Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-05-03
From the New York Times.
A RELIABLE ACCOUNT OF THE COM
MENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES.

Experience Of the Tunes Correspondent
as Prisoner of Var.
WASHINGTON, Tuesday, April l6.
At last safe at the Federal Capital,
which will not remain 50 long, if the North
does not arouse herself from the inertia,
will take up the the thread of my nara
tive, which was so rudely broken off by
the infamous arrest, alluded to by tele-
gram.
A witness of the cannonading Of Fort
Sumter for six hours, and having had a
full description of it by gentleman who
witnessed it up to Saturday at 2 z. NJ, l
can perhaps give far more accurate ac-
count of it than the absurd ones sent
North by the telegraph. After mailing
my letter of April IL, | investigated all
the points of interest in the city, found
the Battery crowded with ladies, who re-
mained there all night; the city, con-
stantly patrolled by mounted volunteers
and infantry in large numbers; while at
Gov. Pickens' and Gen. Beauregard's head
ouarters there was evidence of intense ac-
tivitv. ALA M. l repaired to the long
Adger Pier, and there, mounted on a cot
ton bale, quietly awaited the opening
gun, armed only with an opera glass. My
sole companion was fair young girl, a
bride of only three months, who with hef
little brother awaited the opening OF the
war Her husband had left her to join
the Palmetto Guards, and she shed bitter
tears as the day slowly dawned. AT 10
, minutes past o'clock precisely, the frst
shot was fred from the Five-mortar Bat
tery on James Island, followed in quick
I succession by the Iron Battery at Cum
, ming's Point, the Floating Battery, Fort
!, Moultrie. and the one at Mount Pleasant
: At 6 A. NJ, DR.. Robertson, an intimate
g personal and professional friend, hurrledly
approached me and inquired if Fort Sum
q ter had opened fire. At 6 IL O'CLOCK
l. precisely, the first gun was fired from for
Sumter. directed at Stevens Point, an(
:, soon the conflict became general on elthe
side. The sun rose on as beautiful
d morning as the world has ever seen, bu
soon the clouds gathered thick and fast
and nature poured forth her torrents a
IS though frowning on the infamous speota
Y Gle. AT times, the fort was completed.
hidden from view, yet the iron hail spe'
Y. on it's murderous work, and the distinctly
If sounds of shot and shell could be clearl.
J. marked out as they cut the thin air wit
TO fearful rapidity.
N Whenever the haze lifted, | could dis
to cover the sacred flag of our country PROUD
ID " spreading itself to the breeze. A
ar though the shot fell around it thick an
It fast, yet it seemed to possess an absoiu'
er power of intangibility, and nothing coul
ID disturb it. The scene was solemn In tt
IN extreme. Even the crowd that now line
ut the wharf forebore, hushed the rude Je
a. and seemed at last to comprehend that WI
wv was at last inaugurated, and that, too'
South Carolina.
is Dropping for time the account Of n
wv arrest as a Federal Spy" let me assu
on your readers that Sumter was not env(
oped in flames" at any time that the MI
~ were not sent out on raft to collect W
ice ter to cxtinguish the fire, simply becau
* there was plenty of the article ins'd
that the fort was not preached at all, al
we that it was not blackened mass OF rui
ow when the curtain dropped on the last
,ok of the tragedy. No boat left Morris
mo land with United States flag for Ma.
,ur Anderson when his own was shot awi
simply because the Morris Island boys b
u no such flag to offer. They 50 hate
go Stars and Stripes that they would sool
If have been bitten by the moccassins
IAN their own swamps than touch an embl
i'd Of tho country they have cast off. 1t
a pretty telegraphic fiction, but very Ia
'ed- Major Anderson surrendered simply
yes cause he found that the fort could
continue the siege for any length Of a