Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-05-17
noMnAnpMENr AT CHARLESTON.

The statement that no one was killed
during the bombardment of Fort Sumter
has not been generally believed at the
North, Notwithstanding its emphatic reit-
Grafton by the Southern rebels. There
have been many stories printed in regard
to the number killed at Fort Moultrie, the
most reliable one appearing to be that of
an impressed soldier on duty there, who
says that over 800 were killed in Moultrie
alone. This story is confirmed by a gen.
tleman who has just returned from Charles
ton, having been obliged to take up arm
against the Stars and Stripes to save his
neck from a halter. In a conversation on
Saturday last, he said substantially as
follows:-
81 was engaged in business in Charles
ton when our present difficulties CON-
menced, and when I saw a fight was in
evitable l made all my arrangements to
come North. AS | was about starting |
was waited upon by a committee, and told
that | must either enlist in the Southern
army or suffer the consequences of a re-
fusal. 1 did enlist, and after being trans
ferred from one post to another, | was
eventually located in Fort Moultrie at the
time of the bombardment. l am no SOL
der, but I knew enough to be convinced
that there was destined to be an awful
slaughter within that fort as soon as Sum-
ter should fire upon it. There were by
several hundreds too many men in the
fort; there was scarcely room to move
about, and no e~ffectual protection for one
half the men. The result proved the cor
r~ectness of my convictions.
The very first shot from Fort Sumter
came booming into one of the portfolios
near which [ was stationed, dismountcd
the gun, and shivered the carriage into
thousands of splinters. These %splinters
were scattered with terrible force through
out the fort, killing thirty-three men in
stantly, and woundlng many more. This
was the most destructive single shot we
received, but throughout the entire can
nonading the havoc in Moultrie was ter
rible. The dead and dying lay about us
in every direction, and were trampled UNI
der foot by the soldiers in their arduous
labors. We had not surgeons enough to
attend them all, and the groans of the
dying and their piteous cries for help were
distressing in the extreme. When Sum-
ter finally capitulatcd, without loosing a
man, thank God, the relatives of our dead
and wounded FASTENED to Moultrie to learn
their fate. Mothers came asking for their
sons, sisters for brothers, sons for fathers,
and all were told that all were well-that
none were killed, but THAT confusion pre-
vailed, and the soldiers could not be seen.
That night the bodies were boxed up and
conveyed on shore, where they were buried
in trenches in the negro burying ground.
One hundred and sixty bodies were con-
veyed to the burial place OF q small
schooner, and the others by various other
conveyances. On the following day, when
relatives inquired for those who were dead,
they were told that they had been sent
away to other points to recruit their ener-
gies. Every possible means were resorted
to to keep the truth from being known.
myself counted over two hundred dead
bodies in Moultrie. and know that there
we're others which l did not see.
81 have no means Of knowing the ex-
tent of the slaughter at the other forti6-
cations, but heard, incidentally, that it
was serious, although not 50 great as at
Moultrie. | was told that one shot at Ste
vens Battery dismounted a cannon and kill
ed seven persons. During the ~cannonading,
| was forced to aid the rebels somewhat,
although I evaded firing a shot at the flag
Of my country. did, on compulsion, as
sist in placing a gun to command Sumter,
and consider it the worst piece of business
| ever did in my life. 1t was thegeneral
opinion after the fight, that if Major An
derson had had forty more men and a sup
ply of provisions, he would have routed
the entire force that surrounded him. II
Capt. MCGOWAN had persisted in his at
tempt to REINFORCE Sumter with the Star
Of the West. ha cou1d have dona en- with n