Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-05-25

WATCHING TIE ENEMY WITH GLASSES.
would naturally contribute to u sue
.cessful defense And, as an ex-confed-
crate, am disposed to take full credit
to our side for all that it can rightly
claim.
mean the fact that the confederates
habitually read the federal signals ex-
changed between the land and the
naval forces, and thus had full knowl-
edge of every contemplated movement;
so that anything in the nature of a
surprise was impossible.
How did the confederates get those
signals? That is an interesting story
and one that has a moral too. AS
first heard it told, it was simply that
some of our scouts down the coast had
captured federal signal station by a
surprise so complete that the union Of
ficers had not even time to destroy the
book containing the cipher code. Our
operators soon made out the code and
were able to read the signals with ease
and certainty.
There is reason to doubt if this is a
correct statement of what took place.
Many years later 1 heard from for
mer staff officer different and, l be-
lieve, the true version.
He said that when the federal signal
station was taken, the book was de-
rstroyed before it could fall into the
hands of the confederates. But they,
having the operator as their prisoner,
were determined to secure his precious
secret. Every effort was made to in
duce him to part with it, but in vain
bribery and intiInida tion equally
failed.
Then, acting on the principle that
sail is fair in love and war;" the au-
thorities adopted q procedure which
nothing but military necessity could
justify. A man was detailed to do the
special work of worming himself into
the confidence of the prisoner.
He was given unlimited money, and
&he opportunity of plying his intended
victim freely with drink and every de-
unoralizing influence. He succeeded
The man who, while he was in posses
sion of his manhood, had steadfastly
refused to betray his country's sacred
trust for any reward, weakly yielded
when he fell under the power of vicious
Indulgence, and gave to his enemies a
secret which proved to be priceless.
While l cannot vouch for this story,
I believe it, because of the source from
which / received it, At all events, we
got possession of the federal code of
signals at some time, / think, in the
spring of 1868, justin season, therefore,
TO serve us during the period of active
operations which opened with the
ntt - Ia -.
April of that year.
From that time forward a knowl-
edge of all that the federals planned,
so far as it could be gained from their
signals, was regular feature of our
defense, and believe that it explains
more than one federal failure.
We had men detailed for the sole pur-
pose of watching the enemy with
glasses; and no sooner was message
sent from the fleet to the land forces,
or the reverse, than our men took it
down, and teleeraphed it to headquar-
ters in Charleston. The system was
complete, and worked like charm.
Let Inc give now one or two specific
instances of thu advantage we derived
from this know ledge:
by our batteries on April 7, 1868, we
were fully convinced that the attack
would soon be renewed, and it was
difficult to anticipate the result
Serious damage had been done to the
walls of Fort Sumter In two in
stances, projectiles had gone clean
through the masonry. The formida.
BILE effect of heavy guns, at close range,
on briclswork had been amply demon
istrated. Indeed, so convinced was the
.commandant of Fort Sumter of the i'm.
:perilled condition of one magazine, at
rthe end OF the sea-face, that, during
the night. the ammunition was re
moved to anoth ,r place, and quantities
were de6troyed.
The next morning the rear admiral'i