The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NAY 14, 1861,

211 E CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

CHARLESTON, S.C., APRIL 21.

I find some consolation for the disappointment
of not arriving in time to witness the attack upon
Fort Sumter in describing the condition of the work
soon after Major Anderson surrendered it. Already
I have upon my table a pamphlet entitled " The
Battle of Fort. Sumter and First Victory of the
Southern Troops," &c., several poems, and a variety
of iersicules, songs, and rhetorical exercitations
upon this event, which, however important as a
political demonstration, is of small value in a mili-
tary sense, except in so far as the bloodless occupa-
tion of a position commanding Charleston harbour
is concerned. It may tend to prevent any false
impressions founded on imperfect information to
state a few facts connected with the fire in the
work and its effects, which will interest at least
some military readers.
In the first place, it may be well to admit that
the military preparations and positions of the South
Carolinians were more formidable than one was
prepared to expect on the part of so small a State,
without any considerable internal organisation or
resources. This comparative efficiency was due
mainly to General Beauregard and his assistant-
engineer, Major Whiting, who are both professional
engineer officers of the United States army, and
who had capacity and influence enough to direct
the energies of the undisciplined masses in the
proper direction, instead of allowing them to rush
on their fate in the perilous essay of an escalade,
as they intended. The State of South Carolina
had for a long time past been accumulating arms
and munitions of war, and it may be said that
ever since the nullification contest she had per-
mitted herself to dwell on the idea of ultimate se-
cession, to be effected by force if necessary. When
General Beauregard and Major Whiting came here
the works intended to resist the fleet and to crush
the fort were in a very imperfect state. Major An-
derson and his officers had a true professional con-
tempt for the batteries of the civilians and militia-
men, which was in some measure justifiable. One
morning, however, as they took their survey of
their enemy's labours for the previous night, they
perceived a change had come over the design of their
works. That " some one who knows his business
is over there" was evident. Their strange relation-
ship with those who were preparing to destroy them
if possible, however, prevented their recourse to the
obvious means which were then in abundance in
their hands to avert the coming danger. Had i
Major Anderson maintained a well-regulated fire
on the enemy the moment they began to throw
up their batteries and prepare Fort Moultrie against.
him, he could have made their progress very slow
and exceedingly laborious, and have marked it at
every step with blood. His command over the
ground was very decided, but he had, it is to be
supposed, no authority to defend himself in the
only way in which it could be done. " Too late,"
—that fatal phrase,—was the echo to every order
which came from the seat of government at
Washington. Meantime the South Carolinians
worked at their batteries, and were soon able
to obtain cover on the soft sandy plains on which
they were planting their guns and mortars. They
practised their men at the guns, stacked shot
and shell, and furnished their magazines, and
drilled their raw levies with impunity within
1,400 yards of the fort. We all know what im-
punity is worth in offensive demonstrations. It is
a powerful agent sometimes in creating enthusiasm.
Every day more volunteers flocked to the various
companies, or created new associations of armed
men, and the heterogeneous and motley mass began
to assume some resemblance to an army, however
irregular. At the present moment Charleston is
like a place in the neighbourhood of \a temp where
military and volunteer tailors are at work trying
experiments in uniforms, and sending in their
animated models for inspection. There is an end-
less variety—often of ugliness—•in dress and equip-
ment and nomenclature among these companies.
The head-dress is generally, however, a smart cap
like the French kepi ; the tunic is of different cuts,
colours, facings, and materials,—green with gray
and yellow, gray with orange and black and white,
blue with white and yellow facings, roan, brown,
burnt sienna, and olive,—jackets, frocks, tunics,
blouses, cloth, linen, tweed, flannel. The officers
are generally in blue frocks and brass buttons,
with red sashes, the rank being indicated by gold
lace parallelograms on the shoulder straps, which
are like those in use in the Russian army. The arms
of the men seem tolerably well kept and in gootl
order. Many, however, stitl shoulder " White
Bess"—the smooth-bore musket with unbrowned
barrel. The following is an official return, which I
am enabled to present to you through the courtesy
of the authorities, showing the actual number of
men under arms yesterday in and around Charles-
ton :--

Morris Island-17th Regiment, 700 men; let Regiment,
950 men ; 2d Regiment, 975 men ; total, 2,625 men.
Sullivan's Island-sth Regiment, 1,075 men; detachment
of Bth Regiment, 250 men; detachment of 6th Regiment,
200 men ; cavalry and others, 225 men ; total, 1,750.
Stone and other points, 70 men; Charleston, 1,900 men;
Columbia, 1,950 men.

