the shell of Sumter were thickly falling around them in the darkness, and,
as prisoners, they could not be safe until victory, decisive and unques-
tioned, rested with one or the other belligerent. It was a retreat of untold
horrours. Men rolled in the ditch, or dragged their bloody bodies through
the sand-hills, on their hands and knees. About midnight there was
silence at last ; the battle was over ; the ocean beach was crowded with
the dead, the dying, and the wounded. The loss of the enemy was severe
— fifteen hundred and fifty killed and wounded, according to his own
statement, which must have been below the truth, as the Confederates
buried six hundred of his dead left on the field. Their own loss was not
more than one hundred in killed and wounded.

After this second successful defence of Fort Wagner the remainder of
the month of July, and the early part of August, were employed by the
enemy in erecting siege-works, and mounting heavy siege-guns, prej^aratory
to the bombardment of Fort Sumter, as it was found that Fort Wagner did
not interfere with the engineer corps at work. Meanwhile Gen. Beauregard
and the Mayor of Charleston issued another urgent appeal to the landed pro-
prietors and others to send in their negroes to work on the fortifications ;
and the Governor of the State made an even stronger appeal. There was,
however, much indifi'erence shown in promptly responding ; and though an
act of the Legislature had been passed involving a penalty on refusal, many of
the planters preferred paying it to allowing their negroes to be so employed.
28



434: THE LOST CAUSE.

13ut to tlie desultory operations on Fort Wagner a remarkable episode
was to take j)laee. Gen. Gillmore flattered liimself that he had discovered
the precise point where to establish a battery from which he would be able
to batter down the forts in the harbour and even the city of Charleston.
It was said that he had at his disposal pieces whose range and effects sur-
passed all conception ; and Northern newspapers were filled with the story
of a new discovery called " the Greek Fire," which was to be poured
upon Charleston, and consume " the cradle of secession." The prospect of
what such devilish agents of destruction might accomplish was pleasing to
many of the Northern people ; it was annouucedthatGillmore was experi-
menting in liquid fire, that he had made a new style of bombs, and many
other pyrotechnic inventions, and that he might soon be expected to " roll
his fire-shells through the streets of Charleston."

The point whence such work was to be accomplished, and where Gill-
more thought to discover the vitals of Charleston, was nearly midway be-
tween Morris and James Islands, seven thousand yards distant from the
lower end of Charleston city. Here, on the marsh-mud — where a crab
might crawl, but where a man would sink in a few minutes to the depth
of twenty-five feet — there was prepared a plan of a battery for one 8-inch
Parrott rifle (300-pounder). It was a siugular achievement of labour and
skill. The work had to be done under cover of darkness, and it was neces-
sary to hide the pieces of wood during the day with grass and sea- weed.
In the night-time piles were driven in the mud-shoa. which separated the
two islands ; fifteen thousand bags of sand, about one hundred and ten
pounds each, were brought in the vessels to make a terre-plein and a para-
pet. The work was executed in fourteen nights, from the 2d till the 18tli
of Aagust. After breaking, by its great weight, several trucks, the mon-
ster gun was finally hauled up, and placed in position, and Charleston,
four miles and a half away, little dreamed that the " Sioamp Angel " * —

* The following effusion of a Northern writer gives an explanation of this name, in which blas-
phemy and devilish hate are united. The poetry reads like the exultation of a fiend.

The " Swamp Angel" hears the traitor boasting of security, and sends forth its dreadful warn-
mg that " nowhere in these United States are traitors safe from the avenging wrath of the R*
public."

" Flaunting, and boasting, and brisk, and gay,
The streets of the city ^ine to-day.
Forts without, our army within.
To think of surrender were deadly sin ;
For the foe far over the wave abide,
And no guns can reach o'er the flowing tide.
They can't ? Through the air, with a rush and a yell,
Come the screech and the roar of the howling shell ;
And the populous city is still alive
With the bees that are leaving the ancient hive ;
And the market-places are waste and bare.
And the smoke hangs thick in the poisoned air ;
And the ruins alone shall remain to tell
Where the hynm of destruction was sung by the Bheli."



