The Express.
London, England, 1863-04-27 00:00:00

THE ATTACK ON CHARLESTON.

The New York Herald of the 14th contains a
letter from its correspondent on board the iron-
clad fleet, from which the following are extracts :
The attack would have commenced an hour or two earlier
than it did, had it not been that the admiral was advised to
wait for the ebb tide rather than sail up with the flood tide.
as the former would be more apt to discover the locality of
the obitructiocis is the channel ; and the tide turned at
sieves o'clock. Daring these hours of suspense the eye had
an opportunity of taking the features of the same oa which
the great act was to be played. The blue waters danced in
the bright sunshine, and flocks of sea birds dipped their
white wings in the waves and uttered their shrill cries as
they swooped downward after their prey. Over the parapets of
Forts Sumter and Moultrie the rebel defenders were watching
ear movements and signalising them ; and even on the roofs
and steeples of the distant city we could see hundreds of
upeakesss. Distinctly in view ware the numerous batteries,
exteading from the Wappoo Creek on the Ashley River,
fellawrig the contour of James Joked, down to the Light-
house battery, on the south point of Morris Island. On the
ether ids they were more numerous still—Breach Inlet
battery, as the lower end of Sullivan's Island ; Fort Bean-
tepid. ad os up to Fort Moultrie ; while in the centre of
the pilaw, /Wag as it were from the water, stood Fort
Sumter, displaying the rebel flag at one angle and the Pal-
metto Sag oa the opposite angle ; and beyond Fort Ripley
end Castle Finding, the city filling up the background.
Meanwhile, the attacking vessels lay at anchor in the main
ship channel, within a mile of the batteries on Morris Island,
without provoking a hostile shot. The Weehawken was in
the van, end the other newels in the order in which they
are named ie the plan of attack. Precisely at half-past 12
o'clock the fleet commend to move. The distance to the
positions at which they were directed to attack was nearly
four miles, and for almost all that distance they were within
range of toe enemy's batteries. But again there is • delay.
Grappling-irons attached to the Weehawken have got foul
of her anchor cable, and it takes nearly we hour to set
matters right. At last the diffieelty is got over, and one
more the meek are under weigh. Slowly they move up
the ship °bonsai ; they pass within easy range of Fort
Weiss:m][o,Fri bland, but not a shot disputes their pro.
MOIL They pea the battery at Cummings Point, named,
I believe, Battery Bee, bat Mill not a discharge from a rebel
gun ; sad it is not till the noels have got fairly between
the two upper points of Morris Island and Sullivan's Island,
which are about snails apart, and are rounding to make the
outman of the harbour, that the ominous stillness is broken.
Fort Sumter opens the ball with her barbed* dins ; Fort
Moultrie takes op the loud refrain. The various batteries join
in the deafening chorus, and the ironclads find 'themselves
within a circle of fire, concentrated from all the rebel guns
that can be brought to beer upon the point. Nor is that
all that these little floating turret, have to contend with.
If it were, they might have held on their way defiantly and
run the gauntlet of all the batteries that stood between
them awl Charleston. The weak side of Fort Sumter is
well known to be its north-west front. That war the
point against which our guns were ordered to be directed ;
bat that was also the point which the rebel engineers were
determined that we should not get at. From the north.
east angle of the fort across the channel to Fort Moultrie
were suspended, floating from barrels and kept taut by
weights, heavy nets, and contrivances of roping so fixed
as to be sure to get entangled in the propelling apparatus of
vowels, and also connected with torpedoes. Into this net
the Weehawken, which led the van, fell, and for a long time
her machinery was useless and she drifted with the current.
At last, after peat amnia; she extricated herself. The
other vessels sheered oil and avoided the same peril. There
was no getting into the required position in this way. Any
attempt to persevere in that course would have rendered
the fleet unmanageable, and exposed it to destruction.
Baffled in the attempt to get round or past Fort Sumter in
that way, the bull-dog Monitors sought another opening ;
but even the shoal ground between the fort awl Cummings
Point was barred up with piles. In fact, Fort Sumter was
found to be the apex of a triangle, the two sides of which
were impenetrable to our vessels, and at the base line of
which they were exposed to a concentric fire from Forts
Sumter and Moultrie, the Radon, Battery Bee, and Fort
Beaureprd. Thus brought to a stand, sad nothing being
left but either to batter down Fort Sumter or retire, the
ironclad, went resolutely to their work. Stretching them-
selves in • line between Sumter and Moultrie, and only
giving an occasional shot to the latter work, they plied their
gnus upon the walls of Sumter.
The Keokuk steamed up to within some three hundred
yards of the fortress, while the other veseels lay at intense.
dint" distances between that and six hundred yards. The
Insides—the admiral's flag-ship—had become entirely un-
manageable, refining to answer her helm ; so that, with
the exception of one broadside which she poured into Fort
Moultrie, she took no part in the attack, although she was
herself the target for many of the enemy's largest guns, and
was hit some 60 or 70 times, sustaining, however, no mate-
rial damage. For half an hour, while our vessels were in
the position) I have described, the cannonading was of the
most awfully grad and terrible character. No words of
miss—no words of any man—can convey a faint ides of it.
It was sublimely terrific. No less than 300 goon of the
largest calibre concentrated their fire upon the eight email-
ants, who had but sixteen guns with which to respond. The
contest was too unequal to be persevered in. The Keokuk
was moos badly damaged. The turret of the Passim wee so in-
dented as to prevent its revolving. The Patapeco had her
20011 s. Parrot gun disabled ; and, besides, night was coming
on. The admiral therefore signalised the fleet to retire,
and suddenly they fell back from • contest in whisk they
were so tremendously overmatched—not, however, without
leaving their mark behind. The north-wt front of Fort
Sumter, which was the only one exposed to our fire, was
badly damaged. No lees than eleven holes, some of them
throe feet wide, and two embranres knocked into one,
showed the effect of the Monitors' gems. But that was all
we effected, that and the dissipation of a popular error,
that Charleston could be captured by nine or ten ironclad&
The signal to cease Brio, was given about 5 o'clock. It was
obeyed, and the vessels fell back to the flag ship, the
parting shot being fired by the Nantucket as she passed
Fort Warmer.
And thus ended the most remarkable conflict that has
ever taken place between war vessels and land fortifica-
tions—remarkable io this, that the guns of the forte out-
numbered by ten to one thcee of the vowels, and yet,
after all, to what Is oar failure to be attributed? To
the impregnability of the land batteries or the weight sad
number of their gum? Only to • slight degree. The real
instrument, of our defeat were the apparently insignificant
and contemptible barricades of ropework and netting saw
pendsd across the channel, and which kept our meals at a
point on which the rebel guns had previously been cocoon.
tinted. Forte might have been passed mid batteries
silenced ; but thine twining enemies, which, like the

serpents of Lsommes, ogled themselves around the motive
machinery of oar rank and prevented the play of their
iron arms, were not to be got rid of by force. In their
grasp our vessels were inoocuoris. And therefore the un-
favorerable result of the outwork* le not to be accepted as
any test of the relative powers of iron:lads and land
batteries. Without those otetruetions ell the forts that
defended Charleatoo, from Lighthouse Point to Castle
Pinckney, would have hue insuelaient to stop our Monitors
from anchoring off the battery at Charleston.
It Ins been calculated that some 3,500 rounds were fired
by the rebels. In one minute there were 160 counted•
Oa our aide there wore but 150 shots fired in all ; so that
the rebels fired over 20 shots to our 1. The Troubles fired
but one broadside, and that was at Fort Moultrie. That
was her only offensive operation throughout the day. The
Keokuk only fired three shots before she received her death
wound.