312

THE FLOATING BATTERY AT CHARLESTON.

had been strengthened, and was flanked by two batteries, known as the Upper and Lower. The latter was a mortar battery. Assistant Adjutant-General N. G. Evans was in command of that post.

The sandy shores of Morris, Sullivan, and . James Islands were literally dotted with fortifications, about twenty in number, of varied strength, armed with heavy guns, and well manned. Several of them were commanded by officers of the National Army who had abandoned their flag.

In addition to the land-works was a curious mouster in the character of a floating battery, which had been constructed at Charleston, under the direction of Lieutenant J. R. Hamilton, a deserter from the National Navy. It was made of heavy pine timber, filled in with Palmetto logs, and covered with a double layer of railway iron. It appeared on the water like an immense shed, about twenty-five feet in width, and, with its appendages, about a hundred feet in length. Its front, in which were four enormous siege cannon, sloped in ward from the top; and the iron-clad roof, intended to be shell-proof, sloped to its outer edge. Just back of the cannon was an open space with water to extinguish the fuze of any shell that might fall into it.

JAMES SIMONS.

The powder-magazine was in the rear, below the water-line, and protected by bags filled with sand. Farther back was a platform extending the whole width of the battery. This was loaded with sand-bags, which served to balance the heavy guns, and to protect the floating hospital attached to the rear. The hospital was fitted up with every necessary article, and was placed in charge of Dr. De Veza, of Charleston. The monster was to be towed to a position so as to have its guns brought to bear upon the weakest part of Sumter.

During those three weary months, Major Anderson had suffered extremely from anxiety and annoyances of every kind. It was evident that his letters were regularly opened at Charleston, and the contents noted. His valor and his prudence sustained the dignity of his Government under the most trying circumstances, and his bearing toward the civil and military authorities at Charleston won for him their most cordial esteem. He communicated with his Government almost daily, sometimes by a messenger, but generally by

1 See note 3, page 97.

FAITHFUL MEN IN FORT SUMTER.

313

nail. The faithful Peter Hart was his judicious mail-carrier between Sumter and the main, and his trusted caterer for the garrison in fresh provisions in the Charleston markets, so long as they were open to them. Lieutenant George W. Snyder' was his chief messenger in bearing written and oral dispatches to and from Governor Pickens; and Lieutenant Theodore Talbot was his personal messenger to the President.' These young officers, since dead, were gallant and true on all occasions. His other officers were brave,

3

and also loyal, with the exception of Lieutenant Meade, a Virginian, and several of them have since held distinguished positions in the Army. His little garrison, with one or two exceptions, were true to the old flag when tempted. Yet, with all these advantages, Anderson was sorely tried by the practical weakness of his Government, and the malice of its enemies.

At the beginning of February, one source of much anxiety for the garrison was removed. On Sunday, the 3d of that month, the wives and children (about twenty in number) of the officers and soldiers in Suiter were borne away in the steamer Marion for New York. The parting scenes of fortitude and tenderness were touching. They had left the fort on the

1 Lieutenant George W. Snyder was one of Major Anderson's most energetic and trusted young officers. He had been the highest of the three higher graduates of his class at West Point, who were entitled to enter the Engineer Corps. He carried a number of messages from Major Anderson to Governor Pickens. On one occasion the Governor told him that the rebellion would have been delayed if the Republican majorities in 1860 had not been so large. They had resolved on rebellion when their political power, "sustained by the Democratic party in the North," should pass from them. They saw no chance for that party to recover its power, and there was no reason for the conspirators to wait any longer. The exigency mentioned by Calhoun in 1812 (sée note 2. page 41) had occurred.

A colonel's commission, as commander of a volunteer regiment, was offered to Lieutenant Snyder, but he preferred his position in the regular Army. He died while assisting in the construction of the defenses of Washington City. His remains are under a neat monument in his family burial-ground, near Schoharie Court House, New York, forty miles west of Albany. On the monument are the following inscriptions:

WEST SIDE-Lieutenant GEO. W. SNYDER, born at Cobleskill, July 30, 1833. Died at Washington City, D. C., November 17, 1861. NORTH SIDE-A graduate of Union College; also of the Military Academy at West Point, with the highest honors of his class. EAST SIDE-One of the gallant defenders of Fort Sumter. SOUTH SIDE-Aide-de-Camp to General Heintzelman at the battle of Buil's Run.

On the west side of the monument, in relief, is a military hat and sword. I am indebted to Mr. Daniel Knower for the drawing of the monument.

SNYDER'S MONUMENT.