GILLMOKE's attempt to fire CnARLESTOiSr. 435

as this new agent of destruction was called — was looking into her
streets.

On the 21st August, Gen. Gillmore addressed to Gen. Beauregard a
demand for the evacuation of Morris Island and Fort Sumter, and threat-
ening, if not complied with, "in less than four hours, a fire would be
opened on the city of Charleston, from batteries already established within
easy and effective reach of the heart of the city."

The reply of Gen. Beauregard was memorable. lie wrote, in a letter ad
dressed to Gillmore : " It would appear, sir, that despairing of reducing these
works, you now resort to the novel means of turning your guns against the
old men, the women and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping city ; an
act of inexcusable barbarity, from your own confessed point of view, inas-
much as you allege that the complete demolition of Fort Sumter within a
few hours by your guns seems to you a matter of certainty ; and your
omission to attach your signature to such a grave paper, must show the
recklessness of the course upon which you have adventured, while the fact
that you knowingly fixed a limit for receiving an answer to your demand,
which made it almost beyond the possibility of receiving any reply within
that time, and that you actually did open fire and threw a number of the
most destructive missiles ever used in war into the midst of a city taken
unawares, and filled with sleeping women and children, will give you a
bad eminence in history — even in the history of this war."

If the enemy's execution had equalled his desire, there is no doubt that
the city of Charleston would have been reduced to ruins and ashes ; women
and children murdered indiscriminately ; and an outrage committed that
would have shocked, the sensibilities of the WQrld. But happily Gen. Gill-
more was not able to do what he threatened, ^and what that cowardly hate
in the North, whose invocation against the South was, " Kill all the inliab-
itants," waited for him to accomplish. The attempted bombardment of
Charleston was a failure. Some few missiles from the Federal batteries
on Morris Island reached the city. Twelve 8-incli shells fell in the streets ;
several flew in the direction of St. Michaers steeple ; but fortunately no
one was injured. The " Swamp Angel" fired only a few shots. At the
thirty-sixth discharge the piece burst, blowing out the entire breech in
rear of the vent. No guns were placed in the Marsh Battery after this ;
the " Greek Fire " proved a humbug ; and firing upon the city was not
resumed until after all of Morris Island came into the enemy's possession.

The formidable strength of Fort Wagner, as developed in the unsuccess-
ful assault of the 18th July, induced Gen. Gillmore to modify his plan of
operations, and while pressing the siege of Fort Wagner by regular ap-
proaches, to turn his fire over the heads of both this work and Fort Gregg
upon the walls of Sumter. It was thus determined to attempt the demoli-
tion of Fort Sumter from ground already in the enemy's possession, so that



436 THE LOST CAUSE.

the iron-clad fleet could, with as little delay as possible, enter upon the ex
edition of their part of the joint programme. The early elimination of thia
famous fort from the conflict, considered simply as auxiliary to the reduc-
tion of Fort Wagner, was greatly to he desired, and elaborate arrangemer. ts
were at once commenced to place the breaching guns in position.

On the ISth August, Gillmore opened heavily against the east face c(
Fort Sumter from his land batteries enfilading it. The cannonade waa
continued throughout the day, nine hundred and forty-three shots being
fired. The efiect was to batter the eastern face heavily, doing consider-
able damage, and to disable one ten-inch gun and a rifled forty-two
pounder. On the 22d the enemy threw six hundred and four shots at the
fort, disabling some of the barbette guns, demolishing the arches of the
northwest face, and scaling the eastern face severely. The next day the
fire from the enemy's land batteries was kept up on Sumter, disabling the
only ten-inch columbiad that remained, and the three rifled forty-two-
pounders in the northern salient of the second tier. The eastern face Avas
badly scaled, and the parapet seriously injured.

