Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-04-19


Tho Palmetto Account Of The Attack on
Fort Sumter-The Charleston Mercury's
X ejOicinE.
SATURDAYS Charleston Mercury gives a
long account Of the attack ON Fort Sumter,
from which we extract the material portions:
As may have been anticipated from our
notice of the military movements in our
city yesterday, the bombRrdment of Fort
Sumter, SO long and anxiously expected,
has at length become a fact actually accom-
plished. The restless activity of the night
before was gradually worn down, the citi.
zens who had thronged the battery through
the night, anxious and weary, had sought
their homes; the mounted guard which had
kept watch and ward over the city, with the
first grey streaks Of morning were preparing
to retire, when two guns in quick succession
from Fort johnson announced the opening
of the drama.
Upon that signal, the circle of batteries
with which the grim fortress of Fort Sumter
is beleaguered opened FIRE. The outline of
this great volcanic crater was illuminated
with line of twinkling lighta; the cluster
ing shells illuminated the sky above it; the
balls clattered thick as hail upon its sides /;
our citizens, aroused to forgetfulness of
their fatigue through many weary hours,
rushed again to the, points of observation; !;
and so, at the break of day, amid the burst
ing of bombs, and the roaring of ordnance,
and before thousands of spectators, whose
homes, and liberties, and lives were at stake,
was enacted this first great scene in the
opening drama
1t affords us infinite pleasure to record that
Fort Moultrie has fully sustained the pres
tige of its glorious name. 1t fired very
nearly gun for gun with Fort Sumter. We
4 IL.
o'clock, and found them to be fOrty.two to
forty. six, while the advantage was unques q.
tionably upon the side of Fort Moultrie. In
that fort not a gun was dismounted, not q
wound received, not the slightest permanent
injury sustained by any of its defenses, while
every ball from Fort Moultrie left its mark
upon Fort Sumter. Many of its shells we're
dropped into that fort and Lieutenant John
Mitchell, the worthy son of that patriot sire,
who has so nobly vindicated the cause of the
South, has the honor of dismounting two Of
its parapet guns by a single shot from one of
the Columbiads, which at the time he had
the Office of directing.
The famous iron batteries-the one at
Cummipgs's Point--named for @. III. Stevens,
the inventor, and the celebrated Floating
| Battery, constructed under the direction OF
Capt. Hamilton, have fully vindicated the
correctness of their conception. Shot after
shot fell upon them and glanced harmless
| away, while from their favorable position
their shots fell with effect upon Fort Sumter,
and the southeast pancopee, under the FIRE
of the Stevens Battery, at nightfall, if not
actually preached, was badly damaged.
AT this battery the honor of firing the first
gun was accorded to the Venerable Edmund
Rufin, of Virginia, who marched TO the
rendezvous at the sound of the alarm on
Monday night, and who, when asked by
some person who did not know him to what
company he belonged, replied, "To that in
which there is a vacancy"
1t were vain to attempt an exhibition OF
| the enthusiasm and fearless intrepidity OF
our citizens in every department of this
| eventful day. Boats passed from post to
post, without the slightest hesitation, under
| the guns of Fort Sumter and with high
and low, old and young, rich and poor, in
uniform or without, the common wish and
constant effort was to reach the posts OF
action and amid bombardmeut resisted
| with the most consummate skill and per-
severance, and with the most efficient ap-
| pliances of military art and science, it is 8
most remarkable circumstance, and one
which exhibits the infinite goodness of an
overruling Providence, that, so far as we
have been able to learn from the most
careful inquiry, not the slightest injury has
been sustained BY. the defenders of their
| country.
Hour after hour has the fire on both sides
been kept up, deliberate and unfaggiug
The steady, frequent shock of the csnnon'a
boom, accompanied by the hiss of balls, and
the horrid, hurtling sound OF the flying shell
are now perfectly familiar to the people oi
Charleston. While the early sun was yelled
in mist we saw shells bursting within and
illuminating Fort Sumter, or exploding in
the air above, leaving small thick cloud oi
white smoke to mark the place. We saw
solid shot striking the dark walls, and in
each instance followed by a fume of dust
from the battered surface. One man was
visibly stricken PROSTATE on the wharf and
carried in the fort, and several guns were
dismounted. The walls, too, in severa
| spots, were damaged.
And while Sumter has certainly and man.
ifesty been injured, no loss is yet sustained
on our part. Fort Moultrie is intact, so far
as fighting capacity is concerned. The iron
battery is ready for continued work, after Q
full and fair trial of it's powers of resistance
also the floating battery. The practice o.
our soldiers, as marksmen, has been excel.
lent and highly satisfactory to officers Of
science and experience; and great gratiica.
ton, at the last accounts (six O'Clock P. NJ. \
not one man of our army has suffered injury