Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1861-12-18

Ills considered unmanly to exult over q |.
,llen or a falling foe, aud it would be hard a
, Christian to rejoice over any destruction q
( even tho City of Charleston, and yet 1t is I
impossible to refrain from the conviction that =
he retribution is q Just one. 1t is even !
more 30, that the firing has been done not BY /
soldiers, but by the vengeance oil those
have been Of CarOliniEs " house
hold. Whether the reports Ofthe fire having
been set by the negroes in a state Of insurrec-
ton are true or not, the h:e was set by in
cendiAry hand and the fact opens up a chapter
of horrors which Is TO be enacted within the
boundsrles Of that treason-pOlluied State
We give below from the N. Y. Times an es-
innate Of the damage done, and the portion
of the city destroyed. With her harOor
blcckaded for all time TO come by sunken
hulks, her carefully constructed Notifications
thereby rendered useless, her city in flames,
and a terribly dangerous and desperate foe
in her very midst, what a fearful day OF
reckoning has come upon the city that first
gloried over trampling into the dust the Stars
and Stripes:
From the location of the different build
inps mentioned as being burnt, it is certain
that the Ere was Of vast extent and that It
must have destroyed the greater portion OF
the business section Of the city. From Ha-
eel street, onthe north, where the fire began,
soutbward to Broad street, which it was
crossing on Thursday night is nearly hall q
mile; and from the Bay, on the eastern SIDE
of the city, to Aazyek street on the west,
ward, which are the boundaries 1t tnen mao
attained in these directions is nearly as tar.
Within these limits are comprised the ma
ior part Of stores, the public buildings,
churches, banks, hotels, halls, the market
the theatre, SC, and there is also a resident
population, amounting to at least seven
thousand, scattered through this part OF the
city.
street, State, Church, Chalmers, Queen,
King. etc the houses are very old, and many
of them wood, while on Broad, Meeting,
Haipe and other burnt Streets there are
many very superb business and public build
ines which have been erected within the last
ten years. If the fire, after crossing Broad
street spread much further southerly, itmusi
have swept away nearly all the CONNER
cial and trading portions Of Charleston, In
cluding the fine residences on the lower part
of Reading street, and the palatial edi6ces or
: the Battery. All these abominable sinks O.
filth and infAmy in the vicinity of Tradd
and Elliot streets, too, 1.-THE Charleston
. olive Points,") must have been destroyed
The business and trading heart OF the city
. the residences Of the proud and wealthy, snC
n of the poor and ~depraved, as well as hun
dreds of negro ~shanties, are embraced within
the region over which, so far ns can b.
e iudped, the FIRE had extended up to Thurs
day night.
/, of the public buildings within the lines o
the fire, are nearly all the banks, the news
paper Offices, churches, halls, etc, and on
edvices leave it burning on the verge Of tn
l. court-house, the guard-house lin which som
n national prisoners are yet confined old 81
Michaers Church and the great ROher hos
l. pital, The Charleston Arsenal, the Stat
lie Military Academy, the college, the railroa
70 depot and the orphan asylum are in a direC
ton where the flames would not be likely I
reach, unless the gale was blowing stiff
q from the northeast.
r 1t is said that the rotten old buildings o
East Bay whence were issued the Chsrlesto
MsTeurV and the Courier, with their inlan
matory ~falsehOOds, which did so much to MAJ
den the people into secession, have been sWeI
Oh away by the c~onhagration. The splendi
re new Institute Hall, or, as it has lately bee
90 called, Secession Hall, in which the first
Secession Conventions, one year ago, held i
2 = - -,
sion was signed on the goth of this mont
1860, is in ashes. The double row of slave
"a broker shops in State-street are burnt dow
Gov. P1cKEEs' Charleston Executive mansio
~ Is DESTROYED. The magnificent new Cath
We lie Cathedral, from which Bishop LYING
sang mass and secession st. Philip
n Church, the Circular Church, the theatr
Bibernia Hall lin which the Secession Coz
vention first met and 81. Andrews Hal
u, which had so often sounded to the praises
he secession and national destruction, are no
a all in ruins.
twill be remembered that about the tin
that the secession movement began, many
the property owners in Charleston, as in oil
d, er Southern cities, who had been in the haI
it Of insuring against fire in the Northel
. insurance companies, withdrew their risl
II from these Offices with much insolence an
a. parade, and transferred them to local organ
nd i~zstions. Most Of the latter have suspendei
while all the Others nov are bankrupted;
that utter ruin must fall upon those who
y property by this calamity has beendestroyei
d. By the census of last year Charleston hs
LOl a population Of / 1910, of whom probably
ar. half are black and mongrels. The negrO
and mongrels are mostly employed as SCI
wants and in performing the harder work
On the various trades and occupations.
~ The OILY other city of any size in SOui
IA Caroliana is Columbia, the capital, and thl
has only eight thousand people, lees tha
half of whom are white.
If the fire attacked the City Gusrd-HOus
on the corner Of Broad and Meeting-street
a in which these Ct our prisoners who have nj
i vet been taken to the forts in the bay Al
confined, it is not likely that their livI
1t would be endangered. The Glard-House
on a heavy stone building Of solid masonr!
~fre-proof, aud the cells are built around
square, with a large vacant cOurtin the Gel
tire, in which refractory slvsyes are huddle
n If the building became heated they would
M taken out or ct least let loose in the var
oh We published an article yesterday from
p Charleston paper, proposing that our prisol
" ers he chained together and exposed to Il
he fre in case Of an attack upon the city, but
} a caunot be believed that they would roa
them alive in such 8 case as this. Thi
however, is another argument why the
prisoners should be exchanged as soon
az possible. There are six ~freqsngines
Charleston, commonly worked by white
but most Of the white men not in Virgin
are now of down on tine coast to meet &c
Sherman. AL the fates seemed to eopspi
"a a1ofost fha touu