FORT SUMTER—CAREER OF COLONEL RHETT.
The following narative, though prepared especially as a sketch of Colonel Rhett, contains some thrilling incidents about the naval warfare at Charleston. The statements in the sketch are fully corroborated by Mrs. J. W. Lewis, sister of Colonel Rhett.
Alfred Moore Rhett, born in Beaufort, S. C., October 15, 1829, was the second child of Senator Robert Barnwell Rhett. In his youth he was singularly attractive by his amiability and gay, bright spirits. In unselfishness he was ever conspicuous; at the same time his coolness and utter fearlessness in danger were already his striking characteristics. He graduated at Harvard University in July, 1851. On the last day of December, 1860, he was commissioned First Lieutenant Company I Battalion, South Carolina Artillery. April 12-15, L861, he was in command of the Sumter Battery, in Fort Moultrie. His guns were most ably handled, and on the second day they fired the officers' quarters in Sumter with forty rounds of red-hot shot, forcing Major Anderson to evacuate the fort. Rhett's company was then transferred to Sumter, and on April [sth he was promoted to Captain, and was in command of the work.
Colonel Rhett commanded at Fort Sumter April 7, 186, when Admiral Dupont made the great naval attack in Charleston Harbor. five hundred officers and men of the regular artillery which had been raised to a regiment. (of the tremendous engagement Colonel Rhett ordered the regimental band to the ramparts to greet the enemy with "Dixie." He himself stood upon the southeast angle of the fort, nearest the fleet, and had the flags of the Confederacy, his State and regiment raised and saluted by thirteen guns. During this engagement forty guns in Sumter were in use, and in two hours and forty-five minutes the battle was fought and won. The great '"Ironsides" and fleet of Monitors withdrew signally defeated. One of them sank the next morning by the Morris Island shore. The ships had been struck five hundred and twenty times by the guns from the Confederate fortifications. The guns and mortars of Sumter were hotly engaged after this day and night against General Gilmore in his efforts to take Morris Island, who in his report characterized the fire from Sumter as 'accurate and destructive.' When Gilmore finally established his breaching batteries four hundred yards from Sumter, with the declared intention of destroying the work, Colonel Rhett said, "Gilmore will silence us, but I will fight the fort low down." Then began that most terrible
He had a garrison of
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bombardment, lasting from April 17th until September 2d, in which time 6,828 shot and shell, of size and destructive qualities hitherto unknown in the annals of war, were hurled upon Fort Sumter. There were no earthworks at this time within the walls, which in the after bombardments gave great protection to the garrison. There was therefore no place of safety, and the immense walls were crushed in and fell, the great guns were dismounted and disabled, some being pitched backward from the top of the high parapet to the parade ground below. The shaking and jarring, the hideous noise, the continual danger, never ceasing day or night, Fort Sumter became a ruin, with not one gun left with which to fight. Colonel Rhett was strongly recommended by General Beauregard, and was promoted to the command of a brigade, the command to include the Fort Sumter garrison. His headquarters were then in Charleston, but he visited Fort Sumter nearly every day. He was almost constantly under fire, giving anxious attention to the work being carried on there for the protection of the garrison.
After the evacuation of Charleston, in General Tardee's march to North Carolina, Colonel Rhett commanded the rear guard, which consisted of the First Regiment South Carolina Artillery, the First South Carolina Infantry, Lucas' Battalion of Artillery, and Maj. A. Barnet Rhett's Battalion of Field Artillery.
In the battle of Averysboro Colonel Rhett was taken prisoner. Both his Adjutant and his staff officer were sick, and he rode forward al-ne into the woods and in rain and fog to seek Hampton's command, which he wished to support his leit flank. A squad of Federal cavalry which had lost their way and got into the Confederate lines, being enveloped in waterproof cloaks, were mistaken by him for some of Hampton's men, and he rode straight up to them. They covered him at once with their carbines, and he became their prisoner. He was carried to Fort Delaware, and was only released in August, 1865.
Colonel Rhett was a "magnificent disciplinarian." Strict, but always just, he won the affection and confidence of the men and officers under his command. He exercised a constant care of his men, never uselessly exposing them, though unhesitatingly exposing himself to danger and sparing himself no fatigue.
W. L. De Rosset, Wilmington, N. C., while sending four subscribers, writes: "I sincerely wish that every veteran could have the pleasure of reading your invaluable publication, one which I have longed to see in circulation, and which not only fully expresses my own views on the questions of the second war for independence, but from what I have so far seen, utters no uncertain sound."
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