The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1865-03-31
rharIsston Refore is FaIl.

Il
q'he Londcn Tine special corfss
pondent in the south Describes the
state Of Charleston on the l4th Of Jan
narv. Tic found among the inhabi-
tants acroaking and dismay, infrmity
of purpose and sfresolutiop, and the.
ety. iiself vas hlor the most part silent
and deserted" and adds;
Gas Won ascend from the battery,
passing along East Bay into Broad
- street the Handwriting Of y snlkee
shells upon many per orated VAL ana
eaiany Shattered roof forces itself more
and more upon the view. There are
sus i houses externally TO al appearance
uniniured, bat through the roof Of
which she'll has passed, bursting in
the interior, tearing division walls lath
La and plaster, floors and ceilings, lnto
splinters, and leaving little more than
the exterior crust standing. Occasion
ally q shell has set Gre 70 the wood
worIoof 4 house and has Tapped fts
two or three neighbors in fame, which
seems 70 have burnt out of its own ac-
cord. without wrapping Charleston in
one OF these vast conhagrauons by
which the city has 80 often been desc
lated
sa Lla0lfen The street pavement or the
si6ewflk betrays the deep round hole
into which, after describing a parabola
81 fOm, miles move thToueh the sir,
a 200pounder PARROT shell hiss de-
seended without bursting, giving 10 the
spectator an impression Of greater and
snsore Irresistible might than hegath-
err even from the pierced walls anal
- sisshsilated roofs around him. The OF
ice Of the British Consulate reveals
The passage through its walls of a cOu-
pie Of sheels; ihat Of the Spanish Con-
sulate, hard by has three similar orr
A.. q a. - II -
That nation being uprooted from
Charleston
i am told that in the height Of SUM
-saeF, when che gfass in the streets af-
iorded pasturage 10 many wandering
COWS and the wild fennel shot up eight
OF ten feet high, turning the city into
the semblance Of jungle, the sense Of
desolation and ruin was far more pain
fully felt Already the hen partridge
haslbeen found mes ling with her breed
among the cFUmbling ruins. Already
sheowl has been heard % boot by night
from The spires Of the demolished
churches But the devastation pfoda-
ced bs federal shells Is nothing when
compared with the broad belt Of ruin
which marks the track OF tho gFeat ere
which swept aercss the city from river
30 river in December, 1861
II have seen other cities. such as
XicksbrlR, Fredericksburg and Pc
tefsbure. which had suffered more from
the artillery fire Of their sssailants than
Charleston; but never have been more
impTesstd with the transitorinesss of
= humanlansiwork than while standing
IN the midst Of the wreck produced by
the awful confagFstion Of 1861, and
g. noticing 10 what three years of unre-
paired damage and unreasted decay
can bring ono Of the most Aourishiur &c
modern cities. Yesterday evening, ina
nediately alter sunset, Il visited tee Y
rcEuiariy-outlined mass Of dark red.
gray ruin, which, crumbling bit by bit
and inch by inch under such storm
as fort never yet sustained upon earth,
remains rs unsubdhed a. on the DAYS
when Dupont and Dahlgren recoiled
before Us guns and Gilmore -anda host
OF has brother engineers exhausted
their lhmiiRble resources against il in
vain
Cold, indeed, must be the na .
ture Of that man who can at this mo-
ment approach Fort Sumtel rwithoul
that swelling OF the heart which Is felt
when one looks ON such scenes IS the
la3n Of Marathon or the Rock OF
Gibraltar Tor the first time. The visitor
ssesfiying unexploied in Is CID Pc
underground 5o0>pounder Parrot and
~ l9}nch spherical shells, few dozen of
81 "a ~ which are equal 10 weight to The whole
amount OF metal which was rainetl upon
Jellalabad or Lucknow Such has
been the mass Of these gigantic globes
ana barrel shaped proectiles Of iron
Nnieh hate been thrown into Fort
Sumter that the mind shrinlSs nom the
effort TO compute the tons az meta
launched from mortars, smooth bore or
riaed guns, INTO space moi exceeding
three acres and half in area. and
hitherto launched in vain