On one occasion, when Lieutenant Talbot went to President Buchanan, the latter met the young officer with much agitation, and laying both his hands on his shoulders, said: "Lieutenant, what shall we do?" Talbot, when he related this fact to Lieutenant Snyder, said: "I never felt so in my life. The President seemed like an old man in his dotage. It seemed so strange to me that I should have lived to see the day when a President of the United States should put his hands imploringly on the shoulders of a poor Heutenant, and ask what he should do to save his country! A meeting of the Cabinet was immediately called (January 1, 1861), when none of the Ministers had any resolution, excepting Mr. Holt, the new Secretary of War, who said that the Union must be saved at whatever cost of blood and treasure."-Letter of Daniel Knower to the Author.

3 Soon after leaving Fort Sumter, Meade abandoned his flag and joined the insurgents. He was active in the construction of the defenses of Petersburg, in the second and third years of the war.

Many a woman and child departed that day who, to the utmost of their ability, would have done and dared as much as their husbands and fathers. 'We have been seven years married,' said one, and I never

314

1861.

RUMORS.—ANDERSON'S APPEALS.

25th, and embarked at Charleston. When the Marion neared Sumter, the whole garrison was seen on the top of the ramparts. While the January, ship was passing, they fired a gun and gave three hearty cheers, as a parting farewell to the beloved ones on board. The response was waving of handkerchiefs, and tears and sobs, and earnest prayers, both silent and audible.

March 26.

Late in March, rumors reached Governor Pickens that the garrison in Sumter would soon be transferred to some other post. It doubtless came from the Commissioners at Washington, who were waiting in expectation of that event. Accordingly, Beauregard wrote to Major Anderson,' apprising him of the rumor, and saying that when he should be prepared to leave the fort, he and the authorities at Charleston would be happy to give him every facility. "All that will be required of you,” he said, "will be your word of honor, as an officer and a gentleman, that the fort, all public property therein, its armaments, &c., shall remain in their present condition, without any arrangements or preparations for their destruction or injury after you shall have left the fort. On our part, no objection will be raised to your retiring with your side and company arms, and to your saluting your flag on lowering it." To this the indignant commander replied:- I feel deeply hurt at the intimation in your letter about the conditions which will be exacted of me, and I must state most distinctly, that if I can only be permitted to leave on the pledge you mention, I shall never, so help me God, leave this fort alive." Beauregard apologized, and there the matter rested.

Rumors concerning the evacuation of Fort Sumter now came from the North as thickly as falling leaves. Major Anderson was sorely perplexed. He received no instructions from his Government, and his discretionary powers were made very limited by unrepealed restrictions. On the 1st of April he wrote to Lieutenant-General Scott, saying, after referring to the fact that he had been at times cut off from all communication with Washington: "I think the Government has left me too much to myself. It has given me no instructions, even when I have asked for them, and I think that responsibilities of a higher and more delicate character have devolved upon me than was proper." He wrote to Adjutant-General Thomas (the successor of Cooper, the traitor), on the 5th, because of rumors from the North, and the non-reception of replies to earnest letters for advice, saying: "I am sure that I shall not be left without instructions, even though they may be confidential. After thirty odd years of service, I do not wish it to be said that I have treasonably abandoned a post, and turned over to unauthorized persons public property intrusted to my charge. I am entitled to this act of justice. at the hands of my Government, and I feel confident that I shall not be disappointed. What to do with the public property, and where to take my

had reason to find fault with you; now, whatever may happen, I know I shall never have cause to blush for you.' Another, whose swollen eyes belied her words, said: 'I don't want you to think of us, Ben; the children and myself will get along, and you'll have enough to think of here.' And another, holding a large warm hand between her own, and leaning her head against the brawny shoulder, whispered, with quivering lips, May God bless an' take care o' you, Thomas; I'll never cease to pray for you; but do your juty, do your juty, darlint. God forbid that my love should interfere with that.' Her husband, Thomas Carroll, did his ‘juty' well when the hour for duty came, and carried a wounded face away from Fort Sumter."- Within Fort Sumter : by one of the Company, page 25.

1 Anderson's MS. Letter-book.

2 Anderson's MS. Letter-book.

ANDERSON AND THE AUTHORITIES AT CHARLESTON.

315

command, are questions to which answers will, I hope, be at once returned. Unless we receive supplies, I shall be compelled to stay here without food or to abandon this fort very early next week." Again, on the 6th, he wrote, "The truth is, that the sooner we are out of this harbor, the better. Our flag runs an hourly risk of being insulted, and my hands are tied by my orders; and even if that were not the case, I have not the power to protect it. God grant that neither I nor any other officer of our Army may be again placed in a position of such humiliation and mortification."

Whilst Anderson was thus chafing

in Fort Sumter, the Government at Washington, as we have observed, was very much perplexed, for it was evident that a crisis was at hand.

