Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1861-05-30

pal1nan guns are among that number, nine of
them commanding Fort Moultrie Four of the
32-pounder barbette guns are on pivot carri-
ages, and others have sweep of 1S0 degrees
The walls are pierced everywhere for musk
etry. The magazine contains several hundred
barrels Of powder, and supply Of shot and
shell. The garrison was amply supplied with
water from artificial wells The war garrison
of the fort ought to be at least 600 men, but
only 70 were within its walls, with the labor
ers-109, 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 ap-
proach made to breach, and the greatest da-
mage, at one of the angles on the south face,
did not extend more than two feet into the ma
sonry, which is of very fine brick. The para
pet is, of course, damaged, but the easement
embrssures are uninjured. On landing at the
wharf we perceived that the granite copings
had suffered more than the brick work, and
that the stone had split up and splintered
where it was struck. The ingenuity Of the de-
tenders was evident here. They had no NOR
tar with which to fasten up the stone slabs
they had adapted as blinds to the windows of
the unprotected south side, but Major Ander-
son, or his subordinate, Captain Foster, had
closed the slabs in with lead, which he pro-
cured from some water piping, and had rem
dered 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 gre
nades, with friction tubes and lanyards, when
hurled down from the parapet on his assai-
ants. 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 num-
Der of men were engaged in digging up the
mines at the wharf, and others were busted in
completing the ruin of the totteriDg walls,
which were still so hot that it was necessary to
keep hose of water playing on part of the
brickworks.
THE DEFENCE OF FORT SUMTER.
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,
properly supplied, would have been in no dan
ger from anything, except the explosion of the
magazine, of which the copper door was jammed
by the heat at the time of the surrender Ex-
elusive of the burning of the quarters, and the
intense heat, there was no reason for a proper
ly handled and sufficient force to surrender
the place. 1t is needless to say Major Ander-
son had neither the one nor the other He
was in all respects most miserably equipped
His guns were without screws, scales, or tam
gents, 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 dis
tances and bearings 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 single
mortar, and he was compelled to the desperate
expedient of planting long guns in the ground
at an angle Of As degrees, 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 drifting some large logs down with
the tide against Sumter. Finally, he had not
even one engine to put out a fire in quarters. 1
walked carefully over the parade and could
detect the marks Of seven shells in the ground,
but Major Whiting told me the orders were to
burst the shells over the parapet SO as to frus-
trate any attempt to work the barbette guns
Two of these were injured by shot, and ono
was overturned, apparently by its own recoil,
but there was no injury dOno inside any of the
casemates to the guns or works. The she'll |
told, as "trophies. Had Major Anderson
been properly provided, SO. that he could have
at once sent his men to the guns, opened fire |
from those in barbette, thrown shell and hot |
shot, kept relays to all his classmates, and put
out fires as they arose from red hot shot or
she'll, he must, l 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 considerable, that Of |
the COnfederates must have been very great |
As il was. not life was lost by actual FIRE on
either side. A week hence and it will be i'm
possible for feet to do anything, except COW
er the descent of an army here, and they must
lie of. at the least, four miles from the nearest
available beach.