On the 24th August Gen. Gillmore reported to Washington " the prac-
tical demolition of Fort Sumter as the result of our seven days' bombard-
ment of that work." The assertion was insolent and absurd. Fort Snm-
ter had, indeed, been severely injured ; but it was in one respect stronger
than ever ; for the battering down of the upper walls had rendered the
casemated base impregnable, and the immense volume of stone and debris
which protected it, was not at all afiected by the enemy's artillery. Al-
though apparently a heap of ruins, it still afl:brded shelter to the Confed-
erate heroes, who raised the standard of the South each time it was beaten
down ; and it was still protected by the batteries of Fort Wagner, which
the Federals had vainly endeavoured to carry by assault. Gen. Gillmore
must, at all hazard, overcome this obstacle. He opened the trenches by
means of the rolling sap, making work enough for a company of miners.
Five parallels Avere established in succession, and two batteries were con-
structed, with handages, under fire of James and Sullivan's Islands. From
this moment Fort Wagner received more fire than she could return ; solid
shot and shells fell right and left ; no living soul could remain upon the
parapets ; everything was shattered in pieces ; the arches of the casemates
commenced to crumble in, and to crush the defenders who had sought
refuge there.

For two days and nights the fort had been subjected to the most terrific
fire that any earthwork had undergone in all the annals of warfare. All
the light mortars of the enemy were moved to the front, and placed in bat-
tery ; the rifled guns were trained upon the fort ; and powerful calcium
lights aided the night work of the cannoniers and sharpshooters and
blinded the Confederates. It was a S3ene of surpassing grandeur. Tlie



FEDERAL OCCUPATION OF aiORKIS ISLAND. 437

calcium lights turned night into day, and brought the minutest details of
the fort into sharp relief. For forty-two consecutive hours, seventeen
siege and coehorn mortars unceasingly dropped their shells into the work^
while thirteen heavy Parrott rifles — 100, 200, and 300-pounders — pounded
away at short though regular intervals. Peal on peal of artillery rolled
over the waters ; a semi-circle of the horizon was lit up ; an autumnal
moon hung in the misty sky ; and ear and eye were alike appealed to
with emotions of sublimity and grandeur. The shock of the rapid dis-
charges trembled through the city, calling hundreds of citizens to the bat-
tery, wharves, steeples, and various look-outs, where, with an interest never
felt before, they gazed on a contest that might decide the fate of Charles-
ton itself.

On the night of the 6tli September, Gen. Gillmore ordered an assault
on Fort Wagner at the hour of low tide on the following morning. The
assault was to be made in three columns. About midnight a deserter re-
ported to him that the Confederates were evacuating the island. The work
of evacuation had commenced at nine o'clock that night, and was already
concluded. All the garrison had got oif upon the Chicora, an iron-clad
gunboat of the Confederates, and fourteen barges. Fort Gregg had been
equally abandoned. Morris Island was thus the prize of the enemy, who
now possessed themselves of Cuiiiming's Point, from which they could
plainly see Charleston at a distance of four miles.

The Northern public at once jumped to the conclusion that Gillmore
had the key of Charleston, and had at last oj^ened the gate to the Monitors
and iron-clads, which, at leisure, might ascend the harbour. Gillmore him-
self insisted that he had done his part of the work ; that " Fort Sumter
was a shapeless and harmless mass of ruins ; " and he indicated that it
only remained for Admiral Dahlgren, with his fleet, to enter upon the
scene, and accomplish the reduction of Charleston. But from this view
the Federal admiral dissented ; he indicated that Gen. Beauregard had
accomplished a new object by his long retention of Morris Island ; that, in
fact, he had replaced Sumter by an interiour position, had obtained time
to convert Fort Johnson from a forlorn old fort into a powerful earthwork,
and had given another illustration of that new system of defence practised
at Comorn and Sebastapol, where, instead of being any one key to a plan
of fortification, there was the necessity of a siege for every battery, in
which the besiegers were always exposed to the fire of others. lie was
unwilling, too, to risk the destructive defences and infernal machines with
which the passes were blockaded. The Confederates had given out that
by no possibility could one of the gunboats escape these, and Dahlgren's
equadron of iron-clads and IMonitors did not dare venture far up the har-
bour past Fort Ripley and within range of the immediate defences of the city.

