Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[483] which was fired back of the old post-office, in honor of the passage of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession. It was also fired when news reached Charleston that similar action of the Conspirators in other States had taken place. For this reason it was known as the Secession Gun.

The writer voyaged from Charleston to Beaufort, on a beautiful April day, in the steamer Emilie--the same that conveyed

Secession gun.

Jefferson Davis as a prisoner from Savannah to Fortress Monroe. We arrived at the latter place toward evening, but in time for the author to visit and sketch objects of interest in that “Deserted village.” Among these was the house of Edmund Rhett, the reputed gathering-place of plotters against the Republic, mentioned in note 2, page 565, volume II. Thence, on the following day, the author sailed in a small yacht to Hilton Head, stopping on the way at Spanish Fort and Smith's Plantation, as mentioned in the note just cited. At Hilton Head he enjoyed the hospitalities of General Burns¹ and his interesting family. That officer

Edmund Rhett's House.

kindly furnished him with a conveyance to Savannah, in the Government steamer Besolute, accompanied by the teachers of the Freedman's School at Mitchelville, and the chaplain of the post, the Rev. Mr. Woart. We had a delightful voyage. We stopped at Fort Pulaski, and arrived at Savannah at sunset. From that city the author journeyed by railway to Augusta and Atlanta, in Georgia, and Montgomery, in Alabama, and thence by steamer to Mobile and New Orleans.