"THE OLD FLAG WAVES OVER SUMTER."
By this time, Mr. Coffin was himself nearly exhausted, having been
worn down by constant service, day and night, in one of the most
exhausting campaigns on record. Knowing that both armies would have to
throw up entrenchments and recuperate, he came home, according to
custom, to rest and freshen for renewed exertion. Leaving immediately
after the battle of Cold Harbor, that is, on June 7th, he was back
again in Washington on June 22d, and in Petersburg, June 26th. The
lines of offence and defence were now twenty miles long, and the great
battle of Petersburg, which was to last many months, the war of shovel
and spade, had begun. Mr. Coffin remained with the army, often riding
to City Point and along the whole front of the Union lines, reading
the news of the sinking of the _Alabama_ by the _Kearsarge_, and the
call of the President for a half million of men, seeing many of the
minor contests, the picket firing, the artillery duels, and learning
of the splendid valor of the black troops.
He came to Washington and Baltimore, when the news of Early's raid up
the Shenandoah Valley was magnified into an invasion of Maryland by
General Lee, with sixty thousand men behind them. Carleton, however,
was not one to catch the disease of fear through infectious
excitement. Finding Grant, the commander-in-chief of all the armies in
the field walking alone, quietly and unostentatiously, with his thumbs
in the armholes of his vest, and smoking a cigar, neither excited nor
disturbed, Carleton felt sure that the raid had been anticipated and
was well provided for. Both then, as well as on July 18th, when he had
to argue with friends who wore metaphorically blue glasses, he wrote
cheerfully and convincingly of his calm, deliberate judgment, that the
prospects of crushing the rebellion were never so bright as at that
moment. He concluded his letter thus, "Give Grant the troops he needs
now, and this gigantic struggle will speedily come to an end."
While Lee, disappointed in the results of Early's menace of
Washington, was summoning all his resources to resist the long siege,
and while Grant was awaiting his reinforcements and preparing the
cordon, which, like a perfect machine, should at the right moment be
set in motion to grind in pieces the armies of rebellion, Carleton was
chosen by the people of Boston to accompany their gift of food which
they wished to send to Savannah, to relieve the needy. Between Tuesday
and Thursday of one week, thirty thousand dollars were contributed.
The steamer _Greyhound_ a captured blockade-runner, was chartered.
Taking in her hold one-half of the provisions, she left Boston Harbor
at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, January 23, 1865. With the
committee of relief, Carleton arrived in Savannah in time to ride out
and meet the army of Sherman. After attending meetings of the
citizens, seeing to the distribution of supplies, and writing a number
of letters, he now scanned all horizons, feeling rather than seeing
the signs of supreme activity. Whither should he go?
Sherman's army was about to move north to crush Johnston, and then
join Grant in demolishing Lee's host. Mr. Coffin could easily have
accompanied this marvellous modern Anabasis, which, however, instead
of retreat meant victory. He had an especially warm invitation from
Major-General A. S. Williams, commander of the 20th Corps, to be a
guest at his headquarters. There were many arguments to tempt him to
proceed with Sherman's army. Nevertheless, from the war
correspondent's point of view, it seemed wiser not to go overland, but
to choose the more unstable element, water. For nearly a month,
perhaps more, the army would have no communication with any telegraph
office, and for long intervals none with the seacoast.
Carleton knew that after Gilmore's "swamp angel" and investing forces
had done their work, Charleston must soon be empty. He longed to see
the old flag wave once more over Sumter. So, bidding farewell to
Sherman's army, he took the steamer _Fulton_ at Port Royal, which was
to stop on her way to New York at the blockading fleet off Charleston.
Happy choice! He arrived in the nick of time, just as the stars and
stripes were being hoisted over Sumter. It was on February 18th, at
2 P. M., that the _Arago_ steamed into Charleston Bay, where he had
before seen the heaviest artillery duel then known in the history of
the world, and the abandonment of the attack by the floating
fortresses. Now a new glory rose above the fort, while in the distance
rolled black clouds of smoke, from the conflagration of the city. He
penned this telegram to the Boston _Journal_:
"The old flag waves over Sumter, Moultrie, and the city of Charleston.
"I can see its crimson stripes and fadeless stars waving in the warm
sunlight of this glorious day.
"Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory."
Carleton had but a few minutes to write out his story, for the steamer
_Fulton_ was all ready to move North. How to get the glorious news
home, and be first torch-bearer in the race that would flash joy over
all the North, was now Carleton's strenuous thought. As matter of
fact, this time again, as on several occasions before, he beat the
Government and its official despatch-bearers, and all his fellow
correspondents.
How did he do it?
While other knights of the pen confided their missives to the purser
of the despatch steamer, _Arago_, Carleton put his in the hands of a
passing stranger, who was going North. Explaining to him the supreme
importance of rapidity in delivery of such important news, he
instructed him as follows:
"When your steamer comes close to the wharf in New York, it will very
probably touch and then rebound before she is fast to her moorings. Do
you stand ready on the gunwale, and when the sides of the vessel first
touch the dock, do not wait for the rebound; but jump ashore, and run
as for your life to the telegraph office, send the telegram, and then
drop this letter in the post-office."
Carleton's friend did as he was told. He watched his opportunity. In
spite of efforts to hold him back, he was on terra firma many minutes
before even the Government messenger left the boat; while,
unfortunately for the New York newspapers, the purser kept the various
correspondents' despatches in his pocket until his own affairs had
been attended to. It was about 8 o'clock in the morning when
Carleton's messenger faced the telegraph operators. Then, as Carleton
told the story in 1896, "they at first refused to take the story, as
they did not believe its truth, and said it would affect the price of
gold. In those days, there was a censorship of the telegraph, and
nothing was allowed to be sent which might affect the price of gold.
"But finally they sent the story, and it was bulletined in Boston and
created a great sensation. It was wired back to New York and
pronounced a canard by the papers there, since the steamer from
Charleston was in and they had no news from her.
"They were set right, though, when about noon the purser, having
finished his own work, delivered the stories entrusted to him."
The despatch, which was received in the _Journal_ office soon after 9
o'clock A. M., was issued as an extra, containing about sixty-five
lines, giving the outline of the great series of events. This telegram
was the first intimation that President Lincoln and the Cabinet at
Washington received of the glorious news. Being signed "Carleton," its
truth was assured.
The next day, in the city "where Secession had its birth," Carleton
walked amid the burning houses and the streets deserted of its
citizens, saw the entrance of the black troops, and went into the
empty slave-market, securing its dingy flag--the advertisement of sale
of human bodies--as a relic. During several days he wrote letters, in
which the notes of gratitude and exultation, mingled with pity and
sympathy with the suffering, and full of scarcely restrainable joy in
view of the speedy termination of the war, are discernible.