchy and social disorder. The more hopeful, however, who formed the great mass of the people, were eager not only to avenge the insulted flag, but to restore it to its former proud position throughout the wide domain of the United States. With their traditional reverence for the Union, and faith in its power, they could not contemplate the possibility of its disruption; and doubting the

PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION.

persistency of secession, and presuming on its weakness, they fondly believed that with a single effort of the Federal might, rebellion could be suppressed, and the flag raised once more over a united land.

Though the expression of opinion by the press was toned somewhat by its various shades of partisanship, there was hardly a journal which ventured to dispute the necessity of war. They indulged, it is true, in mutual recriminations, charging each other with having caused an event which they all now acknowledged to be inevitable. One journal, which hitherto had so warmly espoused the cause of the secessionists of the South as to expose it to the threats of a Northern mob, now declared: "In a conflict of this sort, there can be but two parties-a Northern and a Southern party; for all other parties will cease to exist. The political principles, organizations, and issues which have divided our country and our people, in various shapes and forms, since the treaty of our independence with England, will all be very soon overwhelmed in the sweeping changes of a civil war. It would be folly now to argue what might, could, would, or should have been done by Southern fire-eaters and Northern disorganizers in 1854, 1860, or by Mr. Buchanan, or by Mr. Lincoln, or by the late session of Congress. Civil war is upon us, and the questions which now supersede all others are: What are the consequences now before us? Where is this war to end, and how, and when? What is our duty under this warlike

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condition of things? and what are the movements and the conditions necessary to change this state of war to a state of peace?"

An ultra Republican journal, after giving vent to a tirade against "our journals lately parading the pranks of the secessionists with scarcely disguised exultation," declares, "Democrat well as Republican, Conservative, and Radical, instinctively feel that the guns fired at Sumter were aimed at the heart of the American Republic. Not even in the lowest groggery of our city [New York] would it be safe to propose cheers for Beauregard and Governor Pickens. The Tories of the Revolution were relatively ten times as numerous here as are the open sympathizers with the Palmetto rebels. It is hard to lose Sumter; it is a consolation to know that in losing it we have gained a united people. Henceforth, the loyal States are a unit in uncompromising hostility to treason, wherever plotted, however justified. Fort Sumter is temporarily lost, but the country is saved. Live the Republic!"

The proclamation of the President, giving an authoritative sanction to the national sentiment, served still more to arouse the spirit of union.

PROCLAMATION OF THE PResident. Whereas the laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are, opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be sup

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