Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1861-12-27
THE CHARLESTON FIRE.

-BultdtngS 6toUn up 10 stop We fFe'
Loss from Fire TO Screen Millions Of
DoHars.-Five hundred and serenity
sic Buildings Destroyed.
FoRTREss MONROE, Dec. &c. Capt.
Millward went TO Craney Island to-day
with a flag of truce, and was met by
Lieut.. Smith off the island. No passen-
gers came down from Norfolk.
Norfolk and Richmond papers give
full particulars of the extensive confa-
grafton in Charleston. The fire broke
out at about 8 o'clock in the evening OF
the llth, in Russell & ODDS sash and
blind factory at the foot Of Hazel street,
extending to the machine shop Of Cam
eron & Co. Before midnight the fire
had assumed an appalling magnitude,
and Meeting street, from Market to
Queen, was one mass Of flames. As
tenement after tenement was enyeleped
in flames, the panic became awful, and
thousands of families evacuated their
houses and filled the streets.
The buildings in the lower part Of the
city where the fire broke out, were prin-
cipally wood, and extremely infiammable
which accounts for the remarkably rapid
progress of the fire. At midnight the
Circular Church and Institute were
burning, and the proximity Of the flames
to the Charleston hotel, and Mills house,
caused them to be vacated by their in
mates.
At / o'clock the fire tended more
southward, toward the corner of Arch
dale and Queen streets, to the rear OF
/ the Charleston hotel and to the end OF
Hyne street. Crossing Market street,
the fire spread down East Bay to Cum
berland street, and across TO the Mills
House, including in the destruction the
Circular Church, Institute Hall and
Charleston hotel, and all the buildings on
King street, from Clifford nearly to
Broadway, were destroyed before three
o'clock.
Gen. Ripley, who superintendent the
troops, who arrived on the scene about
this time, ordered several buildings TO be
blown up. After some delay the order
was executed, but not before the theatre,
Lloyd's coach factory, opposite the ex-
press office, and all the houses from this
point to Queen street caught fire and
were destroyed.
Al about o'clock the wind changed
the direction Of the flames toward Broad
street. Soon after St. Andrews Hall
took fire, and subsequently the Cathe-
drsl, the spire falling soon after 5 o'clock.
The fire made clean sweep through
the city, making It's track from East bay
to King street.
The Charleston Courier of the 18th
gives a list of between two and three
hundred sufferers, and says the loss is
estimated at from S5,O00,O0O to $1,000
600
Mr.. Russell, at whose factory the fire
originated, thinks it must have been an
incendiary, or by the negligence of ne
groes employed there.
a dispatch from Charleston dated 18th
says that the Mills house, although
threatened and several times on fire,
eventually escaped, and is only slightly
damaged.
A message was sent to Congress on
Friday, by Jeff. Davis in relation to the
conhagra!ion at Charleston, recommend
ing an appropriation in aid of the suffer-
ers. A resolution was accordingly unan-
imously adopted by Congress appropriate
ing $2j0,000 as an advance on account
of the claims of South Carolina upon the
Confederate states.
The latest particulars in regard to the
fire at Charleston are as follows:
Five churches were destroyed, viz
the Roman Catholic cathedral, St. Pc
ter's, Episcopal church, the Cumberland
street church, and the Circular church.
The Charleston Mercury says $40
buildings were destroyed by the fire.
MARINE DIsAsTERs.-The list Of dis
asters to vessels on the lake and at sea
for November, is much larger than for
several months, reaching seventy-seven,
as follows: eight steamers, twenty-five
ships, eight barques, fourteen brigs, and
three hundred schooners. The aggre-
gate loss by these disasters was about
100000.