From the Charleston Mercury

DAILY PAPER—TEN DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE HALF-YEARLY IN ADVANCE. VOLUME LV. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION: DAILY MERCURY, yearly, prepaid, $10. TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, yearly, prepaid, $5. CLUBS WILL BE FURNISHED AS FOLLOWS: Five Copies of the DAILY for $40; Five Copies of the TRI-WEEKLY, $20. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. The name of no person out of Charleston will be entered on our books until the payment of the subscription be made in advance.

Volume LV, the morning after secession.

Inscribed among the calends of the world—memorable in time to come—the 20th day of December, in the year of our Lord 1860, has become an epoch in the history of the human race. A great Confederated Republic, overwrought with arrogant and tyrannous oppressions, has fallen from its high estate amongst the nations of the earth.—Conservative liberty has been vindicated. Mobocratic license has been stricken down. Order has conquered, yet liberty has survived. Right has raised his banner aloft, and bidden defiance to Might. The problem of self-government under the check-balance of slavery, has secured itself from threatened destruction.

South Carolina has resumed her entire sovereign powers, and, unshackled, has become one of the nations of the earth.

On yesterday, the 20th December, 1860, just before one o’clock, p. m., the Ordinance of Secession was presented by the Committee on “the Ordinance,” to the Convention of the people of South Carolina. Precisely at seven minutes after one o’clock, the vote was taken upon the Ordinance—each man’s name being called in order. As name by name fell upon the ear of the silent assembly, the brief sound was echoed back, without one solitary exception in that whole grave body—Aye!

At 1.15 o’clock, p. m., the last name was called, the Ordinance of Secession was announced to have been passed, and the last fetter had fallen from the limbs of a brave, but too long oppressed people.

The Convention sat with closed doors. But upon the announcement outside, and upon the Mercury bulletin board, that South Carolina was no longer a member of the Federal Union, loud shouts of joy rent the air. The enthusiasm was unsurpassed. Old men went shouting down the streets. Cannon were fired, and bright triumph was depicted on every countenance.

Secession reported from inside the room, to the minute — presented just before one, voted at seven minutes past, carried at a quarter past. The crowd learned it from the Mercury’s own bulletin board in the street. And the paper states its cause without euphemism in the first paragraph: “The problem of self-government under the check-balance of slavery, has secured itself from threatened destruction.”

The Daily Mercury IS PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. (SUNDAYS EXCEPTED.) The Tri-Weekly Mercury ON TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS AND SATURDAYS. OFFICE, No. 4 BROAD-STREET, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. TERMS: CASH IN ADVANCE. DAILY MERCURY, for one year, $10.00; for six months, 5.00; for three months, 2.50; for less than three months, $1 per month. TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, for one year, $5.00; for six months, 2.50; for three months, 1.25; for less than three months, 50c. a month. FROM THIS DATE, no subscriptions out of the city will be received unless accompanied with the cash.

Volume LVI, No. 4 Broad Street, ten dollars a year. The note about cash in advance was printed on the morning the war began.

We stated yesterday that on Thursday, at three o’clock, p. m., General Beauregard had made a demand upon Major Anderson for the evacuation of Fort Sumter through his Aids, Colonel Chesnut, Captain Lee, and Colonel Chisholm, and that Major Anderson had regretfully declined, under the circumstances of his position. It was, however, understood that unless reinforced he would necessarily yield the post in a few days—say by the fifteenth. An effort was, therefore, made to avoid an engagement, without incurring greater risk of reinforcement.

At one and a half, a. m., Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee reached Fort Sumter from General Beauregard, and, we gather, were prepared to enter into any arrangement for non action as to Fort Sumter, if no assistance were given to the efforts of reinforcement; but postponement merely to mature hostile plans was impossible. No satisfactory agreement being proposed, and time being important, at three and a half o’clock a. m., Major Anderson was notified that, at the expiration of an hour, the batteries would open their fire upon him.

The Aids then passed thence in a boat to Fort Johnson, and Col. Chesnut ordered the fire to begin. Precisely at four and a half o’clock a shell was fired from the signal battery on James’ Island, which, making a beautiful curve, burst immediately above Fort Sumter. Within fifteen minutes all the Carolina batteries were in full play. The inhabitants of Charleston forthwith thronged to the East Bay Battery and other points of observation, and excitement prevailed through the day amid various and stirring rumors put afloat from time to time.

The first shot of the Civil War, reported in Charleston the next morning by the paper that had done most to bring it on. The signal shell from Fort Johnson “making a beautiful curve” is the Mercury’s phrase.

BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER! Splendid Pyrotechnic Exhibition. FORT MOULTRIE IMPREGNABLE. THE FLOATING BATTERY AND Stevens’ Battery a Success. “Nobody Hurt” on Our Side. ETC., ETC., ETC.

As may have been anticipated from our notice of the military movements in our city yesterday, the bombardment of Fort Sumter, so long and anxiously expected, has at length become a fact accomplished. The restless activity of the night before was gradually worn down, the citizens who had thronged the battery through the night, anxious and weary, had sought their homes, the Mounted Guard which had kept watch and ward over the city, with the first grey streak of morning were preparing to retire, when two guns in quick succession from Fort Johnson announced the opening of the drama.

Upon that signal, the circle of batteries with which the grim fortress of Fort Sumter is beleaguered opened fire. The outline of this great volcanic crater was illuminated with a line of twinkling lights; the clustering shells illuminated the sky above it; the balls clattered thick as hail upon its sides; our citizens, aroused to a forgetfulness of their fatigue through many weary hours, rushed again to the points of observation; and so, at the break of day, amidst the bursting of bombs, and the roaring of ordnance, and before thousands of spectators, whose homes, and liberties, and lives were at stake, was enacted this first great scene.

