Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-06-04
Au 0rigiual 8anrflette.
Written for the Yorkville Enquirer.
LSOLETTE, TIE FEMALE SPY.
A STORY OF CHARLESTON AID THE WAR.
BY ]. wIrHERsPooN ERWIN.
CHAPTER I.

4 BYJ. wITHERsPOoN ERWIN.
CHAPTER I. a: .i'
It is painful to speak of lost cause There !
. feeling akin to despair in dwelling upon the Incl
dents of struggle in which genius, courage, ant
deyotion, even unto DEATH put forth all their effort
and made every sacrifice of which the human heart
capable, and made them, to all human seeming, IL
never labor, nor live, nor die in vain The toll
which they underwent may seem to have ended il
naught, and the blood of selfsacri6cng and noble
people may seem to have been spilled in vain; ;,bu
the blood Of people, fighting for right and prin
ciple, is like seed Sown in the ground which vii
some day spring up and bear its fruit.
The hopes Of the good and the wise once seemed
to have perished on the cross, and to be buried
forever in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. SAD
and disconsoate disciples wept over the desolatlor
of all their fondest hopes Poor, despised, ilhte
rate, and outcasts from among men prosecuted
and hunted down by the hand OF power, they 50!
down and wept over "a lost cause, the glory and
triumph of which now fills the whole earth. Thai
s1ost cause"-as they then deemed it to be-has
outliyed all the dynasties of earth, and will still
flourish in undecaying splendor, when kings, and
crowns and sceptres and the very stars and suns Of
heaven, have passed away forever.
. The cause is not lost .;. .... r-.
@Truh crushed TO earth win rise again; F..
The eternal years Of God are hers,
so But error wounded, writhes In pain,
And dies amid her worshippen"
It is not 6t that the memory of those who strug
gled, so maufunyan devotedly, should pass away
A,sketch taken here and there, to tell how they
fought and suffered, and conquered even in then
fall, is all that the writer aims the present series
to present. -,
Come let us mount to the top Of yon tall and
timeworn steeple; one among the oldest OF all that
stand pointing silently to the skies in this country
of States. The last object on which fingers the
gaze of the outward bound voyage as he leaves be,
hind him the metropolis of his State, and the first
that rises from the wave to greet him as he returns
to the shore where his sweetest affections dwell,
the spire Of old St MicbaePs reminding him first
and last of religious duties and the sweet charms
that linger around the House of Prayer. IF he is
not an unimagitiye man he will think, as he nears
the shores of his native land of the congregations
that have worshipped there-the good, the wise
and the beautiful are now dust and ashes; oi
the generations over whom its revolving shadow
has swept, who are now themselves but shadows.
And he will think, too, of the beauties he has been
wont to see sweeping along its broad aisles-fairy
creatures with bright eyes and soft rosy cheeks,
still lovely, still as beautiful as the houris of Para
HuOSS uiaIuCu lONC, uuouuiC0 duo Pu1Ct ooS
weighs in the estimation of one who knows the
priceless worth of woman's love, the crown Of a
king. - ,..-a.,......r ,.
Dear to the dweller in the city where its shadow
falls, and dear even to the dweller in the far inte
rior of the State is the rising spire Of old Saint
Michaels ). dear for antiquitys sake, and dearer
still for the hallowed and stirring associations that
hnger around it.
But come let us mount its well worn steps and
look around us. Upward an onward we go, wind
ing YEARLY along the narrow spiral flights OF steps,
so deeply worn by the feet Of those who have trod-
den it before US, that the ascent is both difficult
and dangerous. Round and round we go, and the
brain becomes dizzy and reels, but we must plant
our feet carefully on the deeply worn steps, for
should we make mis-step here, we shall tumble
scores of feet down the stairway, and lie bruised
and battered wrecks below, happy indeed if there
be not enough of life left to utter moan of pro-
methean agony. e
It is the month of April, eighteen hundred and
sixty-four, and as we gaze from the glddy height
to which we have attained, the eye rests only upon
a warlike panorama. For miles around, the rude
hands of war had SCARED the face of Nature. The
inanimate soil itself had been raised up into huge
lines of embankments. and we can turn to no point
but the eye falls upon forts and bastions, and en-
trenchments and bristling battlements. Far out in
IllC udiuOtJ iyluS loW upou VdO UoCSls oSohuS SuS
fragment of fort, beaten into dust and rubbish by
the iron.clad batteries of the enemy. 1t is mere
ruin, shapeless, deformed and blackened by con-
fagration and the smoke of battle; but the South
ern Cross still floats as deGanty over the ruins as
when it was first planted on the intact walls OF
Sumter The brave Stephen Elliot--peace to his
silentdust has FOUGHT IT LOW DOWN TO THE
WATERS EDGE" and while there is foot of crum-
bling mortar on which to plant his flag, ne and his
brave garrison will stand BY it with Spartan hero
sm and if it be written in the book of destiny that
they and their cause must fall, they will die like
cocks in the pit, chivalrous and game to the last
futter
Farther out yet, and quite beyond the bar, rides
fleet of iron-clads, invulnerable to shot or shell.
These and Sumter are types of the two people OF
war. The one, heroic, selfdenying-cut off from
all communication with the outer world and de-
pending on unassisted valor; and the other, aided
by all the mechanical appliances and materials Of
war which human ingenuity can devise or the
wide world supply.
The guns of the various forts, which lie in sight,
are booming all day slowly, and at measured inter
walls for this is one spot of earth where the spirit
of war hangs poised in air and suffers not his min
ions to rest White wreaths of smoke burst from
the dull booming roar that fills the hours of day
and night. Even the tall steeple in which we stand
is mark for the enemys batteries, and we can
hear their shreking shells, screaming like demons
fbattle, as rushing fearfuy near the window from
which we gaze, they fall and explode behind US.
Little is the damage they may do, for it is among
charred and blackened ruins where they fall and
burst. It was when Sumter stood unscathed and
defiant, and the fleet from afar looked timidly over
the bar, that the flames, kindled by the hireng i'll
cendiaries of the enemy, burst forth in the good
city of Charleston, and sweeping across its entire
width, left behind them acres of charred and ruin
Gus walls. Halfclad mothers fed with their babes
by night houseless and homeless. Yesterday saw
them the possessors of rich and splendidy furnish
ed mansions to-day beholds them homeless pen
niless and naked. Angels might weep over hall
the population of a city-old men, and dependent
women, and feeble infants of their al and
left homeless and naked to face the freezing gales
of December but the bold sailors of the North
sthe gallant tars' of northern ballads-hailed the
conhagration Of city, filled with old men and wo
men and children, with jubiant salVos Of artillery
Not having the heroism to come to the rescue
when for hirty-six long eventful hours the guns o
the brave Anderson told Of comrades fighting tol
life and honor, and summoned them in vain to his
relief, they had not the magnanimity and the gen
erosity which brave men ever exhibit to enemie:
in their misfortunes and which forbid them to in
dulge in yandal exultations over the Affections o.
women and children.
But with the fleet, and the batteries booming q
round the harbor, we now have nothing to do
The parties with whom we have to deal are or
Wonder Island to the right, where a handful o.
brave men, small and Insignificant in number, bic
defiance to the numbers and resources Of the enc
nv, and time and again flung back from the bay
onat ,o;nt tbor hired mercenarles as often as they