Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-08-14
CHARLESTON DURING THB WAR
Scenes and Incidents in and
Around the City Of the Caro-
linas During the Late
"Unpleasantness Be
tho Sfnfaa

ATOuh0 tnO Sity Va tnC OaTO-
linas During the Late
"Unpleasantness" Be
tween the States.
written for the VIRGINIA CITIZEN by Jamc.
II. Powell, one of the boys who was there.l
IN TWO PARTS-PART 1.
In 1861, the people of South Car
olins, as well as those of the South
ern Confederscy, having exhausted
every effort to secure peaceful sep
aration from the Union, and finding
that the u. S. government was taxi
ing steps to garrison and provision
Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Char.
leston-the key to that city-deter-
mined to reduce the Fort and to
take possession of the same. Accord
ingly every preparation was made to
lombard the fort, and, on the 18th
day of April 1861, the bonn
bardment was commenced, after call.
ing upon Major Anderson who was
~ charge of the Federal forces to
surrender. A furious bombardmeni
was kept up until the walls of the
fort were almost levelled and the fort
was set on fire by the bursting Of
shells. Then Major Anderson, see.
ing the futility of continuing to
"hold the fort" gave up and sur
rendered, the Confederates allowing
them to salute their flag and depart
with all of the "honors of war"
Immediately on taking charge of
Sumter, the Confederates proceeded
to repair the same. Boat load after
boat load of bags of sand were
hauled from and around Charleston
and placed in and around the fort
until the same was made almost, if
not quite, impregnable. Guns we,e
then placed in every position so as to
be able to repel any attack that the
Federals might make. The fort was
then garrisoned by troops and placed
in charge of Col. Calhoun, one of the
bravest and most gallant of the off,
GERS of the Confederacy, with Lieut..
Col. Alfred Rhett second in COM
mand.
In order to further protect the
fort, as we'll as the city, from any
attacks that might be made by the
enemy, the whole harbor was filled
with torpedoes, come fred by fric-
tion, and others by electricity, leav-
ing only a narrow channel for the
ingress and egress of blockade run
ners, line of which was soon estab-
lished and which at once began to
arrive and depart, bringing in such
supplies as the Confederacy was
most in need of. One of the block
ade runners, the "Fox," long
steamer painted perfectly white,
made trip about every two weeks,
which she continued to do almost u %
to the very close of the war. A
one night Three "blockaders," as
they were called, came in one night
each about mile behind the other.
As they came in they fran aground,
at the same point, but were gotten
off by the assistance Of the soldiers
on Sullivsn's Island. BY this time
the Yankees began to"smell amouse," {"
and as the last of them, the "Fox," {"
ran aground tthe Yank's had about
fifty we'll armed and equipped barges
in the neighborhood), they COM
manded the captain to surrender, but
to each order the captain answered
with an oath. Col. Rhett, who was
then in command of Sullivan's Is
land at the time, had about one hun
dred men go down and push her of.
When loose, she made "swIft work.
in getting out of the reach of the
Yanks. Then the barges began to
blow their horns. First, q big horn
was blown which was answered by
smaller horns. Col. Rhett sent or
ders to four or five batteries to open
fire upon the ''sound" at a given sig
nal. He then placed a section Of
field artillery on little eminence
not far from the shore. At the sig
nal cross fire of grape and cannis-
ter was let loose in the direction of
the sound when the horns ceased to
blow, but general plying of oars
was heard until the entire fleet OF
barges were out of hearing. What
damage, if any, was done on board
the barges was never learned.
As the war was to be only q
"breakfast SPELL" and numbers oi
our leaders had promised to s'drinl
all the blood she'd" Sumter soon be.
came pleasure resort and cockpit.
A large number of fighting roosters
were taken there and fighting wa.
carried on to such an extent that il
became nuisance, and Col. Calhoun
Issued an order that all of the chick
ems should be taken out of the fort
Among those owning these chickens
was Col. Rhett, who positively re
fused to obey the order, and Col. Cal
houn was forced to have them taker
out. This so enraged Col. Rhet
that he challenged Col. Calhoun t,
fight a duel, which challenge was &C
cepted and resulted in the death o
Col. Calhoun and Col. Rhett's pro
motion to the command of the fort
Col. Calhoun's friends blamed hin
very much for accepting the chal
lenge as Col. Rhett was then consid
cred the best "pistol shot" in tn
country. 1t was said that he coul,
cut piece of spool thread suspende
in the air as far as he could see it a
every crack of his pistol.
A German by the name of Charle
Grunschwig was the ordnance seI
Egeant of the troops in Fort Sumte
When that fort fell into the hand
of the Confederates Grunschwig d.
serted and came into our lines wher
he was gladly welcomed and was q
once made ordnance sergeant of Su
livan's Island. He was considere
one of the best ordnance sergeant