The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-04-23

WEgEwwM9REzW
and at haIf-past one o'clock the feet is one
more under way.
Slowly the leading vessel, followed dy tht
other eight iron-clads, moves up the main shiI
channel-the shore of Morris Island, against
which, from our point of view, they seem tt
rest, forming a fixed point, by which we meas
ure the progress ofthe feet. The first battery
to whose fire it will be exposed is Fort Wag-
ner, and one fixes his eye on it and on the
Weehawken, approaching nearer and nearer,
for the feet will there undergo its first fiery
baptism.
SILENCE.
She comes within range of the fort no fire.
She passes across it still no fire! The second
ship comes up, and meets the same silent re-
ception and so on, one by one, till, with the
Keokuk, the whole nine file by without asin-
gle shot from the seemingly formidable work.
Meantime, while the fleet is passing Wag-
ner unmolested, the leading vessel has come
up with the next rebel work-Battery Bee
The same silent reception for her the same
silent reception for the whole fleet! The en-
envy is obviously holding back his fire until
he can deliver it with the greatest possible ef-
feet.
The line has now passed across Morris Is
land, and rounds TO make the entrance of the
harbor, coming within the circle of the fire
Of Fort Sumter, and the batteries on Sullivan's
Island. The suspense becomes painful.
FORT SUMTER OPENS.
In an instant q hollow square of smoke ris-
es from the top of SUMTER hollow square of
flame shoots up, a crash counterfeiting "Jove's
dread clamors'' bursts on the ear, and a whole
broadside streams down from the barbette
guns. 1t is precisely four minutes past three
in the afternoon.
While the Weehawkeu is receiving this fire,
the others are gradually coming up to the
same position; but the leading vessel, instead
Of passing on above Sumter, so as to place
herself in the prescribed station opposite the
northwest face, shears off to the right, and
LAYS stopped between Sumter and Moultrie!
II FIRST OBSTRUCTION NET.
From our point of view, no cause for the
unlocked for development can be perceived,
but to those on Weehawken it is only to ap-
parent. Stretching from a point close to the
northeastern angle of Fort Sumter, completely
across the channel to Fort Moultrie, is a stout
hawser, floating on lager-beer casks, on which
are hung nets, seines and cables, strung with
torpedoes. The vessel comes afoul of this,
whisks up the nasty entanglenents with its
propeller, is thus deprived Of all motive pow
er, and is at the mercy Of the current, to be
drifted ashore into the hands of the rebels. If
this fatality was not actually realized by the
iron clads, it was owing to the admirable skill
of the captains of the foremost ships, who,
when their vessels were just on the point OF
fouling, sheered of, and saved themselves and
the feet.
THE THE CHANNEL INSTRUCTED.
The right hand channel being thus obstruct-
ed, it remains to be seen what can be done,
with the left, between Sumter and Cummings
Point. But this, too is more effectually block
AIDED by a row of piles, rising ten feet above
the water, and extending across the whole
width of the passage. Looking up the harbor,
another row of piles discloses itself, stretching
across from Fort Riply on the middle ground
to Fort johnson. 1t does not stretch entirely.
across, however, for midway is an opening,
inviting the passage of the fleet. Submerged
in the water, underneath that opening, is a
torpedo, filed with-incredible though the
statement may seem it is an actual fact-tive
thousand pounds Of powder! Furthermore,
above this first line OF piles is a second, and
above the second a third-while above all, land
just behind the upper line Of Instructions are
the three rebel iron-clads, drawn up in battle
array, vomiting huge clouds of smoke.
You can readily conceive that this unlock
ed for estoppel utterly deranged the original
intentions. The rebels were quite as well
aware as we that the Northwest face Of Sum
ter is its weakest point that it was, in fact,
never finished, and, therefore, that it would
be first attacked and they used means, which
admirable engineering skill would suggest, to
prevent our reaching it.
A CHANGE OF PLAN.
Thus brought to a pause, it ony remained
for the iron clads to take up such positions as
they could. And the complication was fur
ther increased by the i'll behavior of the flag
ship, the Ironsides. This embarrassed not her
only, but all that portion of the fleet following
her. The two Monitors Immediately behind
(the Katskill and the Nantucket fell foul Of
her, the one on one side and the other on the
other, and it was full fifteen minutes before
they could be got clear and pass on.
In this plight it only remained for Admiral
Dupont to signal to the fleet to disregard the
movements of the flag ship.
II CRISIS OF THE FIGHT.
While the manoeuvres indicated in these
paragraphs are going on, you must not sup
pose the enemy is inactive. The powerful
work on Cummings Point, named Battery Bee
opens the long range rifle ordnance of Fort
Beauregard join in Moultrie hurls its heavy
metal, the fifty guns that line the Redan
swell the fire, and the tremendous armament
of Sumter vomits forth its fiery hail.
There now ensues a period of not more than
thirty minutes, which forms the climax and
white heat of the fight.
Such a fire or any thing approaching it, was
never seen before. The mailed ships are in
the focus of a concentric fire of five powerful
works already indicated, from which they
are removed only from four to eight hundred
yards, and which in all could not have noun
ted less than three hundred gnns. And, un-
derstand, these not the lighter ordnance. such
as 80 or 42 Founders, which form the ordina-
ry armament Of forts, but of the very heavi-
est caIibre-the finest and largest guns from
the spoils of the Norfolk Navy yard, the splen-
did 10 and I1-inch guns cast at the Tradegar
works, and the most approved English ri1ed
guns, (Whitworth and Others of the largest
caibre made.
FKU D'ENRaR
There was something almost pathetic in
the spectacle of these little floating circular
towers, exposed to the crashing weight Of
those tons of metal, hurled against them with
the terrific force of modern projectiles, and
with such charges of powder as were never
before dreamed of in artillery firing. During
the climax of the fire, a hundred and sixty
shots were counted in a single minute! Some
of the commanders of the iron clads after
wards told me that the shots struck their YES
sells as fast as the ticking of a watch, and not
less than ~thirty-fve hundred rounds could
have been fired by the rebels during the brief
engagement. s
THE IRoN-GLADe.
On the order being given to disregard the
movements of the flag ship, the brilliantly
audacious Rhind ran his vessel, the Keokuk,
up through the others and laid it seemingly
nndar +he worry walls IF Sumter and within