The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-04

done So and they be none the wiser; but not a man
has been added to this command from them. In
TACT, so particular we, that not officer
has come ashore, with the exception of Captain Vog
oes, and he only once, when the vessels first came
These Southern papers publishing all sorts o
false reports about me. One is that was heard tC
say that If they had attacked the fort any time du
ring the first fifteen days would have surrendered
II without hiring gun. OF course this is not true
My men stood at the guns every one of those days
| and If they had come they would have learned the
definition of one kind of grape.
The people on the opposite shore think we are in
| a much more defensible condition than when they
first came. The moral effect of the guns top is
! great. When the move was first made | worked
| most where they could not see me, and they
thought but little doing; but when my men
were put to work on the barbette guns, and they
saw them go up almost like magic, as they thought
| lthey could scarcely move their own guns, they
began to think troublous times coming
! There are only, as l said before, about four hun
dred men at the barracks, Fort Barrancas and old
McCrea-ony enough to garrison them. They are
very much afraid that some fine morning they will
hnd the ships in the harbor, with the intelligence
/ to them that they can leave within two hours,
| unless they prefer to be food for powder.
:, Colonel Chase and Captain Randolph are both in
Montgomery, leaving Colonel Forney in command.
Hels Vest Point graduate, and was engaged
| In putting up the batteries before that work was
| stopped.
! Colonel Chase was putting up battery near the
lighthouse, and mounting eight inch columbiads
on it. This battery would have raked our 'front.' so
wrote protesting against its continuance at pres
ent and also against the erection of all batteries
bearing on the fort Colonel Chase told the Secre-
tary of War that if he would not land the troops
IN IN the Brooklyn he on his part, would not attack
the fort, and would Immediately discontinue all
preparations for so doing. OF course this battery
building was violating the agreement; and they
nave admitted it by not going on. They think |
nave nave no right to mount any more guns either but
that Is all they know about it, There was no ar
mlstlce on my side at ALL except about the landing
Oh the troops, and that was the Secretary's Lam
at perfect liberty to mount every gun in the fort if
choose, and to make such other defences as can
invent or copy A. J. SLEMMER,.
First Lieut. First Artillery, comdg. Fort Pickens.
MATTERS IN CHARLESTON.
We take the following from the Charleston pa
pers of Thursday and Friday:
PRESIDENT.
For many days past rumors have been rife to the
eHect that Jefferson Davis, President of the Con-
1ederate States, was on his way to Charleston
yesterday morning some color was given to these
reports by the publication of despatch, dated
montgomery, announcing the departure of the
President for this city.
1t is scarcely necessary for US to say that, had
such been the case, the readers of the IHercury
would have been duly informed of the fact in our
special dispatches from Montgomery. President
Davis is still in that city, and from present an
pearances is likely to remain there
w may add that General Dunovant was yester-
day summoned by telegraph to the seat of the Pro-
vlsional Government to confer with the Secretary
OF War.-Hercury.
THE FOREIGN SHIPPING IN PoRT-Trs rFrErr nv rur
COTTON MARKET.
Owlng to the number of ships as well as scboon-
erS from foreign ports now at our wharves the de-
i mana Tor cotton yesterday was quite brisk and
heavy sales were effected.
THE DIRECT LINE OF STEAM snIps
we learn that over 900 were subscribed
yesterday for the establishment of direct line of
steamers between Charleston and Liverpool. We
n q fau do al III
OF the STOCK taken up, and may this important en-
terprse, lnaugurated auspicousy be successful.
ly carried Courier.
THE FLOATING BATTERY.
Ihe charleston correspondent of the Providence
journal gives the following description of the
famous floating battery that was Launched last
Monday:
The floating battery, about which there is so
much talk, and which is so inaccuratey described
In the Northern papers, is getting along very |
slowly, considering the time at which it was to |
have been finished. 1t has not the form of a |
Weoge, as frst wrote you, ,-but looks more like |
dry dock than anything l can liken it to- 1t is |
about one hundred feet long by TWENTY-FIVE wide
ne frame Is OF pine timber, one foot in thickness |
Inc bottom is fiat. Into this timbers are framed |
Which go up on one side and on the ends perpen- |
dlcularly about fifteen feet, while on the other |
they have an outward inclination of fifty degrees |
and are twenty-five feet long
on the upper end of these framed short tim
bers, at an opposite inclination of about thirty de-
grees, which present the appearance of rafters |
but only extend out about ten seet and are in |
aenoed as protection for the men at the guns |
Inc sldes are tlmbers bolted together, after the |
manner OF man fwar and covered with four |
inch plank and outside of that are to be boted bars
OF railroad iron, laid twodeep while on the inside
is double thickness of palmetto logs, and on the
INSIDE OF these Is to be placed layer of cotton |
Dales, thus making solid wall of from five to six
feet IN thickness on the attacking side while on the
other side and ends it will not be any stronger than
IS necessary to resist the effect of the conclusion in
the hrlng OF the guns. 1t will be partly filled with
water, which, it is supposed, will destroy the effect
OF the bombs which fall into it; consequently there
is large opening left in the deck 1t will mo- Mt
four guns, which are now lying side of :t
Founders and one 44-pounder. They will be mount
ed all on one side it being the only that pro-
tected the other side and ends having only a rail-
ing around them. In regard to its efficacy, opin-
ions differ, but among the soldiers it has the Oppro
orious epithet of Slaughter Pen, and each company
are fearful that they win be called upon
From the materials of which it is built it must be
extremely combustible, and heated shot will be yery
liable to set it on fire. Again, it will have to be
moored and kept in exact position, for if it swings
around, or its moorings are cut, as they might be
by chain shot, it would be completely at the mercy
OF the fort, which might easily sweep the exposed
deck by grape or canister shot
NOT IMPROBABLE.
1t was currently rumored upon the streets yester.
day, that Major Anderson and Lieutenants Davis
and Talbot, of the garrison of Fort Sumter, would
on the 4th instant, resign their commissions in the
United States Army, and retire from the Fort.