Gillmore claimed that he had reduced Fort Sumter; but the Confed-



438 THE LOST CAUSE.

erate flag still floated over it. It had been held through the siege and can
nonadeby the First South Carolina Artillery, under Col, Alfred Ehett, until
its armament had been disabled ; and the services of the artillerymen being
elsewhere required, Gen. Beauregard determined that it sliould be held by
infantry. On the night of the 4th September, the Charleston Battalion,
under Maj, Blake, relieved the garrison ; Maj, Stephen Elliot relieving
Col. Rhett in command of the post. On the 7th of September, Admiral
Dahlgren, determined to test Gillmore's assertion that Sumter was a
" harmless mass of ruins," summoned the fort to surrender. Gen. Beaure-
gard telegraphed to Maj. Elliot to reply to Dahlgren that he could have
Fort Sumter when he took it and held it, and that in the mean time such
demands were puerile and unbecoming.

In the evening of the Tth September, the iron-clads and Monitors ap-
proached Fort Sumter closer than usual, and opened a hot fire against it.
In the night of the 9th September thirty of the launches of the enemy at-
tacked Fort Sumter. Preparations had been made for the event. At a
concerted signal, all the batteries bearing on Sumter assisted by one gunboat
and a ram, were thrown open. The enemy was repulsed, leaving in our
hands one hundred and thirteen prisoners, including thirteen officers.
There were also taken four boats and three colours, and the original flag
of Fort Sumter, which Maj. Anderson -was compelled to lower in 18G1,
and which Dahlgren had hoped to replace.

After this repulse of the Federals in their last attack upon Fort Sum-
ter, but little more was done during the year by the enemy, except
bombarding the forts and shelling Charleston at intervals during day and
night, until this became so customary that it no longer excited dismay or
was an occasion of alarm to even women and children. The city was in-
tact and safe ; Gillmore had expended many thousand lives and thrown
shell enough to build several iron-clads to obtain a position that proved
worthless ; Admiral Dahlgren feared the destruction of a fleet which had
cost so much sacrifice, and refused to ascend the harbour ; and the demon-
stration upon Charleston degenerated into the desultory record of a fruit-
less bombardment. The Northern public appeared to sicken of the experi-
ment of Farrott guns and monster artillery, and read with disgust the daily
bulletins of how many hundred useless shots had been fired, and of how
much ammunition had been grandly expended in a great noise to little pur-
]>ose. " How many times," asked an indignant Philadelphia paper, " has
Fort Sumter been taken ? How many times has Charleston been burned ?
How often have the people been on the eve of starvation and surrender ?
How many times has the famous Greek Fire poured the rain of Sodom
and the flames of hell upon the secession city ? We cannot keep the count
— but those can w^ho rang the bells and put out the flags, and invoked tho
imprecations, and rejoiced at the story of conflagration and ruin."



CIIAPTEK XXVII.

eiK. JOSEPH E. JOnXSTON's PEOPnECT OF THE FATE OF TENNESSEE. — CHARACTER AND EXTBA-

Or.DINARY FORESIGHT OF THIS COMMANDER. ROW TENNESSEE WAS SACRIFICED TO THE

ATTEMPTED DEFENCE OF VICKSBIIRG. BEAGg's ARMY FLANKED AT HOOVEr's GAP. IT

COMMENCES A RETREAT TO CnATTANOOGA. EXPEDITION OF JOnN MORGAN. HOW IT AF-
FECTED THE "WESTERN CAMPAIGN AND EMBARRASSED BURNSIDE. MORGAN'S CIRCUIT

