Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-20
CHARLESTON.
The Tracks of the War-i1"in anu
DesOlatiOn EveryWhere-LeIUerirO
N cleveland Lady.

norod env more war; These words in r
Ieneral Sberman's official report come up
to my mind, as 1 sit here tonight in v
he Charleston Hotel. For twenty months L
Z was closed, and now the marks OF new :
clustering over great shell holes IN the q
dining-room, the uncompleted and unfur-
nished rooms, and halls through which the t
are echoing, all speak OF the soli- !
tude it has experienced. Butthe whitewash-
ers and painters are at work, the pro-
prietor is in New York buying furniture,
and probably, in a short time the grand
apartments now encountered with broken
glass and mortar, will put on some of their
ancient splendOr.
But how shall 1 begin to describe the
ruin that stretches on either hand to the
sea. The great depot was burned long
ago, and the only shelter for all who come
and go, in the one daily train, is the open
sky. 1 have passed through streets in
which there is literally nothing to be seen
in any direction, but standing skeletons OF
buildings, brick walls, and tall chimneys,
stores, churches, theatres and shops swept
away. The great fire consumed four hun
bred houses, and two hundred have been
burned, either by accident or design, dur
ing the war. Not one has been rebuilt.
Rank weeds grow in the old cellars, and
Yesterday a gang of lsborers were at work
digging the grass from between the paw
ing stones of a once crowded thorough
fare. All this, besides the effect of the
iron rain that fell here for a year and a
half. / see where the terrible missiles came
plunging down through roofs, tearing of
| elegant eornices and bending iron fences
and gates. Not a structure has escaped.
The Postofice looks as though a powder
magazine had exploded in it.
In the upper part of the city an enor-
nous hole directly through the brick spire
of n church attracted the attention of one
gentleman of our party.
What made that hole? he asked.
"God or the Yankees, was the answer
of an old woman near by.
climbed through a shell hole into the
enclosure of the church where Calhoun
/ uStu 10 MOlEuADT dllu wv N@NN
ed glass to a rear door. The altar is gone,
the beautiful windows of stained glass be-
hind. is in fragments; a bomb-shell tore
nm the seats in the middle isle; the whole
interior of dark rich wood is covered with
mortar and broken bricks n spllnters.
[ never want to see such a sight again.
Gov. Rutledge and his daughter were
buried near the door. The graves were
---zl .-.a1 I-,,ls lnnpl-ad ont from the
corner of the building. A tablet near by
bore the marks of a shot in long radiating
lines, while a few feet distant on another
grave, a wreath placed there long
since by the hand of love lay whitening anc
: undisturbed.
We rode around the walls of the Jail
|, ward where our prisoners were confined
They bore the marks of holes made by
sheli-now bricked up. Some elegant res
4 licences fronting the Battery on Ashle!
river are shattered as if by an earthquake
1t was done, L am told, by the explosion
: of a big gun-burst purposely by the Con
federates on the day we entered the city
O The roses and mvrtles are blooming in tn,
gardens, but ruin sits within. One shell
= exploded in a fire engine while the com
Z pany were working il, putting out a fire
- AuOlleI DlCN up III an Nv ms ~
stove and scattered her corn-bread doug
# all over the walls where the remnant
were visible for weeks afterwards.
She fortunately lived to tell the story
Il One of the first fired fell into a thron.
attending a slave sale. Three person
Is were killed. The sale was postponed.
# The warehouses are riddled, and tn
wharves are empty. In this beautiful
IS L..I1.T oo,,4oJ Al, r,orpiD,r q Fl aan Va.
e. sells. all told. The "burden of Tyre
re fallen here. Neither is it easy to Sc
i what is to hiring pack life again to til
point as a center. The land of South Ca
I DINA lies untitled, and the miserable IL
habitants of the few shanties we passed !
c. a ride of two hundred miles as we al
ri preached the city, do not have the air
contributing much to the trade of an
y place. The remnant of the Confederat
is army, in their gray suits, are loungin
to around full of cursing and bitterne
tv against the Yankees, declaring that no
thew have made the ~"niggers" free the
NAV have them.-while L have seen man
e families of blacks sitting under storas
e. sheds, and even in the middle of Il
a. walks, with a few ragged bundles, amor
r. their whole earthly possessions. What
to become of them. He who made the
~ enlv knows. There is a feeling of hatrt
on both sides, which is n of the mo
natural and one of the most alarming T
suits of the present critical condItIo
- Some of those who fed arenow returnin
The one passenger car on the train W
le crowded with a molly multitude Ola
lg eaters. wounded Confederate soldiers, ge
IN tlemcn who have applied for pardons, tv
or three merchants who have been to Ne
York, blockade-Iunners, women al
-. children who had long lost trace of fas
n ions, and who had terrible stories to tell
n Sherman's ~marauders, black legs, al
ST. now and then a blue uniforl
OF made such a company az 1 never expe
te see again. The blacks were in a fo
sY ward caboose-a packed mass of RAJ
most of them going they knew not whit
lat er, bewildered with the new liberty of G
re- ing.
ly A ramble in parts of the city less touc
ce ed by fire and sword, left impressio
h, scarcely less melancholy. The great hOus
IN all stand with closed shutters, and have
ID air as if the family had fed from an el
~ demic. This is the case of the mansion
Secretary Trenholm. The buildings
the South Carolina College are vacal
no They have not had a student since Apr
De- 1861. The church where | went to We
ship yesterday had been visited by a sh
which tore away both windows of the V,
to tibule. Otherwise the building was who
to For years the proudest of South Carroll
elf Chivalry were here spurred on religious
with fiery zeal in the road they have ira
eled. Their eloquent pastor-Mr. Cir;
deau-believed in Southern right
though not iii human rights. The SCI
tering members of different churcf
gather here for the present. He told the
';s he was going this week to attend SYM
a privilege which had been "denied h
inf for four years" As we desired to ate
~ church in the evening, a gentleman of t
OIL party went out to find the hours of $
vice. After a long search in vain for
open edifce, he accosted a well-dress
black man with the question, "Where
there a church service this evening p =
massa, there amt none; if there was
On would all be there, certain. In the "
me the gas pipes was all rotted of, and tbs
rs. is so many robbers and burglars the fo
vas is 'fraid. and all stays home" 1t was tr
Dark, silent streets, and unlighted w
his dows made the sombre evenings of t
once gay metropolis.
m After seeing all this it is hard to
why one should wish to see the grave
Calhoun-but SO l did. Over it for ma