Men.
Morris Island

Sullivan's Island
Steno and other points 750

5,125
Columbia • 1,950
Charleston

8,975
In field at the time of report ..... .. 3,027

Total
theThvaerrieoguismenta companies mentionedraised h
ienr ed
iaffr
eercomposedlocalities
with different names, but the State regulars are in
expectation that they will soon 13,e made portions
of the regular army of the Confederate States which
is in course of formation. There are, I believe, only
55.000 registered voters in South Carolina. The
number of men furnished by them is a fair indica-
tion of the zeal for the cause which animates the
population. The phys,que of the troops is undeni-
ably good. Now and then undersized, weakly men
may be met with, but the great majority of the com-
panies consist of rank and file exceeding the average
stature of Europeans, and very well built and mus-
cular. The men run very large down here. Nothing,
indeed, can be more obvious when one looks at the
full-grown, healthy, handsome race which develops
itself in the streets, in the bar-rooms, and in the
hotel halls, than the error of the argument, which
is mainly used by the Carolinians themselves, that
-white men cannot thrive in their State. In limb,
figure, height, weight, they are equal to any people
I have ever seen, and their features are very regu-
lar and pronounced. Th-y are, indeed, as unlike
the ideal American of our caricaturists and our
stage as is the nzilor of the Porte St. Martin to the
English gentleman. Some of this superiority is due
to the fact that the bulk of the white population
here are in all but name aristocrats, or rather oli-
garchs. The State is but a gigantic Sparta, in which
the helotry are marked by an indelible difference of
colour and race from the masters. The white popu-
lationeulturawl hisicvheriys nsmotallal nadnadnvdersylaivneshiogindiif
cant alhrie-
tmoatsht masters joy
heyn js
ioeys
le very
excellenceadvantage
o l a wpheiecphl
ec
aann
dc otno ducethe
cultivation of the graces and accomplishments of
life, even though they are rather disposed to neglect
purely intellectual enjoyments and tastes. Many of
those who serve in the ranks are men worth from
i 5,0 O
wereo oat least so I was told—and
men out to me who were said to be
t pointedlo,oO O a Y
afads
ehri
with unlimited Champagne, most grate-
ful Frenchorna
dt
eh
se a
rid sandhills
dierly view to their permanent rather than occasional
cadency, purchases for the raeu of his fc.euerc

complete equipment of Enfield rifles. How long the
zeal-and resources orthese gentlemen 'will last it
may not be easy to say. At present they will prove
forthidable to any enemy, except a regular army on
the plain and in the open, but they are not provided
with field artillery, or• with adequate cavalry, and
they are not accustomed to act in concert and in
large bodies.

