322

DEFENSE OF FORT SUMTER.

of powder, but few cartridges made up. They had no scales for weighing powder, and only six needles for sewing cartridge-bags. They had no instruments for sighting the guns; and other deficiencies was numerous. The wood-work of the barracks and officers' quarters was exposed to ignition by the bursting bomb-shells, every moment. The garrison was composed of only about eighty men; the insurgents numbered several thousands. The odds were fearful, but, leaning trustfully on the arm of the Almighty, the commander determined to resist. At seven o'clock in the morning, he ordered a reply to the attack. The first gun was fired from the battery at the right gorge angle, at the Stevens Battery on Morris Island, by Captain (afterward Major-General) Abner Doubleday. A fire from the fort upon all of the principal attacking batteries immediately followed; and for four hours the contest was kept up so steadily and vigorously on the part of Fort Sumter, that the insurgents suspected that it had been stealthily re-enforced during the night.

The first solid shot from Fort Sumter, hurled at Fort Moultrie, was fired by Surgeon (afterward Major-General) S. W. Crawford. It lodged in the sand-bags, and was carried by a special reporter of the Charleston Mercury to the office of that journal. It was a 32-pound shot, and was soon afterward forwarded by Beauregard, it is said, to Marshal Kane, of Baltimore, who appears as a worthy recipient of the gift from such hands: The writer saw that shot at the police head-quarters in the old City Hall on Holliday Street, in Baltimore, when he visited that building in December, 1864, where it was carefully preserved, with the original presentation label upon it, namely," To George P. Kane, Marshal of Police, Baltimore, from Fort Sumter."

Anderson's order for the men to remain in the bomb-proofs could not restrain them when the firing commenced. The whole garrison, officers and men, were filled with the highest excitement and enthusiasm by the events of

the morning, and the first relief had been at work but a few minutes when the other two joined in the task. Hence it was that the fort was enabled to assail all of the principal insurgent batteries at the same time. The surgeon (Crawford), musicians, engineers, and workmen, inspired by example, fell in and toiled vigorously with the soldiers. There were no idle hands. Yet after four hours of hard and skillful labor, it was evident that Fort Sumter could not seriously injure the works opposed to it. One of Fort Moultrie's guns had been silenced for a while; its embrasures were injured, its barracks were riddled, and three holes were torn in its flag. A shot had penetrated the Floating Battery; but the iron-plated battery (Stevens) on Cummings's Point was absolutely invulnerable. It was uninjured at the end of the engagement, though frequently hit by heavy shot.

In the mean time, the firing of the assailants was becoming more accurate and effective. At first, many of their shot actually missed Fort Sumter, and those that struck it were so scattering that there seemed no chance for breaching the walls. But the firing became more and more concentrated, and began to tell fearfully upon the walls and the parapets. Some of the

ATTEMPTED RELIEF OF FORT SUMTER.

323

barbette guns were dismounted or otherwise disabled,' and at length the fearful cry of Fire! was raised. The barracks were burning.

From the hour when the garrison had been made to expect relief, their had been turned much and anxiously toward the sea. And now, when eyes the tempest of war was beating furiously upon them, and not three days' supply of food was left, they looked out from the oceanward port-holes more anxiously than ever. At noon on that fearful day, Surgeon Crawford, who had volunteered to ascend to the parapet, amid the storm of missiles, to make

observations, reported, to the infinite delight of the garrison, that through the vail of the misty air he saw vessels bearing the dear old flag. They were a part of Fox's relief squadron, namely, the Pawnee, ten guns; the Harriet Lane, five guns, and the transport Baltic. They signaled greetings by dipping their flags. Sumter could not respond, for its ensign was entangled in the halliards, which had been cut by the enemy's shot, but it was still waving defiantly at about half-mast. The vessels could not cross the bar. The sinuous and shifting channels were always difficult, in fine weather;