The headline stack alone tells you how Charleston understood the day: a pyrotechnic exhibition, nobody hurt on our side. Two men would die four days later, in the salute at the surrender.

Throughout the whole of Friday night the various mortar batteries continued their iron rain upon Fort Sumter. At an early hour on Saturday morning the gun batteries, which had been silent during the darkness of the night, reopened their fire. About seven o’clock Fort Sumter vigorously returned their compliments. The Cumming’s Point Batteries were uninjured by any shots which had been fired against them, had not effected anything like a breach, although battering considerably and to the depth of a foot, the pancoupee on the southeast corner. Major Anderson devoted his attention to the Sullivan’s Island batteries, Fort Moultrie especially, and the Floating Battery. Forty rounds of hot shot were poured into him from Fort Moultrie, and this fire was returned by a rapid and heavy cannonade…

…that, had they been allowed to use their hundred and twenty-eight four pounders in barbette, bearing upon the iron battery, they might have destroyed it. The accurate fire of the rifle cannon was very annoying, and materially assisted in the defence of Morris Island, and in battering the southeast wall.

The Battle of Fort Sumter is a marvellous affair in the bloodlessness of an engagement of thirty-two hours and a half. It is surely the merciful finger of God. But to no human agencies engaged in the business is greater praise due than to those who conceived and planned our defences, and who have erected them in so faithful and substantial a manner. To these causes—the admirable efficiency of our defensive preparations, and the handsome manner in which the guns have been used to annoy and cripple the enemy—is the wonderful, unprecedented result due.

We have not, and do not pretend to do justice to the officers and men engaged in the combat. We feel our incompetence to do so…

Written before anyone in Charleston knew that the surrender would kill two men after all. Private Daniel Hough was killed and Private Edward Galloway mortally wounded the next day, when a gun burst during Anderson’s hundred-gun salute to the flag he was hauling down — the first deaths of the war, after the shooting had stopped.

…replied, that “they were still firing.” … “take your flag down,” said Col. Wigfall … “will continue to fire upon you so long as it is up.” And further intercourse, ending in the surrender of the fort, upon terms arranged by Major Jones, of General Beauregard’s staff … The boat, which had put off from Charleston, had returned … with Col. Wigfall, they all came over … and thus was inaugurated the closing scene of the military drama.

In the afternoon Major Jones, and Manning, with other officers … of the Fire Department and the … Company, went down to Fort Sumter … details were concluded.

Louis Wigfall had rowed out to Fort Sumter on his own authority, with no orders from Beauregard, and talked Anderson into terms. The Mercury’s copy is broken here by the fold and the column edge; what survives is the exchange over the flag.

DAILY PAPER—TEN DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE HALF-YEARLY IN ADVANCE.

The pre-siege price, printed under the title. By November 1864 the same paper wanted twenty dollars for six months.

RICHMOND, December 12.—Unusual interest and sympathy is exhibited here, in the suffering among the people of Charleston, by the great fire of which we received news to-day. Congress transacted no business in open session. There is nothing of interest from the camps.

The fire had begun on the evening of the 11th and burned a swathe clean across the peninsula. The Confederate Congress adjourned for it.

TERMS, cash in advance. Notes of all solvent Southern Banks and Confederate Treasury Notes received in payment of dues. THE DAILY MERCURY, five cents per copy, $10 per annum. THE TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, five cents per copy, $5 per annum. ADVERTISING RATES—One square of 13 lines or under, 65 cents each insertion. Each additional line 5 cents.

Still ten dollars a year in May 1862, and the paper still taking the notes of “all solvent Southern Banks.”

Yesterday, at daylight, the steamer Planter, in the absence of her officers, was taken by four or five of her colored crew from her berth at Southern Wharf, to the enemy’s fleet. She is a high pressure cotton boat, of light draught, formerly plying on the Pee Dee river, but latterly chartered by the Government, with her officers and crew, from Mr. Ferguson, her owner, and used as a transport and guard boat about the harbor of Charleston. Her armament was a 32-pounder and a 24-pound howitzer. The evening previous she had taken aboard four guns for one of the newly erected works, either that on Morris Island or Fort Timber, viz: a 42-pounder rifled and banded, an 8-inch columbiad, both of which had been struck at the reduction of Fort Sumter, an 8-inch seacoast howitzer and a 32-pounder…

…Three sentinels were stationed in sight of her, and a detail of twenty men were within hail for the relief of the post. Between half-past three and four o’clock the Planter steamed up and cast loose, the sentinels having no suspicion of foul play, and thinking she was going about her business. At quarter-past four o’clock she passed Fort Sumter, blowing her whistle, and plainly seen. She was reported by the Corporal of the Guard as the guard boat, to the Officer of the Day, Captain Flemming, one of the best and most reliable officers of the garrison. The fort is only called on to recognize authorized boats passing, taking for granted that they have their officers aboard. This was done as usual. The run to Morris Island goes a long way out past the fort, and then turns. The Planter on this trip did not turn.

The officers of the Planter were Relyea Captain, Smith Mate, and Pitcher Engineer. They have been arrested, and will, we learn, be tried by court-martial for disobedience of a standing general order, that the officers and crews of all light-draught steamers in the employment of the Government will remain on board day and night.

