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Captain Hartstene to the little relief-squadron outside, to make arrangements for the departure of the garrison.
A part of that night, the brave defenders of Fort Sumter1 enjoyed undisturbed repose.
Not one of their number had been killed or very seriously hurt during the appalling bombardment of thirty-six hours, when over three thousand shot and shell were hurled at the fort.3 The same extraordinary statement was made concerning the insurgents.
It was too extraordinary for ready belief, and for a long time there was doubt about the matter, at home and abroad, and grave journalists and sparkling satirists had food for many a telling paragraph.4 Testimony seems to show that it was true.5
Governor Pickens watched the bombardment on Saturday morning with a telescope, and that evening he made a most extraordinary speech to the excited populace from the balcony of the Charleston Hotel. “Thank God!”
1 The following — are the names of the defenders of Fort Sumter:--
officers.--Major Robert Anderson; Captains. J. G. Foster and Abner Doubleday; First Lieutenants, Jefferson C. Davis, George W. Snyder, Truman Seymour (then brevet captain), Theodore Talbot (then assistant adjutant-general), and Norman J. Hall; Second Lieutenant, Richard K. Mead; and Assistant Surgeon Samuel W. Crawford. non-commissioned officers.--Quartermaster-Sergeant, William H. Hamner; Sergeants, James E. Gallway, John Renshaw, John Carmody, John McMahon, John Otto, Eugene Sheibner, James Chester, William A. Harn, and Thomas Kiernan; Ordnance-Sergeant, James Kearney; Corporals, Christopher Costolow, Charles Bringhurst, Henry Ellerbrook, Owen — McGuire, and Francis J. Oakes; Musicians, Robert Foster and Charles Hall; Artificers, Henry Straudt, John E. Noack, and Philip Andermann; Confidential Mail and Market Man, Peter Hart. Privates.--Patrick Murphy, Tedeschi Onoratto, Peter Rice, Henry Schmidt, John Urquhart, Andrew Wickstrom, Edward Brady, Barney Cain, John Doran, Dennis Johnson, John Kehoe, John Klein, John Lanagan, John Laroche,1 Frederick Lintner, John Magill, Frederick Meier, James Moore, William Morter, Patrick Neilan, John Nixon, Michael O'Donald, Robert Roe, William Walker, Joseph Wall, Edmund Walsh, Henry R. Walter, Herman Will, Thomas Wishnowski, Casper Wutterpel, Cornelius Baker, Thomas Carroll, Patrick Clancy, John Davis, James Digdam, George Fielding, Edward Gallway, James Gibbons, James Hays, Daniel Hough, John Irwin, James McDonald, Samuel Miller, John Newport, George Pinchard, Frank Rivers, Lewis Schroeder, Carl A. Sellman, John Thompson, Charles H. Tozer, William Witzmann. All of the officers but three were highly promoted during the war. Major Anderson was commissioned a brevet Major-General; Captains Foster and Doubleday were raised to full Major-Generals; Lieutenants Davis, Seymour, and Hall, were commissioned Brigadiers; and Surgeon Crawford received the same appointment. Lieutenant Snyder died in November following, and Lieutenant Talbot died in April, 1862. Lieutenant Meade resigned his commission and joined the insurgents. Major Anderson performed gallant service in the war with Mexico. Captain Seymour had been an extensive traveler. His ascent of Popocatapetl, in Mexico, the highest mountain in North America, has been frequently mentioned. Captain Foster was severely wounded at Molino del Rey, in Mexico; Lieutenant Davis was in the battle of Buena Vista; and Lieutenant Talbot had crossed the Rocky Mountains with Fremont's first expedition.2 Deserted on the 22d of April, 1861.
3 Captain Foster, in his report, said that of the 10-inch shells, thrown from seventeen mortars, one-half went within or exploded over the parapet of the fort, and only about ten buried themselves in the soft earth of the parade without exploding. This statement shows how impossible it was to man the barbette and area guns.
4 The London Times, alluding to the bombardment, the conflagration, et ccetera, without causing serious personal injury, said:--“Many a ‘ difficulty ’ at a bar has cost more bloodshed. Was this a preconcerted feat of conjury? Were the rival Presidents saluting one another in harmless fireworks to amuse the groundlings? The whole affair is utterly inexplicable. . . . The result is utterly different from all we are accustomed to hear of the Americans. There, ‘a word and a blow ’ has been the rule. In this case, the blow, when it does at last come, falls like snow, and lights as gently as thistle-down.”
Vanity Fair, a humorous weekly sheet then published in New York, contained the following stanzas, in a poem called The Battle of Morris Island, already quoted from in the text:--Then came the comforting piece of fun,
Of counting the noses, one by one,
To see if any thing had been done
On glorious Morris Island.
“Nobody hurt!” the cry arose;
There was not missing a single nose,
And this was the sadly ludicrous close
Of the Battle on Morris Island.
5 “ It is said that the only living creature killed in the conflict was a fine horse belonging to General Dun novant. which had been hitched behind Fort Moultrie.” --Duyckinck's War for the Union, 1. 115.
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