Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1888-05-11
FIRING ON CHARLESTON.
Exciting Story of the War.
How the Doomed City People Fared
While Gen. GilmOre's Swamp
Angels Shot.

From the Charleston Is. g News and Courier
One calm night in August, 1863,
strange noise was heard in the air. 1t
was noise that some peop!e had become
familiar with but one that to the women
and children in Charleston was entirely
unknown. Some people com pared it to
the blast of the last trump, Others TO the
howl of the hyens, and others to the con-
centrated noise of 10000 locomotives
rushing through tunnel in the air and
condensed into scream of the most har-
rowing intensity.
1t was the first Swamp Angel messenger
sent into Charleston by the late Gen.
Gilmore. The Waterman at St Michael's
steeple sounded the alarm and the fire.
men and other people hurried out N haste.
The shell came from q masked battery
which Gen. Gilmore had erected in the
marsh at the extreme south end of Morris
island, and on the southern borders of
the creek which separates Morris from
Folly island. Ia straight line it was
over five miles distant from the city.
The battery had been constructed under
the greatest difficulties and in what was
considered an impossible place. The
idea of gun throwing a projectile a
distance of nYe miles had not at that
time penetrate the minds of the aver
age public, and the arrival of the first
| messenger from the Swamp Angel was as
| une1 pecJed as it was unpleasant.
The battery was the famous Swamp
Angel 1t consisted of single Sinch
Parrot rife, mounted IN the marsh and
| surrounded by an earthsork of circular
| shape. 1t burst at the thirty sixth
| round and that was the end of the
| Swamp Angel proper. After this the
| commandment was directed from the bat
| teries on Morris island. II ia1Sid that
! The elevation OF the guns was so great
that they could only be used to fire half
! dozen times; and as a matter of fact the
| people who remained here during the
| bombardment became so accustomed to
| the sound that they could tell by the
| sound when gun had burst.
AS may be readily imagined, stampede
| followed the first nights bombardment.
Dozens of trains were sent out OF town
next morning, carrying thousands OF
| women and children.
Gen. Gllmore'S gUnHerS soon attained a
wonderful accuracy in firing their guns
1t was said that the Swamp Angel shells
were loaded with Greek fire." but this
was never verified. Fires frequently oc
Cured, and the tiremen always promptly
turned out, taking the chances of the
skeils. \ fire at night invariably
awoke the Swamp Angel to renewed &C
| tivity. The shells were sent in generally
at an average rate of one every fifteen OF
twenty minutes. Occasionally when
gun would burst there would be suspen
sion of operations at the Swamp Ange
end of the line, sometimes for severa
days.
IN 1864 there was a startling change IL
the condition of things. BY this tim,
those who were compelled to remain in tn
city had became used to the Swamp Angel
Vi to this time not more than two o
three people had been killed, notwith
standing the fact that fully five thousant
had been almost constantly under fire. t.
say nothing of the exposure of the fire
men, who, besides doing their militer,
duty at night along the water front, wer
called upon frequently to subdue tn
flames in the shelled district. On tn
night OF Sept. . 1864, building was fire.
III the lower wards The alarm was sound
ed and in five minutes the engines wer
on their way to toe scene of the coDfsgra
ton.
The boom of the alarm bell and tn
bright glare of the fire invariably causet
the Swamp Angels TO wake up and re
double their attentions to the doomed
city" An engine, the Phoenix, was on it
way to the fire, Dragged by dozen o
more men. IN Hayne street an Obstael
was met. A messenger from the Swami
Angel plunged into the earth directly il
front of the men, and. making a hole si1
feet wide and as many feet deep, buried
| ,,ie -, hn hale ,,e-
were precipitated into the excavation
and the engine, "Old Betsy" FOLLOWED
suit. The shell did not explode, however
and beyond several painful bruises go
body was hurt.
While the men were getting the dus
out of their ey es and trying to lift VI
| "OId Betsy the BOOM" which signifet
the advent OF another messenger from
the Swamp Angel was heard. Then ever.
one stood still and listened. A few sec
| onds after the boom came the peculiar ant
exccuciating "whistle" which marked tn
| passage of the messenger through tn
air. The whistle was not familiar: Their
was an indesc=ibable something about /
that made one SILVER. 1t was not the OLE
familiar percussion shell scream. A fey
moments later and the mystery was ex
planned. just as every one was 'Jylnt
low" awaiting the crash there was anoth
er explosion very near, followed bS +
dozen baby screams and dozen sharl
reports, while a flash of light illuminated
the scene. Then it was realized that gu
friends, the enemy, wanted blood. l
was fuse shell, something which no maj
can dodge.
The advent of the fuse shell led to tn
complete evacuation of the lower part o
Charleston, and from that time until tn
"union cane IN" that portion of the cit.
was abandoned to tire rabbits, the wil'
pigeons and the bats. Work on the fort
ifcation "breastworks" that had beer
started in Meeting near Queen street, wa
| abandoned and aIthoup. Fort Sumte