The result of this negligence may be only the loss of the guns and of the boat, desirable for transportation. But things of this kind are sometimes of incalculable injury. The lives and property of this whole community are at stake, and might be jeopardized by events apparently as trifling as this. It is, therefore, due to the Service and to the Cause, that this breach of discipline, however innocent in intention on the part of the officers, should be dealt with as it deserves. Without strict discipline, no military operations can succeed.

Robert Smalls is not named. He is “four or five of her colored crew,” and the paper’s anger is reserved entirely for the three white officers who had gone ashore for the night — Relyea, Smith and Pitcher, arrested and facing court-martial. The detail the Mercury cannot help supplying is the one that makes the escape: the Planter blew her whistle passing Fort Sumter, was seen plainly, was logged as the guard boat, and simply did not turn.

Martial Law went into force in Charleston yesterday. Squads of the Provost Marshal’s Guard were to be seen here and there in the more public portions of the city… in military or semi-military costume…

Martial law came into force in Charleston on the very day Robert Smalls took the Planter out — 13 May 1862.

Provost Marshal’s Office, Second Military District, S. C., Charleston, 12th May, 1862. The following regulations are, under the direction of Brigadier General R. S. Ripley, Commanding the Second Military District, established by the Provost Marshal under the Proclamation of Major-General J. C. Pemberton, Commanding the Department of South Carolina and Georgia, establishing Martial Law in and over the City of Charleston, and ten miles on all sides beyond the corporate limits thereof, and over the Islands adjacent thereto:

I. During the suspension of all civil jurisdiction, announced in the Proclamation of the Major-General Commanding, with the exceptions therein contained, or which may hereafter be announced, a Provost Marshal’s Court is established, which will take cognizance of the offences heretofore within the jurisdiction of the Court of General Sessions, as well as of all offences against good order, or other violations of Martial Law within the above precincts.

II. The Provost Marshal’s Court will be presided over by an Assistant Provost Marshal, his decisions to be supervised and approved by the Provost Marshal, who may also, in his discretion, refer any offence to a Court Martial.

The ordinary courts of Charleston were suspended and a Provost Marshal’s Court put in their place, over the city and ten miles beyond it in every direction.

We earnestly request the Adjutants of regiments, which may be engaged with the enemy in this neighborhood, to forward to us, as early as possible after every fight, the lists of casualties in the commands to which they are attached, together with any other information, by the publication of which the painful suspense of their families may, in a measure, be relieved.

Standing at the head of the column on the morning after Secessionville. This is why the casualty lists in the Mercury are so full, and why they are often the only surviving record of a man’s wound.

A little before noon, yesterday, our city was thrown into a state of feverish excitement by the vague tidings that there had been bloody work at Secessionville, on James’ Island. From the first, the news was of an encouraging character, inasmuch as we were assured that a mere handfull of our brave troops had repulsed a heavy column of the enemy, thrown forward to assault the battery at Secessionville, manned by a portion of Colonel Lamar’s Regiment of Artillery, S. C. V. From the various accounts which we have received, we have collated the following facts in relation to the battle:

THE ADVANCE OF THE ENEMY. About dawn yesterday morning our pickets in front of Lamar’s battery were driven in, and almost simultaneously, the enemy’s column was seen some four hundred yards off, advancing with the bayonet, at double quick, to the assault. Our troops, within the battery, had been hard at work the evening before in throwing up another battery, and were almost worn out with fatigue. The first round that was fired at the Yankees was by Col. T. G. Lamar himself. His men hastened with alacrity to their pieces, and were soon pouring grape and canister against the rapidly approaching enemy. At each discharge great gaps were visible in the Yankee ranks, but still they came on, without firing a single volley. It was afterwards ascertained that their muskets were empty, and that they had actually hoped to carry the battery with the bayonet alone. But the rapid and fearful cannonade and fusilade kept up against them was too severe for their nerves, and when close to our entrenchments they wavered, reeled and finally fled in disorder.

SECOND AND THIRD CHARGES. But a very short time elapsed before the enemy’s column, reinforced by infantry and artillery, re-formed and again came forward. This time they did not disdain the use of cartridges, but poured heavy volleys against our battery as they advanced. But again the terrible discharges of grape and canister mowed down the approaching line, and notwithstanding the remonstrances of their officers, again the Yankees broke and retreated, pell-mell, from the field.

A third time the enemy formed his line, and advanced in a last desperate effort to gain the battery, but again in vain. The assailants had reached the ditch, and some of them succeeded in mounting the embankment, but they paid for their rashness with their lives, and their comrades behind, taking warning from their fate, fled once more, this time not to be rallied to a direct charge. Our men all bear witness to the obstinate bravery of the enemy on this occasion.

Between the charges which proved so disastrous to the Yankees, a galling fire was kept up against our battery from three gunboats in the creek, about 1700 yards east of our position. A cross fire was also steadily maintained against us from two land batteries which the enemy had erected—one on the edge of the wood in which the fight with the 47th Georgia Regiment occurred last week, and another between that point and the position occupied by the gunboats.

Secessionville, fought at dawn on 16 June 1862 — the nearest the Union came to taking Charleston from the land. The detail the Mercury draws out is the one the Federal reports confirm: the assaulting column came on with unloaded muskets, meaning to carry the battery on the bayonet alone. Note too the paper’s own generosity in the middle of a victory notice: “Our men all bear witness to the obstinate bravery of the enemy on this occasion.”

Secessionville, James’ Island. To the Editor of the Charleston Mercury: The following is a correct list of the casualties in Smith’s Battalion, S. C. V., at the fight at Secessionville this morning:

Co. A—Capt. Smart. Killed—None. Wounded—Seriously: Privates Henry Cook and Alexander Brown; slightly: Sergeant T. Smith. Captured on Picket—Brevet Second Lieutenant Sarvis and Privates Wm. Russ and S. M. Jones.

