I went to church at St Michael's, which is one of the oldest
churches in America, and is supposed to have been built a hundred and fifty
years ago. The Charlestonians are very proud of it, and I saw several monuments
of the time of the British dominion.
This morning I made the acquaintance of a Mr Sennec, an
officer in the Confederate States navy, who, with his wife and daughter, were
about to face the terrors and dangers of running the blockade, Mr Sennec having
got an appointment in Europe. The ladies told me they had, already made one
start, but after reaching the bar, the night was not considered propitious, so
they had returned. Mr Sennec is thinking of going to Wilmington, and running
from thence, as it is more secure than Charleston.
I dined at Mr Robertson's this evening, and met a very
agreeable party there — viz., two young ladies, who were extremely pretty,
General Beauregard, Captain Tucker of the Chicora, and Major Norris, the chief
of the secret intelligence bureau at Richmond.
I had a long conversation with General Beauregard, who said
he considered the question of ironclads versus forts as settled,
especially when the fire from the latter is plunging. If the other Monitors had
approached as close as the Keokuk, they would probably have shared her fate. He
thought that both flat-headed rifled 7-inch bolts and solid 10-inch balls
penetrated the ironclads when within 1200 yards. He agreed with General Ripley
that the 15-inch gun is rather a failure; it is so unwieldy that it can only be
fired very slowly, and the velocity of the ball is so small that it is very
difficult to strike a moving object. He told me that Fort Sumter was to be
covered by degrees with the long green moss which in this country hangs down
from the trees: he thinks that when this is pressed it will deaden the effect
of the shot without being inflammable; and he also said that, even if the walls
of Fort Sumter were battered down, the barbette battery would still remain,
supported on the piers.
The Federal frigate Ironsides took up her position, during
the attack, over 3000 lb. of powder, which was prevented from exploding owing
to some misfortune connected with the communicating wire. General Beauregard
and Captain Tucker both seemed to expect great things from a newly-invented and
extradiabolical torpedo-ram.
After dinner, Major Norris showed us a copy of a New York
illustrated newspaper of the same character as our “Punch.” In it the President
Davis and General Beauregard were depicted shoeless and in rags, contemplating
a pair of boots, which the latter suggested had better be eaten. This
caricature excited considerable amusement, especially when its merits were
discussed after Mr Robertson's excellent dinner.
General Beauregard told me he had been educated in the
North, and used to have many friends there, but that now he would sooner
submit to the Emperor of China than return to the Union.
Mr Walter Blake arrived soon after dinner; he had come up
from his plantation on the Combahee river on purpose to see me. He described
the results of the late Yankee raid up that river: forty armed negroes and a
few whites in a miserable steamer were able to destroy and burn an incalculable
amount of property, and carry off hundreds of negroes. Mr Blake got off very
cheap, having only lost twenty-four this time, but he only saved the remainder
by his own personal exertions and determination. He had now sent all his young
males two hundred miles into the interior for greater safety. He seemed to have
a very rough time of it, living all alone in that pestilential climate. A
neighbouring planter, Mr Lowndes, had lost 290 negroes, and a Mr Kirkland was
totally ruined.
At 7 P.M. Mr Blake and I called at the office of General Ripley,
to whom Mr Blake, notwithstanding that he is an Englishman of nearly sixty
years of age, had served as aide-de-camp during some of the former operations
against Charleston. General Ripley told us that shelling was still going on
vigorously between Morris and Folly Islands, the Yankees being assisted every
now and then by one or more of their gunboats. The General explained to us that
these light-draft armed vessels — river-gropers, as he called them — were
indefatigable at pushing up the numerous creeks, burning and devastating
everything. He said that when he became acquainted with the habits of one of
these “critturs,” he arranged an ambuscade for her, and with the assistance of “his
fancy Irishman” (Captain Mitchell), he captured her. This was the case with the
steamer Stono, a short time since, which, having been caught in this manner by
the army, was lost by the navy shortly afterwards off Sullivan's Island.
News has just been received that Commodore Foote is to
succeed Dupont in the command of the blockading squadron. Most of these
officers appeared to rejoice in this change, as they say Foote is younger, and
likely to show more sport than the venerable Dupont.
SOURCE: Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle, Three
Months in the Southern States: April-June, 1863, p. 200-3
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