Yesterday morning I waited on Gen. I3eaure-
gard, who is commanding the forces of South Caro
lina. Hifi aides de-can p, Mr. Manning, Mr. Ches-
nut, Mr. Porcher Miles, and Colonel Lucas accom-
panied me. Of these the former has been Governor
of his State ; the next has been a senator, and
the third a member of Congress. They are all
volunteers and are gentlemen of position in the
State, and the fact that they are not only content
but gratified to act as aides to the professionalsoldier
is the best proof of the -reality of the spirit which
animates the class they represent. Mr. Lucas is a
gentleman of the State, who is acting as aide-de-
camp to Governor Pickens. Passing through, the
dense crowd which, talking, smoking, and reading
newspapers, fills the large hall of Mills's house, we
emerge on the dirty street, sufficiently broad, and
lined with trees protected .by wooden sheathings at
the base. The houses, not very lofty, are clean and
spaaious, and provided with verandahs facing the
south as far as possible. The trees give the streets
the air of a boulevard, and the town has somehow
or other a reminiscence of the Hague about it which -
I cannot explain or account for satisfactorily. The
head-quarters arttlin a large, airy public building,
once devoted to an" nsiriliee conevaitifs operatiozid-
or to the accommodation of the public fire coin-
panies. There was no guard at the door; officers
and privates were passing to' and fro in the hall,
part of which was cutoff by canvas screens, so as to
form rooms for the departments of the Horse Guards
of South Carolina. Into one of these we turned, and
found the desks occupied by officers in uniform, writ-
ing despatches and copying documents with all the
abandon which distil] guishes the true soldier when he
can get at printed forms and Government stationery.
In another moment we were ushered into a smaller
room and presented to the General, who was seated
at his desk. Any one accustomed to soldiers can
readily detect the "real article" from the counter-
feit, and when General Beauregard stood up to wel-
come us it was patent he was a man capable of
greater things than taking Sumter. He is a squarely
built, lean man, of about 40 years of age, with broad
sheolder
legs
e made to fit" a horSe, of middle
ighead is covered with thick hair,
height, and
and
his
cropped close, and showing the bumps which are
reflective and combative, with a true Gallic air at
the back of the skull ; the forehead broad and well
developed, projects somewhat over the keen, eager
cdha
er
ekke
by
ones,
ns
e; s hae.
wfsecleltsihsapveedry thin, with very high
nose, slightly acquiline,
and a large, rigid, sharply-cut mouth, set above a
full fighting chin. In the event of any important
operations taking place, the name of this officer will
I feel assured, he heard often enough to be my ex-
cuse for this little sketch of his outward man. He
was good enough to detail his chief engineer officer
to go with me over the works, and I found in. Major
Whiting a most able guide and agreeable pampa
nion. It is scarcely worth while to waste time in
describing the pesition of Charleston. It lies as low
as Venice, the look of which it rather affects from
a distance, with long sandy islands stretching out
as arms to close up the approaches, and lagunes
cutting into the marshy shores. On a sandy island
and spit on the left hand shore stands Fort Moul-
trie. On the southern side, on another sandy island,
are the lines of the batteries which, probably, were
most dangerous, from their proximity and position,
to the unprotected face of Sumter. The fort itself
is built in the tideway, en a rocky point, which
has been increased by artificial deposits of granite
chips. Embarked, with a few additions to our
original party, on board a small steamer called
the Lady Davis, we first proceeded to Morns
Island, about 3t miles from Charleston. Our
steamer was filled with commissariat stores for the
troops, of whom 4,000 were said to be encamped
among the sandhills. Any one who has ever been
at Southport, or has seen the dune's about Dunkirk
or Calais, will have a good idea of the place. Our
landing was opposed by a guard of stout Volunteers
with crossed firelocks ; but they were satisfied by
the General's authority, and we proceeded, ankle-
deepp in the soft white sand, to visit the batteries
weich played on the landward face of Sumter.
They are made of sandbags for the most part, well
the
t h
e goodemb trraasvuerresse s,
being and
well
ied protected in
faced with palmetto logs, which do not splinter
when struck by shot. It did not, however, require
much investigation to show that these works would
be greatly injured by a fire of vertical and hori-
zontal shell from the fort, and that the distance of
their armament would render it difficult to breach
the solid walls which were opposed to them at up-
wards of 1,200 yards away. However, there were
two powerful mortar batteries, which could have
done great damage if they were well served, and
have made the terreplein and parade of the fort a
complete " shell trap" unless the mortars were
injured. The civilians and militiamen set greater
store on the Iron Battery at Cummiss-point,
which le the part of the island nearest
to the fort, but the fire of heavy guns would have
soon destroyed their confidence. It consists of
yellow pine logs
rod, of the same material, slopes from the top of
Placed as vertical uprights. The
the uprights to the sand facing the enemy—over it
are dovetailed bars of railroad iron, of the T pat-
tern, from top to bottom, all riveted down in the
most secure manner. On the front the railroad
iron roof and incline present an angle of about 30
degrees. They are three portholes with iron shut-
ters. When opened by the action of a lever the
muzzles of the columbiads fill up the space com-
pletely. The columbiad guns with which this
battery is equipped bear on the south wall of
Sumter at_ an angle. The inclined side of the
battery has been struck by six shot, the effect of
two of which is enough to demonstrate that the
fire of the guns en barbette would have been
destructive. The columbiad is a kind of Dahl-
gren—that is, a piece of ordnance very thick in
the breech, and
_lightened off gradually from
the trunnions to the muzzle. The platforms
were rather light, but the carriages were solid and
well made, and the elevating screws or hitches of
the guns were in good order. The mortars are of
various calibres and descriptions, mostly 8-inch and
10-inch; and it is said there were 17 of them in
position and working against the fort and that 35
guns wore from time to time directed against it.
Shot and shell appeared to be abundant enough.
The works are all small detached batteries, with
sandbag merlons, and open at the gorge, and they
extend for four miles along the shore of the island.
The camps are pitched most regularly between the
shapes and sizes, in the
ggledy, here and there in
knots and groups in a way that would drive an
p Champagneproach e s
YglePnieral mad. Bones of beef
sandhills—tents
fashion called
quartermaster-general
al Irteted:hmSl higgledy-piggledy,
and wine bottles, ob-
structed, which were of a nature to
Sutherland and Sir John M'Neill most
aainedi
c tmDurtt.thoena,
bitterly, and to suggest the reflection that the army
which so utterly neglected sanitary regulations
could not long exist as soon as the sun gained full
power. They say, however, the men are not sickly,
and that these sandhills are most healthy spots
about Charleston. The men were occupied as sol-
diers generally are when they have nothing to do—
lounging or lying on the straw and plank carpets,
smoking, reading, sleeping. The owners of the
tents give them various names, of which " The
Tigers' Lair," " The Eagles'
Mars' Delight" are fair specimens, and
LNieosnt, s , ,
De n " "The
these are done in black on the white calico. In one
-which we visited the hospitable inmates were
busily engaged inbrewing claret cup, and Bordeaux,
:.19m , sugar, *) cad Champagne, aud, oakap were

