Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-22
LETTER FROM CHARLESTON.
A Visit to Fort Sumter-DeScriptiOn
of n Ruins-The NeighbOrinG Forts
DESIGNATION of the City, &c., dc.
CHAR1EsroN. November g 1se

day Of pilgrimage TO spots that have be
come linked to the brightest story of on
country's history, and whose very name
thrill our hearts as none others ever will
out of the Holy Land.
The morning sun rose bright and beau
tiful. The Long Wharf where we STOOD
looking out over the bay, was partly filled
with cannon balls, canisters and cases o
shot which the Government is collecting
and storing They made an appropriate
foreground to the picture. There was t.,
line of land lying to the right; that wa
James Island, and Fort ] Johnson on it. A
dark spot rose from the water compare.
lively near; that was Castle Pinckney
An irregular mass lay more distant on the
horizon, where a flag was flying; that was
Fort Sumter. A Government steamer wa
soon bearing US thither, under an order
from the Quartermaster-Hus7 meaning
our party of five and a Confederate engin-
eer with his friend. 1t is proper to say
that the accommodations were ample for
the whole seven. The water was smooth,
and glistened in the morning light; the
woods on the islands were green as sum-
mer-but we remembered that only a few
months ago such a boat as ours, with that
flag above it, could not have sailed over
hat bay but through the fire of a hundred
guns A low hulk, pierced with holes,
caught orr attention near the shore. 1t
Was the floating battery from which the
very first gun was fired on the United
States fort-Sumter. We passed near the
wreck of a steamer; it was a Confederate
vessel which was transporting troops one
night, went a little out of her way, was
mistaken for a United States vessel, and
fred on and sunk by the C~onfederates
themselves. More than seventy soldiers
persisted in her.
Our steamer soon rounded to by the side
of a light colored half circular pile, an
eighth of a mile round that rose all sides
directly from the water. The upper part
all round had been battered down from ten
to twenty feet, and a long fight of wood
en- steps went up to one of the lower por-
tons. We assembled them and stood on
LnOob AALAOuS WHILE buAluCu DEIChs, luOF-
tar and stone formed an irregular slope
nearly around the interior, down to the
area, which was mostly covered with wa
ter. In the centre was a mound from
which sprung a tall flagstaff and at the
summit over our heads, floating out on the
morning air was the red, white and blue
of vi great Republic. Why did
we stand so silent and gaze up to it2 We
felt again the thrill that ran across the
continent when it went down on the 18th
of April, 1861. What that meant to the
world we now begin to see, and on that
spot the events which followed the sur
render of Anderson, unrolled themselves
in their grand proportions, till the very
heavens above seemed bending over it
with awe. We walked slowly around the |
broken iron hat still lay in piles at the
base, though tons andtons have been gath
cred up and taken away. The soft waves
we're coming up over them murmuring
of peace-they have closed alike
over the dead of friend and foe, and sing
the same requiem for all. We looked IN
at the holes where Anderson and his men
refuge through the memorable day
and night. 1t was there we heard that
Mr.. Beecher stood and delivered the ora
lion on the 18th of April, 1865. One con-
fedeIate fellow-visitor remarked "There
nobody but a lot of niggers to hear
So all the whites, editors, and con-
who went down passed for moth
ng.
This engineer, who had evidently done
good service against us, told us that the
abOr of defending the fort was prOdigious.
Every night they put up pointed stakes
IS cheUau de friSe, and took them. away
light. All movements of supplies
md troops must be made in the dark.
he pointed out a narrow chimney, down
which, by a most rare chance, a bomb fell
md exploded, killing sixteen men. He
llso showed us the spot where one man
buried who was killed when the sa-
ute to the flag was tired. 1t was close at
he foot of the flagstaff. al never saw a
nan put out of sight as quick as he was,
he said. It.r
There was, to be sure, little time for
uneral ceremonies at such an awful mo-
nent, when the high honor of a great ma
was receiving an insult, only to be
out by rivers of blood; but how /
thousands will look as we did, with
/ tender interest on the turf that covers
hat one soldier, the first of an unnum-
Dered multitude whose dying eyes closed
IN the light and the dear old flag together.
[ tried to bring back the scene of that day
the sound of ann rolling over those
waters over which a peaceful commerce
lad hoated for eighty years-angryshouts
md curses between men of the same race,
who suddenly found themselves face to
ACE in a death struggle. The distant city
n its fair beauty, wild with joy and dream
ng of triumph: the little bandof soldiers,
up the ensign that had never
disgrace before-all came up be-
ore me. Now the bay is open again to
he commerce of the world, but the fair
,ity sits in sack-cloth and ashes the walls
If the old fort are marked with a thousand
cars and tumbled in ruins; the waters,
,ver-arched by fire for a year and a hall,
,oll over corpses, of foemen, Americans,
Ill. 1 could understand why it was a
great moment to General Anderson, to
there on that same mound and lift
hat same banner to the sky-never to be
lumbled again.
The hour of departure came, and we
turned away to visit a spot scarcely less
ntresting.-A little more than half a mile
n a direct line from Fort Sumter, is the
northern extremity of Morris Island. On
he 10th of July, 1863, Gen. Gilmore made
A landing at the south end of the Island,
lnG after a fight of three hours and a half
succeeded ~nplanting a battery, which was
first movement Of permanent advance
the city. Battery Gregg occupied
the extreme northern point a mile or
more south was Fort Wagner. The next
morning after the landing, beforedaybreak,
an assault was ordered on this fort. 1t
in vain. Seven days afterwaId an
assault-that, too, was a failure
Then Gen. Gilmore commenced digging
siege lines, and on the 9Th Of September
Beauregard ordered its evacuation, as we'll
as that of Fort Gregg. 1t was from this
island that all the shells were thrown into
the city, a distance of nearly four miles.
We were sent on shore from the steamer
in a small boat, walked up the smooth
beach, and in a few moments found our
selves behind the piles Of logs and earth it
cost so many lives to gain. 1t is called
Fort Putnam now. Several large guns