26
THE CONFEDERATE DEFENSE OF FORT SUMTER.
It is a great mistake to suppose that Fort Sum-ter owed its protection mainly to the accumulationof its own ddbris. The bursting of a single largeshell on the exterior slopes would often be attendedwith the absolute loss to the fort of a ton’s weightof material. The waste of material from the com-bined effects of battering missiles, bursting shells,scattering winds, and boisterous waves was simplyenormous. The excavation of the parade, carrieddown four or five feet, at first furnished the mate-rial needed for the precautionary filling of passagesand casemates. But it soon became necessary tosupply the fort almost nightly with large quantitiesof sand in bags, ready to be. placed wherever it■was needed. And whenever this source failed,resort was had to scraping up sand and gatheringdebris from the water’s edge on the exterior.
To keep the fort from going to pieces under itsterrible bombardments was not the only concernof its defenders. They had nightly to take everyprecaution against attack by small boats landingcolumns on the two fronts most exposed to assault,.This mode of attack, tried by Rear-Admiral Dalil-gren on the night of September 8th, 1803, failedin twenty minutes, with loss of life and the captureof 10 officers and 92 men. [See p. GO.] Afterward,when the walls were battered down much lower,and the task of climbing the exterior slopes wasmade much easier, it became necessary to anchora boom of heavy logs off the exposed slopes, tospread wire entanglements near the base of them,and to place a bristling array of /raises — sharpenedwooden pikes, set in frames, all along the crest.These obstructions had to be removed in daytime, orthey would have been destroyed. The exposure ofthe men assigned to this duty was very great; theywere always personally directed by LieutenantJohn H. Houston, of the Engineer troops. It waswhile engaged inspecting these obstructions thatCaptain Frank Huger Harleston, of the 1st Artil-lery, was mortally wounded on the night of No-vember 24th, 18(13.
A complete system of interior defense was per-fected as early as December, 1803, consisting ofbarricades and blindages of sand-bags or logs asthe case required, loop-holed for infantry andpierced for howitzer fire, searching every part ofthe interior of the fort. The garrison, in event ofbeing driven to take refuge in the casemates andbomb-proofs, could thus protect itself, while allthe Confederate batteries around the harbor couldbe signaled to open on the fort.
lieister, and A. J. Bluett, who had clambered up by the,ladders. But his comrades were ready, and with theirassistance he managed to display the flag in abouttwelve minutes. They were all exposed to greatdanger. One shell struck the flag-staff out of their hands.
January 29tli, 1864, the flag was shot away at. the samelocality', and replaced by Privates Shafer and Banks ,assisted by Corporal Brassinghnm, all of Lucas’s Bat-talion of Artillery, and greatly aided by the actingadjutant of the post, II. Bcntivoglio Middleton of theSignal Corps .
Later in the same year, the flag of the post was movedto the center of the gorge-wall, at a point on the crest,accessible by a short ladder from the top of the bomb-proof quarters. The practice with two 30-pounder Par-rott rifles, at Cumming’sPoint, distant three-quarters of
The successor of Lieutenant-Colonel Elliott incommand of the fort was Captain Johu C. Mitckel,of the old garrison, viz., the 1 st South Carolina Ar-tillery. Few young Confederate officers impressedme more favorably. He was a born soldier, a manof nerve, finely tempered as steel, with habits oforder, quick perception, and decision, and he hadbeen earnestly recommended for promotion. A lit-tle after noon on the 20tli of July, 1804, he tookwith him up to the highest point in the fort, thesouth-western angle, his favorite telescope, whichhe was using to observe the enemy’s works onMorris Island, when he was mortally wounded.
When demolished by laud-batteries of unprece-dented range, the fort endured for more thaneighteen months their almost constant fire, andfor a hundred days and nights their utmost power,until it could with truth be said that it at lasttired out, and in this way silenced, the great gunsthat once had silenced it. % From having been adesolate ruin, a shapeless pile of shattered wallsand casemates, showing here and there the gunsdisabled and lialf-buried in splintered wrecks ofcarriages, its mounds of rubbish fairly reekingwith the smoke and smell of powder, Fort Sumterunder fire was transformed within a year into apowerful earth-work, impregnable to assault, andeven supporting the other works at the entranceof Charleston harbor with six guns of the heaviestcaliber.
Thus it was not until February, 1805, a fewmonths only before tho war came to an end, thatGeneral Sherman’s march through the interior ofSouth Carolina obliged the withdrawal of Confed-erate garrisons and troops from Charleston and itsvicinity. I had been sent elsewhere on duty, andwas glad to be spared the leave-taking that fell toothers. On the night of the 17th of February,1805, the commander, Captain Thomas A. Hu-guenin, silently and without interruption effectedtho complete evacuation. Ho has often told me ofthe particulars, and I have involuntarily accom-panied him in thought and feeling as, for the lasttime, he went tho rounds of tho deserted fort. Theordered casemates with their massive guns werethere, but in the stillness of that hour his ownfootfall alone gave an echo from the arches over-head. The labyrinthine galleries, as he traversedthem, were lighted for a moment by his lantern;he passed out from tho shadows to step aboard thelittle boat awaiting him at the wharf, and the fouryears’ defense of Fort Sumter was at an end.
a mile, was so flue that more than three shots were sel-dom required for cutting down the staff; sometimes asingle shot sufficed. Jnnoaoth, 1864, tho flag was reportedshot away. Tile larger part of the staff nan aim'd fast intile crest of the gorge, while the splintered spar, hearingthe flag, was thrown inwardly to t he ground. But. someslight delay arising in the planting, Lieutenant CharlesII . Claibourne, of the 1st South Carolina Infantry (regu-lars), mounted the wall with tin; colors, and in lullview of the enemy, and under a rapid lire., lashed thetwo parts of tho staff together with the halyard ropes,assisted by two brave, spirited men of the EngineerDepartment, Sergeant Nicholas E. Devcreux andCorporal B. Brannon.— J. ,T.
& Fifty-one heavy rifle, cannon were expended onMorris Island by tho Union batteries.—.I. J.