THROUGH KENTUCKY, INDIANA, AND OHIO. WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED. HIS ANXIETY FOB

EETREAT. — CUT OFF ON THE OHIO RIVER. — TERRIBLE SCENES IN THE ATTEMPT TO SWIM
THE BIVER. — CAPTURE OF MORGAN AND THE BULK OF HIS COMMAND. — CRUEL AND INFA-
MOUS TREATMENT OF THE DISTINGUISHED CAPTIVE AND HIS OFFICERS, SUEBENDEE OP

CUMBERLAND GAP. PRESIDENT DAVIs' COMMENTARY ON THIS EVENT, — RECOIL OF SERIOUS

CHARGES UPON THE RICHMOND ADMINISTRATION. BUENSIDe's INVASION OF EAST TENNES-
SEE. GEN. FRAZIEE IN COMMAND AT CUMBERLAND GAP. — HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITU

GEN. BUCKNER. — THE DEFENCES OF THE GAP IMPERFECT. — INSUFFICIENCY OF THE GARRI-
SON. WHY GEN. FRAZIEE SURRENDERED IT. — TWO LINES OF OPERATIONS NOW OPENED

AGAINST CHATTANOOGA. — THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. — TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUN-
TRY ABOUND CHATTANOOGA. — MOVEMENTS OF EOSECEANS. — HE THREATENS A FLANK
MOVEMENT TOWARDS EOME. — THE CONFEDEBATES EVACUATE CHATTANOOGA. — BBAGG's
NEW LINE FROM LEe's AND GOEDOn's MILLS TO LAFAYETTE. — LONGSTEEET's CORPS ON THE
WAY FROM VIRGINIA TO EEINFOECE HIM. — EOSECEANS PURSUES THE CONFEDERATES, AND
EXPOSES HIMSELF IN DETAIL. — THE LOST OPPORTUNITY IN m'lEMOEE's COVE. — LINES OF
EOSECRANS' ADVANCE, — BRAGG RESOLVES TO ADVANCE AND ATTACK HIM. — ARRIVAL OF

LONGSTEEET WITH FIVE BRIGADES. THE ENEMY ANTICIPATES A FLANK MOVEMENT BY

BRAGG, — A SEVEBE ENCOUNTEB, — CLEBUENE's GALLANT CHAEGE.— THE CONFEDERATE PLAN

OF BATTLE FOE THE NEXT DAY. — GEN POLK TO OPEN THE ACTION. A STRANGE DELAY.

A SINGULAR BEEAKFAST SCENE. — GEN. BEAGG FUEIOUS. — THE CONFEDEEATE EIGHT AVING

BEATEN BACK. CRITICAL CONDITION OF THE FIELD. LONGSTREEt's ATTACK, — HE SAVES

THE DAY. — THE ENEMY UTTEELY EOUTED. — CHICKAMAUGA A BEILLIANT BUT UNPEO-
DCCTIVE VICTORY.

There was no Confederate commander so remarlvable for long foresight
and for tlie most exact fulfilment of prophetic words as Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston. He was more profound than Lee ; his mind, could range over
larger fields ; at al] times of the war liis cool, sedate judgments were so in
opposition to the intoxicated senses of the Confederate people, that he was



4:40 THE LOST CAUSE.

rather unpopular tlian otherwise, and rested his reputation on the apprecia-
tive and intelligent, who steadily marked him as the military genius of the
Confederacy. It remained for the sequel to justify the reputation of this
greatest military man in the Confederacy, who, cooler even than Lee him-
self, without ardour, made up almost exclusively of intellect, saw more
clearly than any other single person each approaching shadow of the war,
and prophesied, with calm courage, against the madness of the Administra-
tion at Richmond and the extravagant vanity of the people.