in abundance, and at the end of the tent was a bar,
where anything else in reason could be had for the
asking, though water was not so plentiful. At
one of the batteries the great object of attraction
was a gun made on Captain Blakeley's principle,
by Messrs. Fawcett, Preston, and Co., of Liver-
pool, which was only put in battery the day
before the fire opened, and the effect of which
on the masonry is said to have been very power-.
ful. It is a 12-pounder—the same which was
tried last year, I think—and bears a brass plate
with the inscription, "Presented to South Carolina
by one of her citizens." It is remarkable enough
that the vessel which carried it lay in the midst of
the United States war vessels at the mouth of the
harbour.

,Having satisfied our curiosity as well as time and
a sandstorm permitted, we got into a row boat and
proceeded to Sumter. At a distance the fort bears
some resemblance to Fort Paul at Sebastopol. It is
a truncated pentagon, with three faces armed—that
which is towards Morris Island being consideted
safe from attack, as the work was only intended to
resist an approach from the sea. It is said to have
cost altogether more than £200,000 sterling. The
lails are of solid brick and concrete masonry, built
ose to the edge of the water, 60 feet high, and
trom'B to 12 feet in thickness, and carry three tiers
of guns on the north, east, and west exterior sides.
Its weakest point is on the south side, where the
masonry is not protected by any flank fire to sweep
the wharf. The work is designed for an armament
of 140 pieces of ordnance of all calibres. TWo tiers
are .uarrilo-iiiliprtiotrasemates, and ta; third or
upper tier is en barbette ; the lower tier is intended
for 42-pounder paiXhan guns ; the second tier for
8 and 10 inch columbiads, for throwing solid or
hollow shot, and the upper tier for mortars and guns.
Bat only 75 are now mounted. Eleven pitixhan
guns are among that number, nine of them com 7
'matiding Fort Moultrie. Some of the columbiads
are not mounted. Four of the 32-pounder barbette
guns are on pivot carriages, and others have a sweep'
of 180 degrees. The walls are pierced everywhere
for musketry. The magazine contains several
hundred barrels of gunpowder, and a supply of shot,
powder, and shells. The garrison was amply sup-
plied with water from artificial wells. . The war
garrison of the fort ought to be at least 600 men,
but only 79 were within its walls, with the labourers
—lO9, all told—at the time of the attack.

