PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE.
Defeat of Captain Seymour's Expedition on the Ashley.--Mayor
Macbeth's Explanation.--Captain Foster's Work on Fort
Moultrie.--Governor Gist convenes the South Carolina
Legislature.--Creation of a Standing Army.--Arrival of Masons from
Baltimore.--Situation of Fort Sumter.--A Dramatic
Incident.--Secretary Floyd's Action.--Horace Greeley's Advocacy of
the Right of Secession.--The Situation November 18th.
The United States Arsenal in Charleston is situated on the banks of the
Ashley River. It looked feasible to go there in a boat without
attracting attention, and procure a full supply of cartridges and other
articles which were very much needed. Captain Seymour volunteered for
the service, and was sent over with a small party, early in the
afternoon. Notwithstanding he took every precaution, some spy belonging
to a vigilance committee followed him, and reported the facts in the
city. Seymour at once found himself beset by an excited mob, and wholly
prevented from accomplishing the object of his mission. Colonel Gardner
wrote to Mayor Macbeth for an explanation. The latter apologized
politely for this unexpected occurrence, and, speaking for himself and
other city officials, stated that so long as they staid in the Union
they desired to remain faithful to its obligations, and that no further
obstacles would be thrown in the way of another expedition. Colonel
Gardner, however, did not send out again, thinking, perhaps, the mob
might be beyond the control of the mayor.
Since his arrival, Captain Foster had been hard at work on the fort. He
had hired laborers from the vicinity of Charleston, and had sent to
Baltimore for a large number of masons who had formerly worked for him.
In spite of his efforts, we were still in a very weak condition, and
unable to defend ourselves. It is true the sand had been removed from
the sea-face of the work; but as that front had no flanking defenses,
the angles in the wall were torn down to enable the engineers to
construct double caponieres there. This left great gaps, through which
an assaulting party could penetrate at any moment. Perhaps in one sense
it added to our security, for there was no glory to be acquired in
capturing a fort which was wide open and defenseless. Crowds of excited
countrymen, wearing secession cockades, constantly came to visit the
work; and on the 3d of November they formed in procession and marched
around it, but did not offer any violence.
It may not be improper to state that I was the only officer of the
command who favored Lincoln's election. As regards my companions,
however, there was no difference of opinion in regard to sustaining the
new President should he be legally elected, and they were all both
willing and anxious to defend the fort confided to their honor.
In view of the probable success of the Republican candidate for the
presidency, Governor Gist called the South Carolina Legislature
together, to meet on Monday, the 5th of November. In his message he
recommended the immediate formation of a standing army of ten thousand
men; and that all persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five be
armed for immediate service. In consequence of this recommendation, by
the 9th of November the whole State was swarming with minute-men.
The spark came at last which was to set fire to the magazine. The
startling news of Lincoln's election reached Charleston on the 7th of
November. As this event was sure to lead to secession, the Disunionists
were wild with delight. In their exuberance of spirits, they ran
through the streets shouting "Hurra for Lincoln!" The United States
District Court, which was in session, at once broke up, and its judge,
Magrath, sent in his resignation. In the evening of the same day, Edmund
Ruffin, who has already been referred to, made a fiery secession speech
to an immense audience at the capitol of the State. The Legislature,
inflamed by public sentiment, called a convention, to meet on the 17th
of the month, to decide the question of secession. Governor Joseph E.
Brown, of Georgia, also called a convention there for the same purpose;
and the excitement in each State constantly reacted on the other.
In the early part of November, one hundred and fifty masons arrived from
Baltimore to work on the forts in the harbor. They were undoubtedly good
workmen, but it is much to be regretted that they were not also good
Unionists. Captain Foster at this time did not believe that any serious
complications would arise from the attitude South Carolina had assumed,
and did not, therefore, think it necessary to pay any attention to the
politics of his laborers. Had he selected zealous Union men, their
arrival would have been a most opportune re-enforcement for the
garrison. Unfortunately, most of them sympathized with the South, and
their coming was rather a source of weakness than of strength, so far as
actual fighting was concerned. They rendered us, however, great and
timely assistance by their labor.
The first thing that attracted the eye of the stranger, upon approaching
Charleston from the sea, was Fort Sumter. It was built on an artificial
island made of large blocks of stone. The walls were of dark brick, and
designed for three tiers of guns. The whole structure, as it rose
abruptly out of the water, had a gloomy, prison-like appearance. It was
situated on the edge of the channel, in the narrowest part of the
harbor, between Fort Moultrie and Cummings Point, distant about a mile
from the former place, and twelve hundred yards from the latter. The
year before, it had been used by us as a temporary place of confinement
and security for some negroes that had been brought over from Africa in
a slaver captured by one of our naval vessels. The inevitable conflict
was very near breaking out at that time; for there was an eager desire
on the part of all the people around us to seize these negroes, and
distribute them among the plantations; and if the Government had not
acted promptly in sending them back to Africa, I think an attempt would
have been made to take them from us by force, on the ground that some
of them had violated a State law by landing at Moultrieville.