Co. B—Capt. Evans. Killed—Private Duncan Deas. Wounded—Seriously: Sergeant W. L. McClelland—since died. Private Jesse Pierce, seriously; Privates John R. Threate, R. D. Morse and Hurst, slightly.

Co. C—Capt. Davis. Killed—None. Wounded—Seriously: Privates Wm. Cole and Leonard Oxendien. Slightly: Private Thomas, Corporal John Roller, arm shot off.

Co. D—Capt. Best. Killed—Privates J. T. Alford and J. H. Lay. Wounded—Slightly: 1st Sergeant H. Beaty, Privates S. Jones and M. Stalvey.

Co. F—Capt. Carter. Killed—None. Wounded—Seriously: Corporal E. F. Lane. Slightly: Privates W. D. Rollins, J. E. P. Robinson, and C. C. Anderson.

Co. G—Capt. Graham. Killed—None. Wounded—Seriously: Privates L. Stricklin and Wilson Elliot. Slightly: Orderly Sergeant Reed, H. Williamson, and Private John W. Fripp.

Total killed, 3; since died, 1; wounded, 21; captured, 3. Aggregate loss, 28.

I will further state that the place has been held for the past two weeks by the Charleston Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Gaillard, and Smith’s Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel A. D. Smith, supported by a detachment of Col. Lamar’s Artillery. The entire force was at the entrenchments erecting batteries, at least five hundred yards from their quarters, when the news came that the enemy was advancing, three thousand strong. Therefore the two battalions, numbering not more than three hundred and fifty effective men, could not get to their quarters and return with their arms before the enemy had mounted the parapet and were seizing the embankment. Nothing but the bravery and deadly aim of the two small battalions saved the day. Too much credit cannot be awarded to Colonel Lamar’s Artillery for keeping the enemy in check until we came up. Three times were the enemy repulsed, but as often returned to the fight, until at last the Louisiana Battalion coming up, was hastily placed in position by Major Hudson, under a heavy fire from the enemy. The Louisianans behaved nobly, and again put the vandals to flight. The field is ours, with a large number of dead, wounded and prisoners, on the part of the enemy.

Written from the field the same morning and printed the next. Three hundred and fifty effective men, caught away from their arms, against a column the writer puts at three thousand. The battalion’s own loss was twenty-eight — the Federals lost close to seven hundred.

…an end; and this goodly city, girdled with the fiery circle of its batteries, stands confronted with the most formidable Armada that the hands of man have ever put afloat.

The first scene in the novel drama of the war, which, we trust, is to add new lustre to the fame of Charleston, has closed. Let us render thanks to the Lord of Hosts that the result, thus far, has been one of proud triumph to our country. As yet, however, we have but entered upon the ordeal. It will be for the next few days to tell the tale of our sad disaster, or complete success.

In view of the reticence which (for reasons of military policy) has heretofore marked our allusions to the presence of the iron clad fleet, a brief review of the events of the week will not be out of place. About noon on Sunday last the first intelligence was flashed to the city from Fort Sumter, that the turrets of the far-famed Monitor gunboats were looming up against the southeastern horizon. During the afternoon the entire fleet hove in sight. Eight Monitors, besides the frigate Ironsides and twenty-seven wooden war vessels, took up their position just beyond the bar. As the news became bruited about the city, very many of our non-combatant population (previously incredulous of danger) made hasty preparations to depart; and every train that has left the city since has gone heavily laden with the eleventh-hour refugees and their effects.

Sunday night passed quietly by. Monday morning brought us reports of the movements of transports up the Stono River, and the debarkation of a considerable force of Yankee troops on Cole’s Island. But throughout Monday and Monday night, the armored fleet held its position beyond the bar. On Tuesday morning it was observed that another Monitor had arrived, making a force of no less than ten iron clad vessels, including the Ironsides.

At two o’clock on Tuesday afternoon a despatch from Fort Sumter announced that these ten vessels had crossed the bar, and were cautiously steaming inward—the foremost one having at that time reached a point about three thousand yards from the Fort. The next news was brought to us, an hour later, by the dull detonation of the first gun from Fort Moultrie, which was immediately answered by a heavy report and a cloud of white smoke from the turret of one of the Monitors. At ten minutes after three, the enemy having come within range, Fort Sumter opened her batteries, and, almost simultaneously, the white smoke could be seen puffing from the low sand hills of Morris and Sullivan’s Islands, indicating that the Beauregard Battery on the left, and Battery Wagner on the extreme right, had become engaged.

Five of the iron-clads, forming in line of battle in front of Fort Sumter, maintained a very rapid return fire, occasionally hurling their 15 inch shot and shell against Fort Moultrie and the minor batteries, but all directing their chief efforts against the east face of Fort Sumter. Gradually, but visibly, the distance between the attacking vessels and the Fort was lessened, and as the enemy drew nearer the firing became hot and almost continuous.

About half-past four o’clock the battle became fierce and general. The scene at that hour, as viewed from the Battery promenade, was truly grand. Battery Bee had now mingled the hoarse thunder of its guns in the universal din, and the whole expanse of the harbor entrance, from Sullivan’s Island to Cumming’s Point, became enveloped in the smoke and constant flashes of the conflict. The iron-clads kept constantly shifting their position, but, whichever way they went, their ports, always turned towards the battlements of Sumter, poured forth their terrible projectiles against the walls of that famous stronghold. Ever and anon, as the huge shot went ricochetting towards the mark, the water was dashed up in vast columns…

Du Pont’s attack of 7 April 1863, written the next morning. Two details stand out. The first is what the city did when the fleet appeared: “every train that has left the city since has gone heavily laden with the eleventh-hour refugees and their effects.” The second is where Charleston watched the battle from — the Battery promenade, at the foot of its own streets.

