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Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., From Moultrie to Sumter. (search)
the 9th of January, with my glass I saw a large steamer pass the bar and enter the Morris Island Channel. It was the Star of the West, with reinforcements and supplies for us. When she came near the upper part of the island the secessionists fired a shot at her. I hastened to Major Anderson's room, and was ordered by him to have the long roll beaten and to post the men at the barbette guns. By the time we reached the parapet the transport coming to our relief had approached so near that Moultrie opened fire. Major Anderson would not allow us to return the fire, so the transport turned about and steamed seaward. Anderson asked for an explanation of the firing from Governor Pickens, and announced that he would allow no vessel to pass within range of the guns of Sumter if the answer was unsatisfactory. Governor Pickens replied that he would renew the firing under like circumstances. I think Major Anderson had received an intimation that the Star of the West was coming, but did not
Robert Underwood Johnson, Clarence Clough Buell, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles. Volume 1., Inside Sumter: in 1861. (search)
of the West. It was known officially in Washington that fourteen days previously Major Anderson had spiked the guns and burned the carriages at Moultrie, and gun-carriages cannot be replaced in two weeks when they have to be fabricated. Hence Moultrie could not have been formidable, and as soon as it should have passed the battery on Morris Island, it would have been comparatively safe. When the Star of the West was seen standing in, the novelty of a steamer carrying the national flag hadds.-editors. With the exception of the mounting of the guns, the preparations described were chiefly intended to ward off assault. The actions of the enemy now indicated that he proposed to bombard the work at an early day. If we would meet Moultrie, and the numerous batteries which were being constructed against us, on anything like even terms, we must be prepared to shoot accurately. Few artillerymen, without actual experience, have any idea of the difficulty of aiming a gun during a
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Torpedo service in Charleston harbor. (search)
struction, which would be free from tidal strain, but little had been done toward its preparation. I, therefore, soon after assuming command, ordered its immediate completion, and, to give it protection and greater efficiency, directed that two lines of torpedoes be planted a few hundred yards in advance of it. But before the order could be carried out, a strong southerly storm broke the timber boom in several places, leaving the channel unprotected, except by the guns of Forts Sumter and Moultrie. Fortunately, however, the Federal fleet made no effort to enter the harbor, as it might have done if it had made the attempt at night. A few days later the rope obstruction and torpedoes were in position, and so remained, without serious injury, till the end of the war. The rope obstruction was made of two heavy cables, about five or six feet apart, the one below the other, and connected together by a network of smaller ropes. The anchors were made fast to the lower cable, and the bu
Robert Lewis Dabney, Life and Commands of Lieutenand- General Thomas J. Jackson, Chapter 5: secession. (search)
ion. As was to be expected, this act of treachery greatly incensed them; for the authorities of South Carolina had received a pledge from President Buchanan that the existing military status should undergo no change in their State, during the expiring term of his administration. That pledge was violated by this seizure and military occupation of Sumter; and, notwithstanding all remonstrances, Buchanan, probably under the pressure of Northern clamor, refused to order Anderson back again to Moultrie. The Secretary of War, J. B. Floyd, who had been a party to the promise, felt his honor so compromised by this gross breach of faith, that he instantly and indignantly resigned. Immediately after Mr. Lincoln had entered on his office as President, in March 1861, Commissioners from the South proceeded to Washington, to urge a peaceable separation, and to negotiate for the transfer of Government property, and, in particular, for the removal of the Federal garrison from Forts Pickens and Sum
Lt.-Colonel Arthur J. Fremantle, Three Months in the Southern States, June, 1863. (search)
one that came thus close, got out of order in five minutes, and was completely disabled in a quarter of an hour. She sank on the following morning. Solid ten-inch shot and seven-inch flatheads were used upon her. Ripley said he would give a great deal for some more eleven-inch guns, but he can't get them except by such chances as the Keokuk. The fight only lasted two hours and twenty-five minutes. Fort Sumter bore nearly the whole weight of the attack, assisted in a slight degree by Moultrie. Only one man was killed, which was caused by the fall of the flagstaff. The Confederates were unable to believe until some time afterwards the real amount of the damage they had inflicted; nor did they discover until next day that the affair was a serious attack, and not a reconnoissance. General Ripley spoke with the greatest confidence of being able to repulse any other attack of the same sort. Colonel Rhett, the commandant, entertained us with luncheon in one of the casemates. He i
John G. Nicolay, The Outbreak of Rebellion, Chapter 2: Charleston Harbor. (search)