As Fort Sumter has considerable historic renown, it may not be
uninteresting to relate another incident connected with it, although it
is not germane to my narrative. In 1859, after the negroes were taken
away, the fort remained in charge of an ordnance-sergeant, who lived
there alone with his wife and two little children. Supplies were sent to
him regularly, but in case of emergency he could only communicate with
the shore by means of a small boat. One wild stormy day, when the wind
was blowing a gale, he was suddenly struck down with yellow fever. His
wife saw that if he did not have immediate medical assistance he would
die. She herself could not go, as he required constant attention, and
the children were too young to be of any service. A day passed on, and
it became evident that he was growing worse. In a frantic state of mind,
she rushed up to the top of the fort, waved a sheet backward and
forward, and raised and lowered the garrison flag repeatedly, in hopes
of attracting the attention of some passing vessel; but although several
went by, no one seemed to notice the signals, or, if they did, they
would not stop, on account of the tempest, which still continued. She
then took the desperate resolution of putting her two little children in
the small boat, and trusting to the flood-tide to drift them somewhere
in the vicinity of Charleston. She placed a letter in the hand of one of
them, to be given to the first person they met, imploring that a
physician might be sent to her at once. It was a terrible experiment,
for the children might easily have been swept out to sea by the ebb-tide
before they could make a landing. They succeeded, however, in reaching
the shore near Mount Pleasant. A doctor finally arrived, but too late to
be of any service.
Foster wanted forty muskets to arm some of his workmen, as a guard for
the powder in Fort Sumter, and for valuable public property in Castle
Pinckney. This was approved at Washington; but the moment he obtained
the guns from the arsenal, the Secretary of War hastily telegraphed him,
in the middle of the night, to send them back again immediately. And yet
at this same period two thousand additional United States muskets were
forwarded by Floyd's order to South Carolina; and the _Charleston
Courier_ stated that five thousand more were on their way. This did not
look, much as if the Administration intended to sustain us. While the
honorable secretary was thus supplying our enemies with arms, and
leaving the United States Arsenal in Charleston, full of military
stores, without a guard, he was very solicitous to ascertain whether our
garrison duties were accurately performed, and sent an assistant
inspector-general, Major Fitz John Porter, to make a thorough
examination. As the secretary intended neither to re-enforce nor
withdraw us, and as he made no effort at any time to remedy defects in
our armament, this inspection seemed to us to be a mere pretense. It
resulted, however, in relieving Colonel Gardner from his command, on
Porter's recommendation, Major Robert Anderson being ordered to take his
place.
Mr. Greeley was at this time the head of the Republican party, and one
of the great leaders of Northern opinion. His immense services in
rousing the public mind to the evils of slavery can not be
overestimated, but some of his views were too hastily formed and
promulgated. In this crisis of our history he injured the cause he
afterward so eloquently advocated by publishing an opinion, on the 9th
of November, that the South had a perfect right to secede whenever a
majority thought proper to do so; and, in another communication, he
stated that the Union could not be pinned together with bayonets.
General Scott was also at one time in favor of letting the "wayward
sisters depart in peace;" and I have heard on good authority that at
least one member of the Cabinet and one leading general, appalled by the
magnitude of the conflict, were willing to consent to a separation,
provided the Border States would go with the North. Greeley's article
went farther than this, for it seemed to favor a simple severance of the
North and the South. This was not only a virtual abandonment of the
rights of Northern men who had invested their capital in the Southern
States, but it amounted to giving up all the sea-coast and magnificent
harbors south of New Jersey, including Chesapeake Bay. It was expressing
a willingness to surrender the mouth of the Mississippi, the commerce of
the great North-west, and the Capitol at Washington, to the control of a
foreign nation, hostile to us from the very nature of its institutions.
In fact, it was a proposition to commit national suicide. The new
Northern republic would have been three thousand miles long, and only
one hundred miles wide, in the vicinity of Wheeling. A country of such a
peculiar shape could not, as every military man knows, have been
successfully defended, and must inevitably have soon broken up into
small confederacies. We objected, with reason, to the formation of a
European monarchy in far-off Mexico, but the proposed separation would
have created a powerful slave empire, with its northern border within
eighteen miles of Philadelphia. Once firmly established there and along
the Ohio, the Southern army could have burned Cincinnati from the
opposite shore, and have penetrated to Lake Erie by a single successful
battle and march, permanently severing the East from the West.
These unexpected views of Mr. Greeley strengthened the hands of the
Disunionists. They were everywhere quoted as evidence that no attempt
would be made to interfere with or coerce the South. The fearful and
wavering were thus induced to join the clamorous majority.
I think, too, that the publication of these sentiments did much to
influence the after-conduct of Major Anderson. He was not a Republican
himself, and he may very well have thought, if the Republican leaders
did not deny the right of secession, there was little use in his
sacrificing his small command in a feeble attempt to make South Carolina
remain in the Union.
The sky darkened after this, for Georgia voted a million of dollars to
raise troops, and it became evident that the other Southern States would
follow in the same direction.
By the 18th of November we considered ourselves reasonably secure
against a _coup-de-main_. Our guns were up, and loaded with canister,
and we had a fair supply of hand-grenades ready for use. With a view to
intimidate those who were planning an attack, I occasionally fired
toward the sea an eight-inch howitzer, loaded with double canister. The
spattering of so many balls in the water looked very destructive, and
startled and amazed the gaping crowds around. I also amused myself by
making some small mines, which would throw a shell a few feet out of the
ground whenever any person accidentally trod upon a concealed plank: of
course the shell did not have a bursting charge in it. These experiments
had a cooling effect upon the ardor of the militia, who did not fancy
storming the fort over a line of torpedoes.