Yesterday passed without any further demonstration on the part of the enemy’s fleet.

At nine o’clock the glorious news reached the city that the double-turreted Monitor, Keokuk, the last built and by far the most formidable of the enemy’s iron-clads, had sunk just one hour before, off Morris’ Island, and about a thousand yards from the beach. It is supposed that she was kept afloat during the night succeeding the engagement by her steam pumps, but that the water gained steadily upon the pumps, and soon after daylight all hope of saving her was abandoned. Just previous to her sinking a tug sent from the fleet took off her crew. The Keokuk now lies in the position where she sank, her smokestack and pilot house being still visible above the water.

It was noticed on Wednesday morning that one Monitor, besides the Keokuk, was missing from the fleet, leaving only seven Monitors and the Ironsides remaining. [The missing] Monitor was so badly injured in the action…

The Keokuk had been hit ninety times in about half an hour, nineteen of them at or below the waterline. Her crew got off; her two 11-inch Dahlgren guns did not, and Charleston went out at night, in shoal water and in sight of the blockading fleet, and cut them out of the wreck. One of them was mounted in Fort Sumter.

The Price of single copies of The Mercury at the counter of our Office will, on and after date, be ten cents. We can no longer afford to give out any copies gratuitously.

Announced two days after the ironclad attack, and printed just above the news of the Keokuk. In May 1862 a copy had been five cents.

To the Editor of the Charleston Mercury: Herewith I hand you a list of the casualties in Col. Gaillard’s Charleston Battalion, in the fight of Saturday, the 18th, at Morris Island:

Company A—Captain J. A. Blake. Killed—Sergeant Lambers. Wounded—Privates Cheney, Ham, Wilder and others.

Company B—Captain T. T. Simons. Killed—Private S. J. Nesbit. Wounded—1st Lieutenant Wm. Clarkson; Jr. Lieutenant Wm. Slakfer, very slight; Privates T. D. Eakes, M. Hendricks, H. R. Fowler, H. H. Turner.

Company C—Captain Wm. H. Ryan. Killed—Captain Wm. H. Ryan and Private M. Tuite. Wounded—Privates Callahan and Reynolds, Corporal Preston, Privates Hill and Manin, slightly.

Company D—Captain Hopkins. Killed—1st Sergeant W. K. Smith, Private S. T. Wounded—1st Lieutenant J. A. Cay, 2d Lieutenant Wells, Corporal H. E. Saylor, Privates T. W. Atkinson, Ball, W. A. Bailey, G. P. Ballentine, A. Bumpus, W. Fripp, J. F. Harrison, W. L. Macbeth, J. A. Madden, R. Stone, J. M. Tims, E. T. Walker, W. A. J. Ware.

Company F—Captain Samuel Lord, Jr. Wounded—1st Lieutenant George Brown, Privates Glenn, J. Brown Barry, H. Schroder, J. D. Asher, Slant.

Major David Ramsay, severely wounded.

Respectfully, W. D. Walter, 1st Lieutenant, Adjutant Charleston Battalion.

Captain William H. Ryan of Company C is listed as killed in the heading of his own company’s casualty list. Major David Ramsay, severely wounded here, died of it. The Mercury also printed the wounded lying in the Trapman Street and Citadel hospitals, regiment by regiment and limb by limb.

Fort Wagner occupies nearly the site of a sea battery, constructed under the direction of the late Colonel Thomas M. Wagner. A small portion of this sea battery is included in the parapets and traverses of this work. The importance of the site, as commanding the approach to Cumming’s Point, we are informed induced Captain Francis D. Lee, of the Engineers—then in charge of the harbor defences—to press the great necessity of the work. Captain Lee’s designs having been approved by General Pemberton, the work was rapidly carried to completion under his direction, by the lamented Langdon Cheves.

Colonel Shaw, of Boston, who commanded the 54th Massachusetts (negro) regiment, was killed on our parapet. The Lieutenant Colonel of the same regiment, surrendered his sword to Colonel Gaillard. The Major and one of the Captains were also killed. Another Lieutenant Colonel was killed just as he had mounted the parapet. Colonel H. S. Putnam, of the 7th New Hampshire…

The Confederate report of Robert Gould Shaw’s death, printed two days after the assault, in the paper’s miscellaneous column between a note on who designed the battery and a list of Federal officers killed. Shaw was buried in the mass grave with his men, which was meant as a dishonour; his father refused every later proposal to move the body. The parenthesis in “54th Massachusetts (negro) regiment” is the Mercury’s own, and is left as printed.

Saturday last was a day which will be forever memorable in the history of Charleston. The heavy rains had moderated the excessive heat of the preceding fortnight, the morning sky was cloudless, and the light breeze scarcely ruffled the placid waters of the harbor.

BOMBARDMENT OF BATTERY WAGNER. About eight o’clock the desultory cannonade with which the experience of a week had made our community familiar was again heard. For nearly three hours the enemy’s fire was maintained with the usual deliberation; but about eleven o’clock it was noticed that the reports came in far more rapid succession. By noon it became well understood that the foe was resolved to subject our position to an ordeal much more severe than any which, up to that time, it had encountered. At that hour, as we learn by accounts from Morris Island, the converging fire of the enemy against the battery had become truly fearful. Five Monitors, the frigate Ironsides, seven wooden gunboats, with the land batteries which the Yankees had thrown up on the lower portion of the island, kept up a constant rain of shot and shell into our works. No less than sixty five heavy guns and eight mortars are known to have been in play against us. At one time, so rapid was the fire, that the reports averaged twenty-seven per minute.

