Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-04-12
ThIs nay Thros Yoars AGO.

the attack upon Fort Snmter-the formal
opening Of the armed part of the great
rebellion. The records of that eventual
day tell Us that At az minutes past A. NJ.
on Friday, the 18th of April, 1851, Gen.
BsAuregArd, by order OF L. P. Walker, the
rebel Secretary OF War, then with JED.
Davis, at Montgomery, Ala, opened Gre
upon the devoted fort, occupied by Mejor
Anderson. u small complement OF fellow
officers and about seventy men. All this
day, three years ago, from early morning
until I o'clock at night, a ere Of shell and
shot raiued upon those few men in their
fort from the guns of South Carolina reb.
els, planted at various strong points and
manuel and backed up by a force Of sew.
srAI thousand men. Al eleven O'Clock
that night the Gre re.opened and Was kept
open and continued on until noon Of the
18Th, when MSjOr Anderson, compelled to
do 80 by the spreading flames around him
and the bursting of his own she'll in con-
sequence, as well As the imminent danger
of wholesale explosion in his magazines,
hauled down his dag aud surrendered TO
the rebels.
Three years is not long lapse of time
in ordinary lite, yet the thirty. six months
which have INTERVIEWED between this day
and the same day 10 1861, comprise mass
of events such as would stud very thickly
alt-,hs pages of our previous history as e
nation. Those events are comparatively
fresh 10 the minds Of must Ut us. aud yet
it is wonderful with what novelty even
devoted newspaper readers can turn back
AMI go over the kilograms that fieu on
the wires from Charleston to Montgomery,
aud from Montgomery to New York, on the
18th aud l3Ih of April, 1861, giving the
momeusary progress of the great opening
act of the tell tragedy that Was on those
days SO Wiekedly aud SO CalAmiloRsly ia
augurated. With what unetiou the rebel
tslegrams described the seene! Ii.
was grand holiday spectacle for
the men and the foe women, the chill
drsn and the negroes OF Charleston. HGr-
Per's Weekly Of the 9th of April, 1861,
gives up Its pages to pictures Of the tragic
scene. The reporters Of the Northern pa.
Pers who were present We'd With each other
10 maguifying it aud making it appear as
agraud sensation event. AlasI it did not
need their rens to give it Importance. II
was a sensation event, Indeed, but not
the sensation of q day or week or a
month, as they seemed to doubt it might
be. How little did poor Beauregard and
the miserable Wigfall and Others, who were
directing the rebel ere from MoulLrie
aud Cummings Point and the "Iron Bat
terry" know what they were doiug2 What
a short distance they saw as they strained
their eyes through their glasses to watch
the effect of their shotsl Ii seems as II
they might have seen their balls aud shell
striking something else than Sumter. We
have had three years of war to-day. Its
ups and downs are well known to Us all.
Little did the boastful Beauregard
suppose that he would still be
At Charleston to-day. 10 almost
his identical command of April, 1861
Sill less did he and his comrades suppose
that We would be there confronting several
vessels of war aud threatening land
force, commanding an exhausted, rAiued
aud almost depopuIated city, the mere
shell of its former self-the ct emblem of
the desolasion that has overtaken the
South aud Of the doom that impeuds over
the remaining fragment the coufsderacy.
Neither Beauregard or those who ordered
him to fre on the flag of his aud their
country, had any idea of what was to-
follow. They had no conception that q.
call for even $4,000 men would be answer.
ed. They secuted the idea of armed re.
siOtance TO their scheme. They utterly
Izuored the manhood of the North, and
felt thoroughly assured that the Pierces
and the Vallandighams and the Woods,
OF the. free States would be fulIyable
to redeem their promises aud make
true their prophecies. How bitterly
they have been disappointed only their
own secret thoughts can tell. We can
we'll fancy that their impious hands would
have been forever stayed had they dreamed
even of such things Hs have b happened. But
they did not go dream: aud 10 the light of
past events and OF what we believe il Val IL !
follow, We can well imagine that ii was
never intended that they shouldisee ,Siu..l
gle step ahead. The hearts 81 Phlsaifoah
and his followers were hardened all't6s
more as time wore on, and as one desola.
ttOo succeeded another, the end being that
they were to be utterly overthrow Q. and |
destroyed 10 the depths of thS.Red' Sea.
30 it has been with the slAyebo ldsrs' Rrs sS
rebellion. They began the work, ot. thsira
oTn destruction on this day three yesrs agg.I