its influence upon the President for reinforcement and preparation. At the same time the secessionists congregated at Washington were no less alert and active; they obtained Buchanan's tacit promise that he would send no reinforcements unless Moultrie were attacked, and had hampered Anderson with confidential instructions from Floyd, to take no offensive measures until in the nature of things, through a sudden assault, he would be overwhelmed and powerless. These conflicting efforts brougudden military movement by Major Anderson, transferring his entire garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, on the night of the commissioners' arrival in Washington, December 26. Daily observation left him no doubt that Moultrie was to be assaulted; every day strengthened the design, increased the preparation, augmented the drilled and undrilled forces to be joined in the undertaking. There was no longer hope that the President would heed his repeated calls and send hi
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 5. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Torpedo service in the Harbor and water defences of Charleston. (search)
struction, which would be free from tidal strain, but little had been done toward its preparation. 1, therefore, soon after assuming command, ordered its immediate completion, and, to give it protection and greater efficiency, directed that two lines of torpedoes be planted a few hundred yards in advance of it. But before the order could be carried out, a strong southerly storm broke the timber boom in several places, leaving the channel unprotected, except by the guns of Forts Sumter and Moultrie. Fortunately, however, the Federal fleet made no effort to enter the harbor, as it might have done if it had made the attempt at night. A few days later the rope obstruction and torpedoes were in position, and so remained without serious injury till the end of the war. The rope obstruction was made of two heavy cables, about five or six feet apart, the one below the other, and connected together by a network of smaller ropes. The anchors were made fast to the lower cable, and the buoy
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 4: seditious movements in Congress.--Secession in South Carolina, and its effects. (search)
composed of red and blue silk, the former being the ground of the standard, and the latter, in the form of a cross, bearing fifteen stars. The largest star was for South Carolina. On the red field were a silver Palmetto and Crescent. The Crescent was placed in the South Carolina flag in 1775, under the following circumstances:--The Provincial Council had taken measures to fortify Charleston, after the Royal Governor was driven away. As there was no national flag at the time, says General Moultrie, in his Memoirs, I was desired by the Council of Safety to have one made, upon which, as the State troops were clothed in blue, and the fort [Johnson, on James Island] was garrisoned by the First and Second Regiments, who wore a silver crescent on the front of their eaps, I had a large blue flag made, with a crescent in the dexter corner, to be in uniform with the troops. This was the first American flag displayed in the South. See Lossing's Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution, II.
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1., Chapter 5: events in Charleston and Charleston harbor in December, 1860.--the conspirators encouraged by the Government policy. (search)
s, and close the harbor, even at night, by destroying the light-houses. These things, of course, I would never do, unless compelled to do so in self-defense. On the same day, the authorities of South Carolina seized and appropriated to the uses of the State the Custom House, and the Post-office kept within its walls. That building, fronting on Broad Street, was venerated as the theater of many events connected with the old war for Independence. In the basement of the Custom House, Colonel Moultrie and other patriots concealed from the eyes of British officials, in 1775, nearly one hundred thousand pounds of provincial powder. Its vaults were military prisons, and there hundreds of patriots suffered long and hopelessly, and scores perished of wounds and privations, while the British held possession of the city, from May, 1780, until the close of the war. From that building Isaac Hayne, the martyr, was taken out to execution, having been brought up from a damp vault for the purpos
H. Wager Halleck , A. M. , Lieut. of Engineers, U. S. Army ., Elements of Military Art and Science; or, Course of Instruction in Strategy, Fortification, Tactis of Battles &c., Embracing the Duties of Staff, Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and Engineers. Adapted to the Use of Volunteers and Militia., Chapter 7: sea-coast defences..—Brief description of our maritime fortifications, with an Examination of the several Contests that have taken place between ships and forts, including the attack on San Juan d'ulloa, and on St. Jean d'acre (search)
egulars and a few militia. In this contest the British were entirely defeated, and lost, in killed and wounded, two hundred and five men, while their whole two hundred and seventy guns killed and wounded only thirty-two men in the fort. Of this trial of strength, which was certainly a fair one, Cooper, in his Naval History, says :--It goes fully to prove the important military position that ships cannot withstand forts, when the latter are properly armed, constructed, and garrisoned. General Moultrie says only thirty rounds from the battery were fired, and was of opinion that the want of powder alone prevented the Americans from destroying the men-of-war. In 1814 a British fleet of four vessels, carrying ninety-two guns, attacked Fort Boyer, a small redoubt, located on a point of land commanding the passage from the Gulf into the bay of Mobile. This redoubt was garrisoned by only one hundred and twenty combatants, officers included; and its armament was but twenty small pieces o
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