One of the Monitors lay northeast of Battery Wagner and two to the southeast, while the others, with the Ironsides, kept a position nearly opposite the sea face of the battery.—The wooden gunboats manoeuvred at some distance outside the line of “turretted monsters,” relying chiefly upon their long range rifled siege guns. There were two Yankee batteries on Morris Island—one, consisting of two guns and a mortar, was located at Craig’s Hill, within about eight hundred yards of our battery; the other was beyond Graham’s House, and had an armament of eight rifled shell guns. It is estimated that during the day, no less than nine thousand shells were fired at the battery.

The bombardment, as viewed from eminences in the city, was a grand and terrible sight. The horizon, from Fort Moultrie to Vinegar Hill, was crowned with the shifting masses of the smoke of the conflict. Each moment the enemy’s shells, sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters, could be seen bursting just above the site of Battery Wagner; but when, at intervals, the clouds of white smoke lifted for a time from the scene, the flag of the brave garrison could be seen still waving defiantly in the breeze, while with grim regularity and deliberation our guns kept replying to the foe.

For eleven consecutive hours the bombardment raged with more or less violence. About dusk the fire, which during the afternoon had been incessant (probably with the design of demoralizing our men and unfitting them for the expected night’s work), began to slacken considerably, and at dark ceased almost entirely. The results, thus far, had been of a character to give us good cause for encouragement and gratulation. The damage to our Battery was insignificant and of a kind easily and speedily reparable. The bombproofs had afforded efficient protection to a large portion of the garrison, and our casualties at seven o’clock, p. m., were but four killed and fourteen wounded.

Nine thousand shells in eleven hours, at one point twenty-seven reports a minute — and the garrison came out of the bombproofs with four killed. That is why the assault at dusk failed: the day-long bombardment, designed to unfit the defenders for “the expected night’s work,” had barely touched them. Charleston watched the whole of it from the high ground in the city.

THE MERCURY. BY R. B. RHETT, JR. OFFICE NO. 4 BROAD-STREET, CHARLESTON. THE DAILY MERCURY, ten cents per copy, $20 per annum. THE TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, ten cents per copy, $10 per annum. ADVERTISEMENTS, Two Dollars per square of 13 lines.

Two days after the first shell fell in the city, the paper was still being printed at No. 4 Broad Street, deep in the district the Federal guns could reach. By 1864 it had moved up to King Street.

South Carolina has reason to be proud of her youths, especially as they are represented in the students of her college and the cadets of her military institutions. Taught all of them to prize honor far more dearly than life; brave, truthful, impulsive and full of State pride, we might challenge any country to show a body of young men superior to them in all the qualities that constitute manhood. Of these youths Captain John H. Gary was one of the noblest types. He was the son of Dr. Thomas R. Gary, of Abbeville, and was born on the 17th August, 1840, in the village of Cokesbury. At the commencement of the war he had been just graduated with distinction at Columbia College, where, also, his fine qualities had won for him the position of Captain of the College Cadets. These young soldiers were under his command when they took part in the siege of Sumter. On the 6th of June, 1861, he was appointed by General Evans, his brother-in-law, 2d Lieutenant in Lucas’ Battalion of Artillery, was subsequently promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and on the 3d of January, 1862, was made Captain of Company A. In the course of his brief career he displayed the greatest efficiency as a soldier, and gave the highest satisfaction to his commanders. He commanded the batteries at Grimball’s, where he assisted materially in the capture of the Isaac P. Smith, and shared in the obstinate defence of Fort Wagner from the 19th July to the 3d of August. On the 11th of August he was sent back to Wagner, where, on the next day, while in command of the guns on the land face, he received the wound which resulted in his death on the 17th. He was just permitted to complete his twenty-third year. Brave as his own sword—of a force of character singular in one so young—an enthusiast, both as a soldier and a patriot, yet, withal, as gentle as a girl—Captain Gary will not soon be forgotten by his friends, his State or his country.

A complete Charleston obituary of a twenty-three-year-old artillery captain, from the college cadet corps to the land face of Battery Wagner. He had helped take the Isaac P. Smith in the Stono in January.

T. Munn, Siege Train, Co. C—contusion about right knee. Joseph Vigor, Siege Train, Co. B—lacerated about head and thigh. Sergeant J. R. Taylor, Siege Train, Co. B—slight contusion. Private J. W. Frost, 1st S. C. A., Co. H—lacerated back. Private Patrick Lee, Charleston Battalion, Co. C—shell wound, left thigh. Private E. Owens, 1st S. C. A., Co. H—contused side and thigh. Sergeant Francis Baker, Co. C, Lucas’ Battalion—since dead. Private H. Parrible, 1st S. C. A., Co. H—contused ankle. G. W. Ferrett, 1st S. C. A., Co. D. Sergeant R. C. Rogers, Siege Train, Co. C—gunshot wound, thigh. Private W. C. Robinson, 1st S. C. A., Co. F—sprain, hip. Thomas Powers, 1st S. C. A.—amputated thigh. E. T. Smith, Lucas’ Battalion, Co. C—shell wound in back. Lieutenant H. Julian Wilson, Siege Train, Co. B—shell wound, left hand. Private John Walker, Charleston Battalion, Co. D—shell wound, fingers. W. S. Smith, Siege Train, Co. B—shell wound, back.