Lieutenant Talbot was on his way to the seat of government, with an earnest plea from Anderson for instructions, when a note from Beauregard informed the Major that orders had been received from Montgomery, that "on account of delays and apparent vacillation of the United States Government, in relation to the evacuation of Fort Sumter," no further communication between that fort and Charleston, for mails or for the purpose of procuring supplies, would be permitted. Once before there had been a like restriction, and when a removal of it was offered, in the form of a courtesy, and he was proffered "fresh meat and vegetables, under the direction of an officer of the State of South Carolina," Major Anderson declined receiving any supplies by "permission." He had not, he said, represented that he was in need of supplies. "If the permission is founded on courtesy and civility, I am compelled respectfully to decline accepting it." No objections were made for a time thereafter to his free use of the Charleston markets for fresh meat and vegetables.

⚫ January 19, 1861.

The crisis came. The message of President Lincoln to Governor Pickens, concerning the sending of supplies to Fort Sumter, was made ¿ April. known on the morning of the 8th. It produced the most intense excitement. Beauregard immediately sent the electrograph to Montgomery, already noticed, and the reply came back on the 10th, conditionally authorizing him to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. "The demand will be made to-morrow at twelve o'clock," replied Beauregard. The news of this determination spread instantly over the city, and to the various camps and batteries of the insurgents. The Floating Battery, finished, armed, and manned, was taken out and anchored near the west end of Sullivan's Island; and fire-ships-vessels filled with wood and rosin, to be set on fire and run among the relief squadron, to burn it, if it should enter the harbor-were towed out at the same time.

1 Anderson's MS. Letter-book.

See note 1, page 805.

2 Anderson's MS. Letter-book.

316

SEDITIOUS SPEECH OF A VIRGINIAN.

Charleston was full of demagogues at that time, busily engaged in inflaming the populace and the soldiers; and that city became, in miniature, what Paris was just before the attack on the Bastile.

Among the demagogues in Charleston was Roger A. Pryor, lately a member of the National House of Representatives; and also Edmund Ruffin,' both from Virginia. Their State Convention was then in session at Richmond. The Union sentiment in that body seemed likely to defeat the secessionists. Something was needed to neutralize its power, by elevating passion into the throne of judgment. It was believed by many that this could be done only by shedding blood. Pryor and Ruffin were self-constituted preachers of the sanguinary doctrine. They were earnest missionaries; and on the evening of the 10th, while the city was rocked with excitement, a rare opportunity was offered to Pryor for the utterance of his incendiary sentiments. He was serenaded, and made a fiery speech to the populace, in response to the compliment. "Gentlemen," he said, "I thank you, especially, that you have at last annihilated this cursed Union, reeking with corruption, and insolent with excess of tyranny. Thank God! it is at last blasted and riven by the lightning wrath of an outraged and indignant people. Not only is it gone, but gone forever. In the expressive language of Scripture, it is water spilt upon the ground, and cannot be gathered up. Like Lucifer, son of the morning, it has fallen, never to rise again. For my part, gentlemen, if Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, to-morrow, were to abdicate their office, and were to give me a blank sheet of paper to write the conditions of reannexation to the defunct Union, I would scornfully spurn the overture. . . . I invoke you, and I make it in some sort a personal appeal— personal so far as it tends to our assistance in Virginia-I do invoke you, in your demonstrations of popular opinion, in your' exhibitions of official interest, to give no countenance to the idea of reconstruction. In Virginia, they all if reduced to the dread dilemma of this alternative, they will espouse say, the cause of the South as against the interests of the Northern Confederacy; but they whisper of reconstruction, and they say Virginia must abide in the Union, with the idea of reconstructing the Union which you have annihilated. I pray you, gentlemen, rob them of that idea. Proclaim to the world that upon no condition and under no circumstance will South Carolina ever again enter into political association with the Abolitionists of New England. Do not distrust Virginia. As sure as to-morrow's sun will rise upon us, just so sure will Virginia be a member of the Southern Confederation. And I will tell you, gentlemen," said the speaker, with great vehemence, "what will put her in the Southern Confederacy in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock-STRIKE A BLOW! The very moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will make common cause with her sisters of the South. It is impossible she should do otherwise."

This speech was vehemently applauded. It was in consonance with the diabolical spirit of the more zealous conspirators and insurgents everywhere The cry of Pryor for blood was sent to Montgomery by telegraph the next morning, and Mr. Gilchrist, a member of the Alabama Legislature, said to Davis and a portion of his "Cabinet" (Walker, Benjamin, and Memminger):

1 See page 48.

2 Charleston Mercury, April 11, 1861.