The calm sunlight of April, 1865, is falling on the northern face of the
Fort which had withstood a severer bombardment than any other fortification attacked during the
Civil War. This wall was across the
Fort from the one upon which the heavy Union batteries on
Morris Island concentrated their fire.
But many a shot passing over the southern wall struck this rampart from the inside, making breaches that had to be patched with gabions.
Patched in this way it continued to the end of the war, frowning across the waters of the bay upon the blockading fleet and the Union batteries.
Thus it looked when, on February 18, 1865,
Colonel Bennet, in command of the United States forces at
Charleston, was rowed across from Cummins Point toward
Fort Moultrie. Forty yards east of
Sumter he met a boat filled with musicians who had been left behind by the
Confederates.
He directed one of his subordinates to proceed to
Sumter and raise the
American flag above the ramparts — for the first time in four years.
Sumter, inside the face of which the outside is shown above.
The skill with which gabions were employed to strengthen the ramparts is apparent.
A description of the relinquishment of the position follows in the words of
Major John Johnson: “On the night of the 17th of February, 1865, the commander,
Captain Thomas A. Huguenin, silently and without interruption effected the complete evacuation.
He has often told me of the particulars, and I have involuntarily accompanied him in thought and feeling as, for the last time, he went the rounds of the deserted fort.
The ordered casements with their massive guns were there, but in the stillness of that hour his own foot-fall alone gave an echo from the arches overhead.
The labyrinthine galleries, as he traversed them, were lighted for a moment by his lantern; he passed out from the shadows to step aboard the little boat awaiting him at the wharf, and the four years defense of
Fort Sumter was at an end.”
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The deserted defenses |
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