The week’s casualties from Fort Sumter and Morris Island, printed with the men’s names, companies and injuries — the way a besieged city read its own newspaper.

Since the date of our last report, the bombardment has been steadily progressing, growing more terrible in its character every day.

On Friday, from 5 in the morning to 7 p. m. a heavy fire was concentrated on Sumter. Nine hundred and twenty-three shots were fired at the fort, of which 704 struck it inside and outside. On Saturday 604 shots. Sunday the fire was just as heavy. Up to Saturday night, 4872 shots had been fired at the fort, of which only 1035 had passed over or fallen short. It cannot be denied that the enemy fire with great accuracy. The eastern face of the fort is now very seriously damaged, and almost every gun has been disabled.

The fort is now subjected to a cross fire south to north from the Parrott guns, and east to west from the monitors 15 inch solid shot and shells. The south face is now but a heap of ruins, and the west is cracked from top to bottom with supporting pillars shot away. Arches of the northwest face and the terreplein have fallen in. The east face is cracked through and breached, the chief injury being at the level of the arches and terreplein. Our magazine has been partially penetrated by a shell, and a shell room also has been perforated. Col. Alfred Rhett has orders to hold this outpost with his brave garrison as a forlorn hope until relieved or cut off.

In this bombardment the land batteries have been materially assisted by the Ironsides and six Monitors, which assail Fort Sumter and Batteries Wagner and Gregg, by turns, or at times attack them all together. Fort Sumter replies feebly from its east face alone.

At eleven o’clock on Friday night a communication from the enemy was received at Battery Wagner, addressed to General Beauregard, stating that Sumter was untenable, and demanding the surrender of that work and Morris Island, with a notification that in four hours after the delivery of the communication Charleston would be shelled if the demand were not complied with. General Beauregard was on a reconnoissance and, the note being unsigned, General Jordan returned it for signature. Between one and two o’clock fire was opened on the city from the battery in the marsh, between Morris’ and James’ Islands, distant about five miles from the city. 12 eight inch shells fell into the city. They were probably thrown from a two hundred pound Parrott gun, such as those used against Sumter. No damage was done. It is unnecessary to make any comments upon this act.

The contest between Battery Wagner and the land batteries of the enemy has for the last few days been of a more active character. On Saturday the enemy’s working party was distant from Wagner only four hundred and fifty yards. Battery Wagner fired vigorously, and is thought to have dismounted several of the enemy’s guns.

It is believed that on Friday one of the enemy’s Parrott guns, bearing on Sumter, burst. On the same day our sharpshooters annoyed them very much. There is a report that one of the guns employed in shelling the city on Friday night has also exploded. Several guns at Battery Haskell bear upon the marsh battery, and perhaps enable us to embarrass them.

Charleston’s own account of the ultimatum and the first shells into the city — Gillmore’s unsigned note, General Jordan sending it back for a signature, and the Swamp Angel opening between one and two in the morning of 22 August. The Mercury’s single sentence of comment is the coldest line in the column: “It is unnecessary to make any comments upon this act.”

We have received, through S. B. Graham, $30, additional subscriptions from a few citizens of Barnwell District, for the sick and wounded soldiers in this city, viz: W. P. Dunbar, Esq. $25; Jos. T. Harley, Esq. $5. — $30.

Thirty dollars from two men in Barnwell District, acknowledged by name in the paper, for the wounded coming off Morris Island.

As the threat to shell the city will probably make it prudent for the Banks to adopt some measure for the greater security of their funds and books, we are requested to suggest to depositors the propriety of drawing without delay such moneys as their convenience may require.

Two days after the first shell, Charleston’s banks were quietly telling depositors to take their money out. The financial evacuation of the lower city began before the human one.

Estimates invited for thousands of cords of wood “for the use of the citizens of Charleston,” to be delivered at Glovers, Ravenel, New Road and Parker’s Ferry Road. The city’s fuel, like its food, came down one railroad.

The daily siege column reports the enemy’s batteries quiet, and Battery Simkins keeping up its fire against Gregg and Wagner — the Morris Island works that had been Confederate five weeks before.

THE MERCURY. BY R. B. RHETT, JR. OFFICE NO. 4 KING-STREET, CHARLESTON. THE DAILY MERCURY, fifteen cents per copy, $15 for six months. THE TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, fifteen cents per copy, $8 for six months. ADVERTISEMENTS, Three Dollars per square of twelve lines.

The office is on King Street by March 1864. On 24 August 1863 — two days after the first shell fell in the city — it was still No. 4 Broad Street, well inside the range of the Morris Island guns. The bombardment moved the newspaper up the peninsula along with everything else.

The bombardment of the city continued yesterday, but seemed somewhat slower and more irregular than usual…

Two hundred and forty-three days counts back exactly to 10 July 1863, so the paper’s tally was still true to the calendar in March. By 15 November it had slipped a day behind, after skipping issues.

THE DAILY MERCURY, fifteen cents per copy, $15 for six months. THE TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, fifteen cents per copy, $8 for six months. ADVERTISEMENTS, per square of twelve lines, Three Dollars.

Printed from an office on King Street, above the shelled district. R. B. Rhett, Jr. was editor.

The bombardment of Fort Sumter continues with spirit. From Friday morning until dark on Saturday, three hundred and ninety-five mortar shells were thrown at the fort from the enemy’s batteries. This severe fire was likewise kept up on Sunday.

Three hundred and ninety-five shells in a day and a half, at a fort that had already been reduced to rubble twice.

It will be recollected that since the destruction of the Housatonic, nothing has been heard of Captain Dixon and his crew, by whom the gallant act was accomplished. The following letter on the subject is addressed to Major General Maury:

OFFICE SUBMARINE DEFENCE, CHARLESTON, April 29, 1864.

General: The United States sloop-of-war Housatonic was attacked and destroyed by Lieutenant Dixon and crew on the night of the 17th February. Since that time no information has been received of either the boat or crew.

I am of the opinion that the torpedo being placed at the bow of the boat, she went into the hole made in the Housatonic by explosion of torpedo, and did not have power sufficient to back out, consequently sank with her.

I have the honor to be, General, Very respectfully, Your obedient servant,

(Signed) M. M. Gray, Captain in charge of Torpedoes.

To Maj. Gen. D. H. Maury, District of the Gulf, Mobile, Ala.

Ten weeks after the H. L. Hunley became the first submarine in history to sink a warship, the officer in charge of Charleston’s torpedo service wrote down what he thought had happened to her — and it is the first theory of the Hunley’s loss ever committed to paper. Captain Gray guessed she had been drawn into the hole she made and could not back out. The question stayed open for a hundred and thirty-six years, until the boat was raised from the bottom off Sullivan’s Island in 2000. Note the date on the letter: 29 April 1864. Charleston did not know what had become of Dixon and his seven men, and printed as much.

The column opens, as it usually does, with the summary of the firing from the harbor. Four hundred and one days counted, and printed, on page two.

The night’s firing, and the “Swamp Angel” named again — the marsh battery whose first gun had burst on its thirty-sixth shot a year before, rebuilt and back at work.

A cessation of hostilities took place during Saturday.

After four hundred and twenty-four days, a quiet Saturday was itself the lead item.

The truce over: Battery Gregg firing through Sunday night at Fort Sumter, and into the city at the same time. By now the two targets were reported in one sentence.

During the forty-eight hours since the closing of our last report…

Still counting, still filing the same accounting of shells thrown and shells struck, four months before the city was given up.

Office No. 4 King Street, Charleston; R. B. Rhett, Jr., editor; twenty dollars for six months. The Mercury had moved up out of the shelled lower city and was charging twice what it had asked in the spring.

THE DAILY MERCURY, Twenty-five Cents per copy, $20 for six months. THE TRI-WEEKLY MERCURY, issued on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Twenty-five Cents per copy, $12 for six months. ADVERTISEMENTS, per square of twelve lines, Three Dollars.

Six months earlier the daily had been fifteen cents and $15; in December 1861 it had been ten dollars a year.

REWARD OF FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS WILL be paid for proof to conviction of the person or persons who have recently set fire to the Buildings in Market and Hayne streets. By order of the Mayor. M. H. NATHAN, Chief Fire Department.

Dated 29 October 1864. Arson, in a city that had already lost a third of itself to fire in 1861 and was being shelled nightly.

The Mercury congratulates Captain John Johnson of the Engineers on his promotion. Johnson was the engineer officer inside Fort Sumter through the worst of the bombardment, and afterwards wrote the standard Confederate account of the siege.

On THURSDAY, the 17th inst., at 11 o’clock, at the corner of Ann and King streets, will be offered, The east tenement of that HOUSE and LOT situated No. 66 north side of Tradd street, between Meeting and King streets, next the residence of Hon. Wm. Alston Pringle… The house has been struck by a shell, but is very slightly damaged and can be readily repaired. Conditions cash.

A Tradd Street house put up at auction with its shell damage disclosed the way another advertisement might mention the roof. This is what a property market looks like in the fifteenth month of a bombardment.

16 barrels Flour, 469 sacks Flour, 260 bushels Grain, 100 bushels Meal, 10 barrels Molasses, 12 kegs Nails, 20 bundles Paper, 5 barrels Oil, 35 drums Oil, Mdze, Cattle, &c.

The day’s freight into a besieged city, printed with the consignees’ names. One railroad was still running, and everything the city ate came down it.

To-morrow (Wednesday) being, by appointment of the President, a day of general Fasting and Prayer, in order to enable all persons connected with THE MERCURY establishment to observe the day, the usual issue of this paper on Thursday will be omitted.

A missed issue like this is why the paper’s own siege-day count drifts a day behind the calendar over the course of 1864.

Under the Sequestration Act, land and brick buildings on Wentworth Street — formerly a carriage establishment — to be sold at public auction at the corner of King and Ann streets on Wednesday 30 November. The Confederacy was auctioning enemy-owned property in Charleston within three months of losing the city.

THE UNDERSIGNED COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL, for the supply of BEEF to the public, notify owners of cattle in and near the city, that they still continue to purchase all cattle at full prices, for the purpose of being sold in the market at the cost of obtaining such only…

Dated 24 October 1864, signed Wm. H. Gilliland, J. H. Steinmeyer and Jno. S. Riggs. The city buying cattle at full price and selling the beef at cost — municipal food policy under siege.

But little has occurred worthy of note since our last report. Thirty-eight shells have been thrown at the city. The enemy keeps his wagons constantly bringing ammunition to Gregg and Wagner. By the way, we learn through the Yankee papers that Brig. Gen. SCAMMON, lately confined as a prisoner of war in this city, now commands the artillery on Morris Island and, of course, superintends the bombardment of his former involuntary quarters.

Eliakim P. Scammon had been one of the Federal officers held under the fire of their own guns in Charleston. The Mercury’s relish is unmistakable — and the story was true enough to be worth printing.