Alluding to the firing from Fort Moultrie upon Fort Sumter, the Charleston Mercury of the 13th said :"Many of its shells dropped into that fort, and Lieutenant John Mitchell, the worthy son of that patriot sire who has so nobly vindicated the cause of the South, has the honor of dismounting two of its parapet guns by a single shot from one of the columbiads, which, at the time, he had the office of directing." The "patriot sire" here spoken of was John Mitchell, an Irish revolutionist, who was sent to Australia as a traitor to the British Government, was paroled, violated his parole, and escaped to the United States, the asylum for the oppressed. Here he pursued his vocation of newspaper editor, first in New York and then in the Slave-labor States, where he upheld Slavery as a righteous system, advocated the reopening of the horrible African Slave-trade, joined the conspirators, and, through the newspaper press of Richmond, Virginia, became one of the most malignant of the revilers of the Government whose protection he had sought and received. Lieutenant Mitchell afterward perished in Fort Sumter. A London correspondent of the New York Tribune, in a graphic account of this young man, says that he met him in Charleston in 1860, "when he boasted of having assisted to murder an Abolitionist, by lynching."

This little pieture is from a photograph taken by an operator in Charleston immediately after the evacuation of the fort. It shows the appearance, at that time, of the portion of the gorge of Fort Sumter rearest Cammings's Point, and the effect of the cannonade and bombardment from the iron-clad battery there.

324

TOIL AND SUFFERINGS IN FORT SUMTER.

now the buoys had been removed, ships laden with stones had been sunken therein, and a blinding storm was prevailing.

The battery on Cummings's Point became very formidable in the afterThe guns were rifled. A Blakely cannon, already mentioned, was

noon.

specially mischievous, and heavy shot, aimed accurately at the embrasures, were extremely destructive and annoying. The gunners in Sumter on that side were frequently stunned, or otherwise injured, by splinters of the masonry. In every part of the fort in which they were engaged they worked without intermission, and received food and drink at their guns. As the hours wore away, they became very weary. The supply of cartridges began to fail, and before sunset all the guns were abandoned but six. These were worked continually, but not. rapidly, until dark, when the port-holes were closed, and the little garrison was arranged for alternate repose, and work, and watching. Several men had been wounded, but not one was mortally hurt. So closed the first day of actual war between the servants of the OLIGARCHY and those of the PEOPLE.

BLAKELY GUN.1

The night of the 12th was dark and stormy, with high wind and tide. The telegraph was not yet silenced, and it had carried tidings of the fight all over the land before sunset. Thousands of anxious heads, hundreds of miles away from Sumter, were laid upon their pillows that night, and thousands. of prayers went up to the Almighty for the salvation of the Republic. In Charleston and in its harbor there was but little sleep. All night long the mortars of the insurgents kept up a slow bombardment of the fort, sufficient to deprive the wearied garrison of all but intermittent slumbers. Anderson continually expected an attack from armed men in boats, and was prepared for their reception. He hoped to welcome other boats filled with friends and stores. He was disappointed in all his expectations. The naval com-. manders outside did, as we have observed, take measures to send in relief, but the storm kept them from performing their errand of mercy until it was too late.

• April 12, 1861.

The storm ceased before the dawn." Only a few vanishing clouds flecked the morning sky. The sun rose in splendor. Already the cannonade and bombardment had been renewed with increased vigor and additional terrors. Red-hot shot were hurled into the One passed along the course of a water-pipe through the wall that masked the magazine for fixed ammunition. Fortunately, it did not penetrate the inner wall. By that shield the fiery demon was foiled.

fort.

Four times

1 This is a view of the English rifled cannon that produced the chief destructive effects on Fort Sumter during the siege. Its projectiles are seen in front of its carriage.

2 See page 309.

FORT SUMTER ON FIRE.

325 on Friday the buildings in the fort had been set on fire, and each time the flames were extinguished. Now the barracks and officers' quarters were again and again ignited. They could not be saved, and no attempt to do so was made, for precious lives would have been imperiled by the act. Means for that purpose had been diminished. On the previous day, three of the iron cisterns over the hall-ways had been destroyed by the shots of the insurgents, by which the quarters below had been deluged and the flames checked, Now there was no resource of the kind. The garrison must be starved out within three days, and shelter would be no longer needed, so the buildings were abandoned to the flames. The safety of the magazine, and the salvation of sufficient powder to last until the 15th, became the absorbing care of the commander. Blankets and flannel shirts were used for making cartridges; and every hand within the fort was fully employed. On that morning the

INTERNAL APPEARANCE OF FORT SUMTER AFTER THE BOMBARDMENT.1

last parcel of rice had been cooked, and nothing was left for the garrison to eat but salt pork.

