The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-11

A. stated in my last article the 600
Confederate officers sent from Fort Del
a,,re in August, 1864 to Morris Island
e.. to be placed under the fire of their
,,,yn batteries, in retaliation of a like num-
rsr of federal officers said TO be within
,anre of the Union guns firing upon
charleston, We're landed al Folly Inlet
ard received by the Fifty-fourth Massa-
chusetts Regiment, composed of colored
n,n. under commander Col. Hallowen.
Afer landing, we were compelled to
vo4r,h some three or four miles along
,be shore to reach the pen wAch was to
il. our prison for an indefinite period, and
owing 10 our enfeebled condition from the
three weeks confinement on board the
transport the march was slow and painful,
and compelled innumerable halts.
Finally we reached point midway be
tween Forts Gregg and Wagner, where
had been erected a stockade of palmetto
logs. and within this enclosure were
pitched many tents, each capable of ac-
commodating four men, and around these
tenss was run a rope, known as the dead
line" to approach which meant certain
dedln. alOuS the tOp Ol tIlS SlOchduS,
on the outside, ran a platform for the
seutinels TO walk, from which they could
observe our every movement
My comrades in the tent were Capt.
Hunter Griffin, of the Baltimore Light
Artillery; Capt. George Howard of the
First Maryland Cavalry and Cleggett
Fitzhugh, who had never been in the Con-
Tolerate service, nor in the Confederacy,
bur who had been picked up a couple of
years before in Maryland, more
for the reason that he was
the man who captured Capt. Cook, hanged
with John Brown, and turned him over
to the Virginia authorities. His captors
dubbed him Captain" and demanded a
captain in exchange for him.
And now word of Col. Hallowell He
was of Quaker origin, a son of Morris L.
Hallowel, if I am not mistaken, a prom
inent merchant of Philadelphia; but the
Colonel was what DR.. Weir Mitchell would
call a Free Quaker" though he hardly
came up to the standard of the doctors
fine creation, Hugh Wynne" He was
a rather SHINY built young man, with a
decidedly tow head, and when he was
truly looking you full in the face it SEEM
ed as though one eye was up tree and
the other down well. This was because
he was cross-eyed. The Colonel was not
much of an orator, either, as the follow
ing selection from the little speech he
made us before we were dismissed TO our
quarters will testify:
Il suppose you rebs all know what
you are here for. Ii you don't, you'll
soon find out. l want you to behave
yourselves; if you do, all will be lovely;
but if you don't, my niggers VIII give
you HI"
This speech, brief and to the point, did
not however elevate the Colonel in the
estimation of the gallant gentlemen %
whom it was addressed, and would have
,,srIr~ lfa1 To
lot of penitentary convicts, The Colonel
had evidently mistaken the composition of
his guests and after he made the discoV-
erv Col Hallowell changed his manner
toward us altogether. l have always be-
lieved the Colonel was something of
joker, and that he thought at the time he
was saying something that would amuse
us.
The Fifty-fourth had been formed from
among the colored people of Boston,
Mass, and surrounding cities, and had
proved itself a brave command at the
storming of Wagner where 1t had been
terribly cut up, losing it's colonel, the gal
LIANT Shaw. Since then the ranks of the
regiment had been recruited from the ne
groes of the South, some of whom were
the most ignorant and brutal of their race
Fortunately for us, however, these were
comparativly few.
The Ruins of Fort Sumter.
Soon after our arrival I took view of
the situation. Immediately behind us
frowned Fort Wagner, and not far IN
front of us was situated Fort Gregg. On
in the harbor toward Charleston, about
thousand yards, was located what looked
like an inmenS mass of rubbish, wlth
nothing in its formation to suggest that II
had once been the pride of the engineers
who had reared II. This was Fort sum
ter, which had withstood the herceSt poIii-
,f,l fnT
but was now stronger in its ruins thah
when 1t stood in its shapely proportions,
and the only fort in the South that was
not captured by the Federals during the
war. Beyond, some four miles, STOOD the
city Of Charleston, its church spires ana
many prominent buildings being dlsuhcuy
discernible.
Charleston was then and had been for
many months, undergoing bombardment
sometimes furious in its character, put
never ceasing day or night and In certain
conditions of the atmosphere we could
trace the great shells, fired from Fort
Wagner behind us, almost until they
reached the city and could then distinctly
hear the explosions.
Under the Fire of Confederate Guns.
our experience was a novel one, ana
such an one as but few men had under
gone before. Away off TO the right of us
lay Sullivan's Island, mad we were told
il was from the batteries stationed there
that we had most to fear and that these
batteries seldom fired except at night ana
then threw only mortar shells.
Il was with no little apprehension that
we waited until night to see what KIND
OF pratice our comrades on Sullivan's IS
land would make under the peculiar CIR
cumstances for they had been warned OF
our arrival, and could plainly see our
prison, and as we were not allowed out
Of our tents after dark, we could only
witness the firing by lying on our face and
rasing the canvas of the tent few
inches.
Il was not long after nightfall that a
dull explosion was heard in the distance,
ana then we could see what seemed to
BOO a ball of fire with a dark side revolv-
ing in the heavens. and as it mounted
higher and higher it presented a beautl-
I'm sight. and finally. becoming station
airy for an instant, It made it's graceful
bow and began to descend with frightful
lapldity, accompanied by rushing, hiss