The walls of the fort are dented on all sides by
shot marks, but in no instance was any approach
made to a breach, and the greatest damage, at one
of the angles on the south face, did not extend more
than two feet into the masonry, which is of very
fine brick. The parapet is, of course, damaged,
but the casemate embrasures are uninjured. On
landing at the wharf we perceived that thegranite
copings bad suffered more than the brickwork, and
that the stone had split up and splintered where it
wasstruck. The ingenuity of the defenders was evi-
dent even here. They had no morter with which to
fasten up the stone slabs they had adopted asblinds to
the windows of the unprotected south side, but Major
Anderson, or his subordinate, Captain Foster, had
closed the slabs in with lead, which be procured
from some water piping, and had rendered them
proof against escalade, which he was prepared also
to resent by extensive mines laid under the wharf
and landing-place, to be fired by friction tubes
and lines laid inside the work. He had also
prepared a number of shells for the same
purpose, to act as hand grenades, with friction
tubes and lanyards, when hurled down from the
parapet on , his assailants. The entrance to the
fort was blocked up' by masses of masonry,
which had been thrown down from the walls of the
burnt barracks and officers' quarters along the
south side. A number of men were engaged in
digging up the mines at the wharf, and others were
busied in completing the ruin of the tottering
walls, which were still so. hot that it was necessary
to keep a hose of water playing on part of the
brickwork. To an uninitiated eye it would seem
as if the fort was untenable, but, in reality, in spite
of the destruction done to it, a stout garrison, pro- ,
perly supplied, would have been in no danger from
anything, except the explosion of the magazine, of
which the copper door was jammed by the heat at the
time of the surrender. Exclusive of the burning of
the quarters and the intense heat, there was no
reason for a properly-handled and sufficient force
to surrender the place. It is needless to say
Major Anderson had neither the one nor the other.
He was in all respects most miserably equipped.
His guns were without screws, scales, or tangents,
so that his elevations were managed by rude wedges
of deal, and his scales marked in chalk on the breech
of the guns, and his distances and beatings scratched
in the same way on the side of the embrasures. He
had not a single fuse for his shells, and he tried in
vain to improvise them by filling pieces of bored-
out pine with caked gunpowder. His cartridges
were out, and he was compelled to detail some of
his few men to make them out of shirts, stockings,
and jackets. He had not a single mortar, and he
was compelled to the desperate expedient of plant-
ing long guns in the ground at an angle of 45 de-
grees, for which he could find no shell, as he had
no fuses which could be fired with safety. He had
no sheers to mount his guns, and chance alone
enabled him to do so by dr.fting some large logs
down with the tide against Sumter. Finally, he
had not even one engine to put out a fire in quar-
ters. I walked carefully over the parade and could
detect the marks of only seven shells in the ground,
but Major Whiting told me the orders were to
burst the shells over the parapet so as to frustrate
any attempt to work the barbette guns. Two of
these were injured by shot, and one was overturned,
apparently by its own recoil, but there was no in-
jury done inside any of the casemates to the guns
or works. The shell splinters had all disappeared.
carried off, lam told, as " trophies." Had Major
Anderson been properly provided, so that he could
have at once sent bis men to the guns, opened fire
from those in barbette, thrown shell and hot shot,
kept relays to all his casemates, and put out fires
as they arose from red-hot shot or shell, he must. I
have no earthly doubt, have driven the troops off
Morris Island, burnt out Fort Moultrie, and silenced
the enemy's fire. His loss might have been consi-
derable, that of the Confederates must have bees
very great. As it was, not a life was lost by actual
fire on either side. A week hence and it will be
impossible for a fleet to do anything, except cover
the descent of an army here, and they must lie off,
at the least, four miles from the nearest available
beach.

(Front another Correspondent.)
NEW YORK, APRIL 30.

The President, by proclamation dated the 27th,
orders a blockade of the ports of Virginia and North
Corolina, in addition to that already directed of the
ports of the other seceding States. For foreigners
this extension of the blockade is cf little conse-
quence, as the trade of Virginia and North Caro-
lina is almost entirely domestic. The newspaper
despatches from Washington say that these
blockades will be resisted by foreign Governments,
as ordered without notice. I cannot believe that
such will, be the case, for no European Govern-
ment, unless false to European instincts, can array
itself actively upon the side of African slavery in
this contest.

The Herald of the day before yesterday gives a
list of the various sums that have been contributed
in the North for public uses in the war, without
including, however, the large private donations
given for the benefit of favourite regiments, or to
equip or aid some particular recruits. I enclose a
copy of this statement. Its magnitude may well
surprise any one who thought that there was a
diversity of opinion at the North which would
show itsetlf as soon as hostilities should break out.
The total amount of unconditional
gifts, accrklibg
to the llerald, is 11,239,000 dols., of which
3,000,000 dola.nre contributed by the state of New