The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-12-18
Well Defended City.

The Editor of The Times and
Democrat was resident OF the city
of Charleston from the beginning
to the end Of the war, and witness
ed as q boy the heroic defence or
that city by the Confe- -erates against
all the resources Of men ana
munitions of war that the Federals
could bring against her. The GRAM
old city received her baptism of fire
without finching and held out to
the bitter eni. Her noble women
were about as brave and self-sacri-
flcins as the men who manned the
forts In the harbor. They were
ready to make any sacrifice for the
benefit of the cause that they loved
better than their lives. They lived
hard and injured privations, but
they felt we'll repaid as they heard
the guns in the forts hurting de-
fiance in the teeth of the foe.
Gideon Welles, Federal Secretary
of the Navy from the beginning to
the end of the war, in his diary,
which is now being published, speaks
as follows of Dupont's attempt to
silence the Confederate guns in the
forts and capture Charleston on
April 7, 1868: "Dupont's feet was
ten times stronger than that of the
Allies Cat Sebastopol), arred with
incomparably heavier guns, and con-
sisting of elaborately armored IRON
clads, supposed to be simply in
vulnerable. Their invulnerability
was boldly put to the test. No
ship was exposed to severe fire
for more than forty minutes, yet
in that forty minutes the mighty
feet was completely defeated. So
admirable was the Confederate aim
that one monitor, affording the
smallest possible mark on the sur
face of which two heavy guns could
be placed, was struck nineteen times
once every two minutes-below
the water line"
AS a boy, We witnessed that men,
orable conflict and saw the defeat Of
that "invincible fleet" with un-
bounded pleasure, but we did not
cream then what the authorities
at Washington thought of the fail.
ure to take Charleston, which that
fleet had been ordered to 40 and
then proceed to Mobile and take that
city. But after that fleet had run
up against the Confederates in Char
lesion harbor about all it could do
was to limp to Port Royal and put
itself in the dry dock for repairs.
All the monitors made the trip to
Port Royal except the Keokuk. She
only got as far as the outer shore
of Morris Island where she went to
the bottom. The failure to take
Charleston was great disappoint-
ment to the Federals, for they want
ed to take Charleston worse than any
place in the Confederacy.
Those half starved, half clothed
soldiers that defended
Charleston against all comers, did
not know it, but they were making
a world-record for bravery and en-
durance. Here is what Welles says
of them in his diary: "All the en-
gineering genius Of Gilmore and the
perseverance Of Dahlgren only served
to bring into relief the superior
ability and matchless tenacity of the
In the annals of the
Federal Army and Navy there is no
exploit comparable to the defence
Of Charleston harbor. 1t would not
be easy to match it in the records
If European warfare
AS The News and Courier says,
1t is not for any man to question
the bravery, the devotion, the hero
sm and gallantry OF Caroliniaus in
those dark days. If they had boast
ed they made good their baasts on
l hundred hard fought fields. They
established record for. matchleSS
such as will be pointed out
for years to come. Their own brav-
cry shows all the brighter because of
the fearlessness Of those whom they
Every word said above
about Carolinians has our endorse
ment, but we must not forget that
Georgians, North Carolinians, Vir-
ginians and soldiers from other
States shared in the successful de-
fence of Charleston, directed by
those superb commanders, Beaure-
gard and Ripley, one a native or
Louisiana and the other native OF
Ohio.