PSs»f

tel

ON THE UNION PICKET LINE—RELIEVING PICKETS.

THE DEFENSE OF CHARLESTON.J

BY G. T. BEAUREGARD, GENERAL, C. S. A.

A TELEGRAM from General Cooper, dated Richmond, September lOtli,1862, reached me on that day in Mobile, T and contained the infor-mation that, by special orders issued August 29th, I had been assigned to thecommand of the Department of South Carolina and Georgia, with head-quarters at Charleston . The next day I left for my new scene of action,’where I arrived on the 15tli of September, relieving General J. C. Pemberton.

The work before me was serious; all the more so that it had to be executed’without loss of time. Rumors and threats were afloat, filling the columns ofthe Northern journals, to the effect that preparations were being made forsuch a land and naval attack upon the city of Charleston as would prove^resistible. This, at the North, was deemed all the more easy of accom-plishment because the harbor and inner defenses were believed to be insuffi-cient to withstand a well-directed and prolonged assault; and for the furtherreason that there existed several avenues of approach, by any of which, it wasthought, the ulterior object aimed at could be attained.

That there was ample cause for apprehension on our part became apparentto me upon my first conference with General Pemberton, in which I learnedthat by his orders a complete abandonment had been made, not only of the

i Condensed from the “North American Review” Bragg in tempoi'ary command of the Western De-<>r May, 188G. See also articles in Vol. I., pp. partment and of tlie army wliicli had been with-, 0-83, on the operations in Charleston harbor drawn from Corinth before Halleck. Beauregardl Rl8Gl— Editors. having reported this action to the War Depart-

3l It was to Bladon Springs, 75 miles north of meut, Bragg’s assignment was made permanentMobile, that, on the 17th of June, 1802, General by Mr. Davis on the 20tli of June. On the 25theauregard had gone from Tupelo for his health, of August General Beauregard officially reported°n a certificate of his physicians, leaving General “for duty in the field.”— Editors,vol. IV. 1