The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1865-03-17
CHARLESTON AS 1T WAS.

CHARLESTON AS IT WAS.
-Four years ago Charleston was rich.
powerful, aristocratic, arrogant and dicta-
torial. She was the proudest city in the
world. She was the great cotton mart of
the South Atlantic states She had lines
of steamers to Boston and New York
Her wharves were piled with bales of cot
ton and tierccs of rice to be sent outward
to Europe and the North. or with goods
from the warehouses and manufactures of
New England and Great Britain. With
the network of railroads in the interior She
had become the great commercial center
She had a dozen stone marts Next to
New Orleans she was the most populous
city of the South, having by the census OF
1860 forty-eight thousand inhabitants
Her banks, insurance offices and monietl
institutions were as staple rs those oi
State or Wall street
She was powerful in her ideas of po-
lltical economy. She was the exponent
of the doctrine of state rights. She was
conscious of her influence She ,spirc,l
to be the commercial emporium of the
South. She proclaimed cotton king-not
of America, but of the world, and in her
pride and arrogance believed that all kings.
emperors and nations would be compelled
to do her homage. In her ambition to
rule she became callous to the claims OF
justice and of human rights, and brought
herself to believe that right was wrong
and that wrong was right.
She called the people of South Carolina
into condcil. The Charleston .Nucmy-
the able but wicked advocate of secession
threw out from its windows this motto
One roice anM millions Of strong arms to
uphoM the honor Of South Cuolim!" Not
the honor of the nation OF of the people,
but of South Carohna-the Mephistophe-
les of the confederacy, the seduccr of
states. With soft and honied words, and
with well timed flattery she detached state
after state from the Union.
In the address of the South Carolina
convention which lies before us are these
words to the slave-holding states:
"Whilst constituting portion of the
United States, it has been your statesman
ship which has guided it in its mighty
strides to power and expansion. In the
field and in the cabinet you have led the
way to renown and grandeur"
The ministers of her churches were
first and foremost in helping on the rebel
lion. Church and state, minister and
statesman, merchant and planter-all
from high to low, brought themselves to
believe that their influence was world
wide, through King Cotton and his prim,
minister, African Slavery Hence tn,
self-contidence and arrogance, the dictate
rial attitude, the iierceness, intolerance
hate and madness which has its only pro
totype of the rebellion of the devil an,
his angels against benificent goodness.
BOMBARDMENT OF THE CITY.
The bombardment of the city was com
menced on the 2lst Of August, 1868, b,
the Swamp Angel" battery. The frs
she'll which went sailing over the harbo
into the town broug ght the people to
realization of the fact that at last the wa
had reached their own homes. On tn
7th of September Fort Wagner was ia
ken, and other guns were added to tn
bombarding batteries, compelling the evac
alton of the lower half of the city. Fo
, fourteen months the fire had been continu
ed; not furious bombardment, but
slow, steady fire from day to day.
About thirteen thousand shells have bee
thrown into the town-nearly thousan
shells a month. Some were filled wit
the preparation known as "Greek fire.
others with incendiary fuses, others wit
powder only.
TIE EFFECT OF THE ROMBARDMENT.
: The shells were fired at great eleva
ton and were therefore plunging shots
/ striking house on the roof and paSsin
= down from the attic to the chambers, low
er stories, ground floor and basement.
e Some exploded in the attics, some i'll til
, cellars, some in the chambers, others
t the walls. The effect has been a complel
|, riddling of the houses. Brick walls hay
e been blown into millions of fragment: