A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER XXXVII, THE NAVAL DEFEAT OFF CHARLESTON-GENERAL GILLMORE'S REPULSE
No place had been such an eyesore to the abolitionists as the hated city of Charleston. They regarded it as "the cradle of the rebellion" and had vowed all sorts of vengeance upon it, even to blotting it out forever from the face of the earth. Several efforts had been made to reduce it. General Hunter had felt of it and came away satisfied. The truth was, that General Beauregard, who had planned its defences, was one of the ablest military engineers in the world, and it had been made well nigh impregnable. Strong forts had been built to guard all its approaches and the chief channel had been obstructed by rows of piles,among which were scattered numerous torpedoes.
Chagrined at their repeated defeats to take the city the abolitionists finally conceived the barbarous idea of destroying the harbor of Charleston by sinking in the channels a large number of vessels laden with stones! The strong current of the water, however, made another channel just as good as the old one, so that this piece of abolition malignity miscarried
It would not do, however, to let this little city thus defy the power of the whole North. So Mr.Lincoln's Naval Department went to work and built a large number of iron-clad vessels at the expense of many millions of dollars, for the reduction Charleston. On the 7th day of April,1863, they steamed up the harbor very gaily, under the command of Admiral Dupont, who, no doubt, thought the city would fall soon into his hands.
But in this he was mistaken, for the Confederates opened upon him from all their batteries and rained such a torrent of shot and shell upon his fleet that he was glad to beat a hasty retreat. So thick was this iron-hail that as many as one hundred and sixty shots were counted in a minute!The Keokuk was sunk and over half of the fleet were more or less disabled. The flag-ship, the Ironsides, was rendered helpless. No injury had been done to the Confederates whatever, so that all this vast preparation and expenditure of money had amounted to nothing.
The abolition Government at Washington now resolved to try the effect of a formidable land-force, and General Quincy A. Gillmore was entrusted with the command. It was declared that Fort Sumter must be taken at all hazards. So in July General Gillmore with a large army began the siege of Charleston. He landed on Morris Island and tried to take Fort Wagner, a strong Confederate work on the north end of the island, but was terribly repulsed and glad to abandon the job.
Gillmore finding he could not succeed in this way fell back on siege operations. He got an immense cannon that would carry a ball five miles, and calling it the "Swamp Angel" set it to work, throwing shell right into the city of Charleston among the women and children and hospitals containing the sick. When General Beauregard protested against this violation of civilized warfare, Gillmore told him very insolently to remove his women and children and sick out of Charleston.
This pleased the abolitionists of the North very much, for they never seemed so happy as when some one of their Generals was performing some act of brutality.
General Gillmore fired away for weeks and weeks, until finally the Confederates abandoned Fort Wagner and all of Morris Island. No effort had been spared to reduce Fort Sumter, and on the 24th of August General Gillmore telegraphed that it was a "shapeless and harmless mass of ruins." If this were so it only need to be occupied, but "shapeless" as it was the Confederates, under Major Elliot, still held it.
However, Admiral Dahlgren, now naval commander in Charleston Harbor, made a demand on General Beauregard, on the 7th of September, for its surrender. The General, in his most polite French style sent word to Mr.Dahlgren "to come and take it."
The Admiral determined to do so; and , accordingly, on the very next night, sent off an expedition of some twenty small boats and five hundred men to take it by surprise! Major Elliot, however, was not the man to be taken by surprise. He saw the approaching expedition, and reserving his fire until the enemy were within a few yards of the fort, he fired into them a devouring fire. Instantly the bay was lighted with signals, and all the Confederate batteries opened upon the barges. Some of the men gained the parapet of the fort; many fell in trying to scale the wall; some were drowned, and the balance were glad enough to get away.
The Confederates did not lose a man, but captured five boats, over a hundred prisoners, and five flags, one of them said to have been the identical flag that Major Anderson had lowered in 1861, and which Admiral Dahlgren felt so sure he was going to raise on this occasion.
The abolition authorities pretended to continue the siege after this, but it was virtually abandoned. The northern people got sick of hearing about Charleston. It had been taken so many times, and Fort Sumter had been captured so often, that it became a standing joke.
Unquestionably its defence had been one of the most gallant and noble on record.
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