"When the Yickshurg campaign was decided upon at Kichmond, Gen.
Johnston then warned the authorities there that they should make choice
between Mississippi and Tennessee ; and in urging the retention of the
latter State, he declared, with singular felicity of expression, that it was
" the shield of the South." In six weeks after the battle of Murfreesboro,
our army in Tennessee was as strong as when it fought that battle, and,
with ordinary generalship, might have driven Eosecrans from the State.
But when Stevenson's division was sent to the lines of the Mississippi,
Johnston saw the errour ; he sent to Richmond a protest against it, which
he thought of such historical importance as to duplicate and to copy care-
fully among his private memoranda ; and he then predicted that the Rich-
mond Administration, in trying to hold the Mississippi River and Ten-
nessee, would lose both, and that the enemy, once pressing the northern
frontier of Georgia, would obtain a position that would eventually prove
the critical one of the war.

With his forces reduced for the defence of Yicksburg, Gen. Bragg in-
sisted upon regarding his army in Tennessee as one merely of observation.
Rosecrans was in his front, and Burnside, who commanded what was
called the Army of the Cumberland, was in a position, by an advance to-
wards Knoxville, to threaten his rear. In July, Gen. Bragg occupied a
ridge extending from Bellbuckle towards Bradyville, very strong by na-
ture on the right and made strong by fortifications on the left, in front of
Shelbyville. An injudicious disposition of forces left Hoover's Gap unde-
fended by our army. Rosecrans advanced upon Hoover's Gap. Three
brigades of Confederates moved rapidly up, and held them in the Gap over
forty hours. This position gained placed Rosecrans on Bragg's flank,
who, to save his army, commenced a retreat, which was eventually con-
tinued to Chattanooga.



EXPEDITION OF JOHN MOKGAN".

As part of the general plan of action in the West, and an important
contribution to the success of Gen. Bragg's retreat, we must notice here a
remarkable expedition of the famous cavalier, Gen. John Morgan, tho



EXPEDITION OF JOHN MORGAN. 441

effect of which, although its immediate event was disaster, was to create
an important diversion of Buraside's army, large detachments of which
were drawn after Morgan into and through Kentucky, and to prevent that
Federal commander from getting in rear of Bragg's army at the time it
was menaced in front by Rosccrans, at Shelbyville.

In the latter part of the month of June the command of Gen. Morgan,
consisting of detachments from two brigades, and numbering nearly three
thousand men, approached the banks of the Cumberland. The jiassage
of the river was weakly contested by three Ohio regiments, which had ad-
vanced from Somerset, Kentucky. Gen. Morgan was obliged to build a
number of boats, and commenced crossing the river on the 1st July. By
ten o'clock next morning his whole regiment was over the river ; the ad-
vance proceeding to Columbia, where, after a brief engagement, the enemy
was driven through the town.

Passing through Columbia, Gen. Morgan proceeded towards Green River
Bridge, and attacked the enemy's stockade there with two regiments, send-
ing the remainder of his force across at another ford. The jilace was judi-
ciously chosen and skilfully defended ; and the result was that the Confed-
erates were repulsed with severe loss — about twenty-five killed and twenty
wounded.

At sunrise on the 4th July, Gen. Morgan moved on Lebanon. The
Federal commander here — Col. Hanson — made a desperate resistance ;
placing his forces in the depot and in various houses, and only surrender-
ing after the Confederates had fired the buildings in which he was posted.
About six hundred prisoners were taken here, and a sufiicient quantity of
guns to arm all of Morgan's men who were without them.

Rapid marches brought Morgan to Bradensburg on the 7th July ; and
the next day he crossed the Ohio, keeping in check two gunboats, and dis-
persing a force of militia posted with artillery on the Indiana shore. When
the pursuing column of the enemy, which had increased now to seven
regiments and two pieces of artillery, reached the banks of the river, it
was to find the passenger boat on which Gen. Morgan had effected a cross-
ing in flames, and to see far back on the opposite shore the rear-guard of
his force rapidly disappearing in the distance.

On the 9th July Morgan marched on to Corydon, fighting near four