The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-07-04
FORT SUMTER.
IN ENGLISH YIEW OF ITS RECON
STRUCTION.
INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES.

INTERESTING "REMINISCENCES.
From the London Telegraph, June Ill
The Government of the United States has re-
solved to rebuild Fort Sumter. The restoration
of this eloquent ruin has been for some time in
contemplation, and is, we are now informed,
finally decreed. During January last, an inter-
esting interview took place, at the War Depart
ment of Washington, between General Ripley
the gallant Confederate defender of Charleston,
and General Gilmore, its no less gallant Federal
assailant. Happening to have business with
General Sherman, the General-in-Chief of the
United States Army, General Ripley called upon
him in Washington, and, while In his bureau,
vas met by his old opponent, General Gilmore.
The last time that these two experienced militia
~ engineers stood face to face, they were divid-
ed by the 1900 yards of sea which interVenes be-
tween Fort Sumter and the north end OF Morris
Island, and the messages OF greeting then IN;
shot and shrieking mortar-shells. It is diff
cult to contemplate their amicable meeting at
Washington, in the presence OF one OF the
most famous heroes Of the American war,
without a strange revuls!on of feeling.
Enough time has now elapse since the close
of the great Trans atlantic strife to permit the
angry feelings which were alive In 1865 to be
hushed to rest in 1870; but the experience of
each other gainedby General Gilmore and Gene
raj Ripley at Charleston, only served to increase
the respect with which they met In January
last. At the moment of their interview,
General Gilmore was about to proceed to
Charleston, and, after stating that 1t was the
intention of the American Government to re-
build Fort Sumter, he invited General Ripley
to give his opinion as to the nature OF the new
fn fha
of the ruined fort. 1t should not be for
gotten, that in these days of long-range
guns, Fort Sumter is not 30 necessary
to the defence of Charleston harbor
as it was at the time when 1t first rose into ex-
istence The distance between Fort Moultrie,
on Sullivan's Island, and Cummings Point, on
Morris Island, Is about 2600 yards. The spit
of sand upon which Fort Sumter was reared
lies about l7O0 yards from Fort Moultrie, and
about 1880 yards from Cummings Point. 1t
was the design of the American engineer who
built Fort Sumter to control the entrance Of
Charleston harbor by powerful work erected
in the gorge between Sullivan's and Morris
Islands, but the enormous guns OF modern
days render any such work mere supereroga-
ton. Viewed as an engineering necessity.
Fort Sumter hardly needs to be rebuilt. But
inasmuch as Its m6ulderlng heaps Of dlslnte-
grated brickwork and Its rent and gaping fas-
cines and gabions are eminently. commemora-
tive of the most emblttered fratricida strife that
the world ever saw, it has been determined to
efface this .'bleeding monument of war; and
to erect upon Its site large and low-lylng
sandwork.
The famous tort, in the throat of Charleston
harbor, upon which the COnfederates opened
fire In April 1861, was bad specimen OF those
tall brickwork structures which were so mucn
In favor when GS-pounder smooth-oore guns
were the largest artillery that any ship ever
,,,a1 Nk nd rf1u
and partly acquired from the sea, upon which
Fort Sumter stood, was about five acres. Upon
this platform was erected a triple-tiered pen
tagon brick fort, with Its gorge wall facing
partly towards Charleston and partly towards
Morris Island. The fort was built solely with
view to resist the attack of ships; nor shall
we be guilty of any injustice to its construc-
tors If we give them credit for having had
England in view as the most likely oppo-
nent with which Fort Sumter's garrison
might have occasion to contend. 1t was
never contemplated that military engineers
who had learnt their business at West Point
would struggle for four years on the one
hand to defend, and on the other to demol!sh,
the tall fabric Of brick In erecting which so
much of Uncle Sans money had originally
been spent. During the four embittered years
that mass of iron, considerably greater in
weight than the walls of Fort Sumter In Its in
tegrity. was expended in attacking and de-
Tending 1t. On the 18th of April, 1861, the first
shot which heralded that gigantic struggle was
fired from Sullivans Island at Fort Sumter.
then held by slender garrison OF Federal
troops, under the command of Major Ander-
son. The strength of the attack, directed by
General Ripley, so far exceeded that of the de-
fence, that Major Anderson, finding the wood
en- barracks surrounding the parade ground Of
the fort to have lgnlted under the red
hot round shot OF his enemy, had no
alternative but to haul down the stars
was consummated without blood split upon
either side. Straightway the shortsighted
Journals Of France made themselves very
merry over the bloodlessness OF war which
they described as so s'civil" that no one was
hurt by it. In England, our journalistic pro-
phets formed a more accurate estimate Of
what the future would unfold. But neither In
England nor the United States was there any
one to foretel that the few scattering shots
interchanged between General Ripley and
Major Anderson in April. 1861, would be The
prelude to the four bloodest years since 1872.
Since the conclusion Of the war, many specu-
latve estimates have been attempted upon
either side, with view to ascertain the num-
Der OF victims who, within that dismal period,
either were done to death or received lasting
and disabling wounds; and we are certainly
state, that the dead and wounded between
April, 1861, and April, 1865, must considerably
have exceeded one million.
In view of these facts, the task which the
American Government has assumed OF remov-
Ing the shattered and riven walls OF this his
torical fort, and Of erecting successor upon
its ruins, is invested with more than ordinary
solemnity. In days previous to their great in
ternecine strife, our American kinsmen were
wont to regard Fort Ticonderoga as their most
storied and suggestive ruin. In mntitudinous
common schools which abound In oil the more
settled States of the Union, scarcely child
could have been found before 1861 who did not
know how, In the Revolutionary war of IT'S,
Ethan Allen, at the head of his "Green Noun
tain Boys called upon the British garrison Of
Fort Ticonderoga 10 surrender 'ln the name
of Jehovah and OF the Universal Congress" !"
But ten years ago Ticonderoga was lnTestea,ln
sacred associations than Gibraltar or Ehren-
breitstein, or any other famous stronghold.
To-day, if any American were invited 10 name
the most interesting fortress Of his native
soil. he would unhestatingy reply, Fort
Sumter" 1t was the fort which Initiated the
American war. II was the fort, which, torn,
lisintegrated and ridded by shot, defied, Tor
nearly four years, the utmost efforts OF the
Union to subdue it. 1t was the fort, upon
which the saucy Palmetto flag OF South Caro-
lima side BY side with the ensign of the insur-
rectionary States. f1oated in triumph for some
forty-fve months. 1t was the fort, OF which
Colonel Harris-the chief engineer to General
Beauregard-sald, after it had been reduced
by the Federal fire from Morris Island to a
heap OF ruins. There Is maJor-seneralshlp
still in those riven walls II only man knew
how to win it." The words, caught up by
Stephen Elliott, one OF sonth Carolina's no
blest sons, were by him so translated Into ac-