Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-12-18

flames and the atmosphere was filled
with deadly missiles. 1t is impossi-
BILE for any pen to describe or for
anyone who was not an eyewitness
to conceive the frightful grandeur of
the spectacle. The writer has never
had the fortune to read any official
Federal report or any other account
of the operations of this day except
an extract from the graphic and elo-
quent address of the Rev. Mr.. Den
nison, chaplain of one of the north
ern regiments, delivered on its nine
teenth anniversary at Providence, R.
/. He says: ''Words cannot depict
the thunder, the smoke, the lifted
sand and the general havoc which
charactized that hot summer day.
What storm of iron fell on that
island; the roar of the guns was in
cessant; how the shots ploughed the
sand banks and the marshes; how
the splinters few from the Beacon
House; how the whole island smoked
like furnace and trembled as from
an earthquake. e.''
If that was true outside of Wag-
ner it is easy to conceive how inten-
sified the situation was within its mar
row limits towards which every hos
tile gun was pointed. The sand
came down in avalanches; huge ver-
tical shells and those rolled over by
the richochet shots from the ships,
buried themselves and then exploded,
rending the earth and forming great
craters, out of which the sand and
iron fragments flew high into the air.
1t was fierce sirocco freighted with
iron as well as sand. The sand flew
over from the glacis, from the exter-
ior slope, from the parapet, as it was
ploughed up and lifted and driven
by resistless force, over into the
work, the men sometimes half buried
by the moving mass. The chief an
xiety was about the magazines. The
profile of the fort might be destroyed.
the bitches filed up, the traverses
and bomb-proof barracks knocked
out of shape, but the protecting
banks of sand would still afford their
shelter; but if the coverings of the
magazines were blown away and they
became exposed, and the explosion
that would ensue would lift fort and
garrison into the air and annihilate all
in general chaos. They were care
fully watched and reports of their
condition required to be made at
short intervals during the day.
Wagner replied to the enemy, her
10-inch columbiad alone to the ships,
deliberately at intervals of fifteen
minutes, the other. guns to the land
batteries whenever in range, as long
as they were serviceable. The 32-
FOUNDER rifed guns were rendered
useless by bursting, and within two
hours many other guns had been dis
mounted and their carriages destroy
ed. Sumter, Colonel Alfred Rhett
in command, and Gregg, under charge
of Captain Sesesue, with the Sulli.
van and James Island batteries al
long range, threw all the power OF
their available metal at the assailants
and added their thunders to the uni
versal din; the harbor of Charles
ton was a volcano. The want OF
water was felt, but now again uncon.
ciously the enemy came to the as
sistance of the garrison, for water
was actually scooped from the crat
ers made in the sand by the explod
ed shells. The city of Charleston
was alive and a1ame with excite
ment; the bay, the wharves, th'
steeples and streets filled with anXi
Gus spectators, looking across tn,
water at their defenders, whom the,
could not succor.
At 2 o'clock the flag halliards wer
cut short by shot and the Confed
crate garrison flag was blown owe
into the fort; there was an instan
race for its recovery through tn
storm of missiles, over the broker
earth and shells and splinters whic
lined the parade. Major Ramsey
Sergeant Shelton and Private Finn
of the Charleston Battalion, an
Lieutenant Riddick, of the Sixty
, third Georgia, first reached it an
bore it back in triumph to the flag
staff, and at the same moment Cap
tain Barnwell, of the engineers, seiz
ed a battle-flag, and, leaping on th
ramparts, drove the staff into th
sand. This flag was again she
: away, but was again replaced b
, Private Gaillard, of the Charlesto
Battalion. These intrepid actions
f emulating in higher degree the cor
5 duct of Sergeant Jasper at Moultri
| during the revolution, were cheere
e by the command and inspired thel
l with renewed courage.
4 The day wore on; thousands upo
: thousands of shells and round sho
: shells loaded with balls, shells {
e mortars, percussion shells explodin
K upon impact, shells with graded fuse
s every kind, apparently, known t
Y the arsenals of war, leaped into an
: around the doomed fort, yet thel
: was no cessation; the sun seemed [
: stand still and the long midsummt
: day to know no night. Some me
were dead and no scratch aDDaare