The flames spread, and the situation of the garrison became extremely distressing. The heat was almost intolerable. The fire approached the magazine, when its doors were closed and locked. In fearful eddies the glowing embers were scattered about the fort. The main gate took fire, and very soon the blackened sally-port was open to the besiegers. The powder brought out into the service magazine was so exposed to the flames, that ninety barrels of it were thrown into the sea by Lieutenant Snyder and Surgeon Crawford.

Out of Sumter immense volumes of smoke rose sluggishly on the still air.

This is from a photograph taken immediately after the evacuation of Fort Sumter. It is a view of that portion of the officers' quarters to the left of the gateway, and of that of the men's quarters nearest the powder-magazine, the entrance to which was at the junction of these two buildings. In front of this entrance are seen the ruins of a traverse. The gateway or sally-port is also seen, the doors of which were burned. In the foreground is seen the great lantern that was taken down from the top of the fort, where it was used

as a beacon.

326

THE FLAG OF FORT SUMTER.

The assailants knew that the fort was on fire, and that its inmates were dwellers in a heated furnace, yet they inhumanly intensified the fury of the attack from all points. The heat and vapor became stifling, and the garrison were compelled, frequently, to lie upon the ground, with wet cloths on their faces, to prevent suffocation by smoke. Yet they would not surrender. They bravely kept the old flag flying. Eight times its staff had been hit without serious injury; now, at twenty minutes before one o'clock, it was shot away near the peak, and the flag, with a portion of the staff, fell down through the thick smoke among the gleaming embers. Through the blinding, scorching tempest, Lieutenant Hall rushed and snatched up the precious ensign, before it could take fire. It was immediately carried by Lieutenant Snyder to the ramparts, and, under his direction, Sergeant Hart, who for weeks had been Major Anderson's faithful servant and friend, but was a non-combatant by agreement,3 sprang upon the sand-bags, and with the assistance of Lyman, a mason from Baltimore, fastened the fragment of the staff there, and left the soiled banner flying defiantly, while shot and shell were filling the air like hail. Almost eighty-five years before, another brave and patriotic Sergeant (William Jasper) had performed a similar feat, in Charleston harbor, near the spot where Fort Moultrie now stands. One was assisting in the establishment of American nationality, the other in maintaining it.

At half-past one o'clock, the notorious Senator Wigfall (who, as soon as he had received his salary from the National Treasury, had hastened to Charleston, and there became a volunteer aid on the staff of General Beauregard) arrived at Sumter in a boat from Cummings's Point, accompanied by one white man and two negroes. Leaving the boat at the wharf, Wigfall passed around the fort until he came to the first embrasure, or port-hole, through which he saw private John Thompson, of the fort. The Texan was carrying a white handkerchief on the point of his sword, as a flag of truce. He asked permission to enter the embrasure, but was denied. "I am General Wigfall," he said, "and wish to see Major Anderson." The soldier told him to stay there until he could see his commander. "For God's sake let me in!" cried the conspirator, "I can't stand it out here in the firing." The privilege was denied him for the moment. He then hurried around to the sally-port, at which place he had asked an interview with Anderson. Finding the passage strewn with the burning timbers of the gate, the poor fellow, in utter despair, ran around the fort, waving his white handkerchief imploringly toward his fellow-insurgents, to prevent them from firing. It was useless. The missiles fell thick and fast, and he was permitted to crawl into an embra

1 Captain Foster, in his report, says:-" As soon as the flames and smoke burst from the roof of the quarters, the enemy's batteries redoubled the rapidity of their fire, firing red-hot shot from most of their guns."

Afterward, on the occasion of his being presented with a sword by the citizens of Taunton, Massachusetts, Major Anderson, alluding to the inhumanity of his assailants, said: "It is one of the most painful recollections of that event, that when our barracks were on fire, and the men were compelled to cover their faces with wet handkerchiefs, and lie with their faces upon the ground, to avoid suffocation, instead of sending a white flag, with assistance to extinguish the flames, then threatening us with destruction, they rapidly increased their fire upon us from every battery, in total disregard of every feeling of humanity."

3 See page 134.

* See the device on the Sumter Medal, near the close of this chapter, in which Hart is represented in the act of planting the flag-staff.

For a full account of this, and attending circumstances, see Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution, ii. 550.