Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1862-01-01
Fearful Ravusss of the CharIestOu Fire.

IRichmond Examiners Correspondence
CHARLESTON, s. c., Dec. 10.
Oar people hcve scarcely yet awakened
from the trance sf horror and dismay into
which theywere plunged BY the great disaster
of wednesday night and Tuesday morning.
The more carefully l survey the path Of the fire
tbe more shocking is the sense Of utter desc
lation and distress which creeps over me. The
newspapers here have published long and
elaborate accounts of the frightful event Of
the week. but they do not and cannot picture
a 1.-THE of the public and private losses, the
keen. individual suffering and general gloom
which have fallen upon the noble old city Of
Charleston. To give anything like a full
history of these would require book Of very
respectable size.
There is no doubt whatever that the FIRE
was purely the result Of accident. 1t prob
ably originated from the sparks of camp IRE
which was Lit to the windward Of the sash
factory, where the flames first burst forth. A
furious gale had Just arisen, and in less than
an hour the lower portion Of the city was in
flames in q dozen places. The wind whirled
about great chunks of burning wood for dis
tsuos Of many blocks from the blazing tene-
ments, and the Vust multitude of these red
flakes, lighting up the air, gave to scene the
aspect of fiery snow storm. The conhsgaa-
tion attained its full width among the dry
and ancient finder box shanties OF State and
Market streets. From that neighborhoed it
swept rapidly and resistlessly foFWard,
spreading neither to the right nor to the left,
but borne by the wind in a straight line, di-
aponally through the city, until it had clear
ed its road of ruin from the Cooper to the
Ashley rivers. It is somewhat singular to
mark the clearness with which the broad line
pursued by the FIRE ia defined. Indeed, so
furious and unchanging YVES the gale that
blew during the whole of that fearful night,
that think it actually served as q protection
70 the houses situated on either side of the
line of fire, inasmuch as it kept the flames
surging and roaring steadily onward and
gave them no opportunity to turn, or to bend,
or to spread.
The most irreparable of the result Of this
awfnl calamity is the wholesale destruction
Of the antiquities OF our city. Great mum.
bers of those grand old mansions of re7olu-
tionary memory, which hss given to Charles
ton the prestige which attaches to every city
of the ancient regime, now lie blaekened aad
HLuOulUeEluk ncnpo VI Auluos Aub HNEL5lY
halls in which the rebels Of '76 were wont to
live and move are lost to the rebels of'61.
The ancestral homestesds of the Heywards,
the Laurences the Pickneys, the MiddIetons.
the Haynes, and Of many other families
whose names are entwined with the history
Of the State, are leVeled with the ground. 1t
is new impossible to go from that portion of
the city in which are situated the battery, the
Post Office and City Hall, to the neiehbor-
hood of Charleston Hotel, or to any part OF
Wentworth street. without passing through
whole blocks of the desolate tract encumber-
ed by huge piles Of stone, brick and charred
rafters. Those who are unacquainted with |
these localitiesWill be able to form some idea
Of the extent of the FIRE, from the fact its
sweep embraced quarter Of 8 mile IN width
and fully mile in length, through the very |
heart and Oldest quarter Of tae city.