All the guns of
Fort Sumter on the south face have been silenced by the land batteries of the
enemy on Morris Island; and this account is two days old. What has taken place
since, none here but Gen. Cooper and the President know. But our battery, Wagner,
dismounted one of the enemy's Parrott guns and blew up two magazines. It is
rumored to-day that Sumter has been abandoned and blown up; also that 20,000 of
Grant's men have been ordered to New York to quell a new émeute. Neither of these rumors are credited,
however, by reflecting men. But they may be true, nevertheless.
Passengers from
Bermuda say two monster guns were on the steamer, and were landed at Wilmington
a few days ago, weighing each twenty-two tons; carriages, sixty tons; the
balls, 15 inches in diameter, length not stated, weighing 700 pounds; the
shells, not filled, weigh 480 pounds; and 40 pounds of powder are used at each
discharge. They say these guns can be fired with accuracy and with immense
effect seven miles. I wonder if the President will send them to Charleston?
They might save the city.
The balls fired by
the enemy are eight inches in diameter, and two feet in length; 2000 of these,
solid and filled, have struck the southern face of Sumter.
It is now
positively asserted that Morgan's head was shaved, when they put him in the
penitentiary.
Night before last
all the clerks in the city post-office resigned, because the government did not
give them salaries sufficient to subsist them. As yet their places have not
been filled, and the government gets no letters — some of which lying in the
office may be of such importance as to involve the safety or ruin of the
government. To-morrow is Sunday, and of course the mails will not be attended
to before Monday — the letters lying here four days unopened! This really looks
as if we had no Postmaster-General.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
21-2
