Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1863-03-20
Coming struggle at Charleston.


The following interesting extracts from
Charleston correspondent of the Mobile
Register, will give some idea of the diffi-
culties tie Yankees will have to encounter,
if they ever attack Charleston:
1.-THE struggle. when it comes. will cer-
tainly be of fearful character. 1t will be
the shock of tremendous forces, the rela-
tive powers of which are yet untried- Tie
long -mooted question of the fighting value
of ships against batteries will be brought TO
test more conclusive than any to which
human warfare has yet subjected it. In
other words, the Monitor iron clads. which
the Yankees claim to be the most impenc-
trabe vessels ever constructed will neces-
sarly come within point blank range of the
most numerous and powerful batteries that
have ever yet been used in single engage
ment. We have good reason, too to be-
lieve that our guns will be managed with
admirable tact and precision. The more
important batteries are manned by the
South Carolina regulars, for whom the
credit is claimed, and l think justly, of be-
ing the most expert and practical heavy ar
tillerists in the Confederate army. Tho
forts are we'll differed, and General Rip
ley, who has made the study of heavy ord
nance speciality for years, and whose ex-
cellence in that particular branch of MILF
tary knowledge is an admitted fact, will
himself take command at Fort Sumter as
soon as the enemy makes his appearance.
It is scarcely possible that any floating
thing can breast unframed the concentra-
ted storm of heavy metal from the guns #
Sumter, Moultrie and Battery Bee, the
three principal works commanding the
throat Of the harbcR Nor can the peril of
running this terrible gauntlet be diminish
ed by an attempt to pass under cover of the
darkness as has been the case at Vicksburg
and New Orleans. So tortuous and intri-
cate is the channel leading to the Forts
that the most experienced pilots of the har-
Dor would not venture to bring in vessel
by night, under the conditions which the
enemy cannot escape, viz: without light
or landmark to guide the way. Even when
the blockade-running vessels leave the har-
Dor, it is always necessary to aid their exit
by previously arranged lights Shaded and
signals; so that it is reasonably certain that
the attacking iron-clads must either enter
in open day, or incur the emminent hazard
Of getting aground upon one of the most
treacherous bars on the Southern coast,
which seldom yields vessel once it has
grasped the keel But if, perchance, des-
pite of May channel, multiplied tcrpedoes.
and the combined batteries of the Forts,
some of the nine Monitors should chance to
get into port, they would still have to en-
counter concentrated fire of other batter
les, which, as the Yankee papers have
learned from coDtrabands, ''line the shores
of the interior of the harbor." And then
will come the ''tug of war" which will de-
termine the possession of the honored old
city
The captured gunboat Isaac p Smith.
now called the Stone, has been repaired,
and IS now in good fighting trim. She
will be the flagship Of Commodore Ingra-
ham,"
EF The following article from the New
York Journazof Commerce-one of the most
stad and conservative papers ofthe North
gives an interesting review of the feeling
of popular reaction through the Northwest:
There exists in several States in the North
particularly in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio,
and Wisconsin, condition of things which
must soon cause alarm, unless the tendency
of public sentiment there receives sudden
check. Not only is there expressed deep
dissatisfaction with the General Govern
ment. but the course of some of the Leading
newspapers is calculated to fan the embers
of discord into deyouring fame. 1t is
already common to see in print such words
as civil war, revolution, "''secret armipg
of the population" etc., with an occasional
suggestion that certain refractory members
of the legislative bodies should be arrested.
with other recommendations of extreme
measures. In fact, the violence partisan
strife is equal to anything which preceded
the rupture between the North ana South.
The Chicargo Tribune is in every sense
revolutionary. A few days ago the follow
| ing menace of another secession was thrown
out in the leading columns of that paper
| eve assure them that the ties Of the
Northwest to New England are not indisso-
luble; but they are stronger than the bonds
which unite us to New York, and if, in the
changes and reorganizatlons that are posi-
BILE as the consequence, ofthe present revolt,
it is necessary for the West to make an cleo
ton where she will 60 she will become an APP
pendage TO neither the Middle States nor
of the South She will declare her indepen-
depce of both, and right here in the heart
of the continent, the posossor of the best
soil aud the best climate in the hemisphere,
with more than ten millions Of people and
the prospect of rapid increase, will organ
ize an empire that will dominate over all
the other fractions of the Republic, and
and which will have the bower to compel
the opening of half a dozen renies to the
tide water upon terms AMI conad3itious that
we now plead for in vain.
TEMPORARY. In reported conversaticn
between Lincoln and Seward, the followi
ocu rred :
Seward still attempted to console him fy
telling him that the disunion ofthe STATES
was only temporary. and that they would
soon get tEem back again.
"7empomrY." said Abe well that
puts me in mind Of u fellow in Illnoi, who
hooked trout one day out fishing ;the trout
broke his line and went off with the hook In