FORT SUMTER AND THE SEIGE OF CHARLESTON.
CORRECTED SKETCH BY R, BARNWELL RHETT.
I highly appreciate the narrative and the excellent likeness of my brother contained in the November VeTeRAN, but I ask you to allow me to correct a few inaccuracies, which are important.
It was two or three months after the defeat of the iron-clad squadron, on April 7, 1863, that Rear Admiral Dupont was relieved by Rear Admiral Dahlgren, and Major General Hunter, who commanded the land forces on the sea-islands of South Carolina, was relieved by Brigadier General Gilmore. Gilmore proposed to silence Fort Sumter from Morris Island, that Dahlgren with his iron-clad fleet might enter the harbor and capture Charleston.
At its northern point Morris Island is 1,400 yards south of the rear or gorge-wall of Fort Sumter. It extends four miles southward, a narrow strip of sand between the ocean and the marshes of James Island.
It was the 10th of July that Gilmore made lodgment on the south end ot Morris Island, upon which event Colonel Rhett remarked, "Gilmore will silence us, but I will fight the fort low down." It was then that the guns and mortars of Sumter opened on his forces and fired night and day for more than six weeks. Of the sixty pieces of ordnance then in the fort, fifteen gnns and mortars were thus employed, as circumstances required, especially in firing on the assaulting columns and reserves on the 11th and 18th of July, when Gilmore's forces met with bloody repulses before Battery Wagner, an outpost of the fort. The Federal killed and wounded on the night of the 18th numbered nearly 2,000. During the siege and engineering approach to Battery Wagner, which followed the disastrous attempts to take it by storm, the guns of Sumter were never idle. Gilmore characterized the fire throughout as ''accurate and destructive.' And, although firing over Battery Wagner, which was 2,700 yards off, no shot or shell ever fell among Confederates..
Gilmore established his breaching batteries not "four hundred,' but four thousand yards from the fort. They were eight in number, and their distances from Sumter ranged between 4,290 and 3,428 yards. The guns used were two 80-pounder Whitworths, nine 100-pounder Parrotts, and one 300-pounder Parrott, in all eighteen rifle guns, throwing a ton of metal in the aggregate at each discharge.
It was not "April 17th," but August 17th, when the bombardment began. Within seyen days 5,009 shot and shell were hurled against Sumter, and but two guns remained servicable in the fort. These were used for the last time from the crumbling east wall on the night of August 23d, in reply to an at' ck of six monitors and the frigate '"Tronsides,' whicu for five hours fired across upon the western magazine in reserve to blow up the fort. Between the 23d of August and the 2d of September the breaching batteries fired 1,819 more shot and shell against the Fort, in all 6,828, which concluded the first bombardment.
An interval of fifty days elapsed before the second.
On the 27th of August General Beauregard, in publishing on order, complimented "Colonel Rhett, his officers, and the men of the First Regiment of South Carolina Regular Artillery," and stated that 'In the
annals of war no work ever before encountered as formidable a bombardment as that under which Fort Sumter has been succesffully held."
There were earthworks at this time within the walls of Sumter. From the 20th of July, besides the garrison, relays of from 300 to 400 negroes had been working day and night under the engineer, Maj. John Johnson. The upper and lower casements of the seaport had been filled with bags of sand from the three acre parade. The seventeen rooms, 18 x 18 feet, used for officers' quarters, inside the gorge wall, were filled with bales of compressed cotton, soaked in salt water and packed in layers of sand. An exterior eovering of sand bags defended the sally-port. But there was no bombproof, and the protection afforded the garrison was insignificant compared with the bombproofs built afterward, previous to the second bombardment, which commenced on the 26th of October.
When all the guns in Sumter were disabled, except a 32-pounder, kept under cover to fire the morning and evening gun of the post, General Beauregard confidently expected Admiral Dahlgren to come in with his iron-clad fleet and attempt the capture of Charleston. He had, therefore, made great exertions in erecting batteries and mounting guns on the northern shore of James Island, on Castle Pinckney, and on the sea-port of Charleston. Colonel Rhett was placed in command of the interior harbor defences. Sumter was included when the second bombardment began, and he visited the work nightly in a barge. But the expected naval attack on Charleston was never made.
Col. Alfred Rhett's command, the brigade of regulars, used as infantry, with Maj. Burnet Rhett's battalion of field artillery, formed the rear-guard of Hardee's retreat after the evacuation of Charleston. At Averysboro, March 16th, they occupied the first line of defense to check Sherman's forces. The rest of Hardee's army occupied the second and stronger line, which it was intended to hold. Taylor's Creek protected Col. Alfred Rhett's right flank, and he was instructed that a portion of Hampton's cavalry would cover his left flank. After arranging his line of battle at daylight, amid the rain and fog, he rode in front to push forward his skirmish line. His personal staff officer and his adjutant were both sick and he was alone. When near the left flank, within his skirmish line, he descried a few cavalrymen coyered with waterproofs, and he wore one himself. Supposing they belonged to the promised support, which he expected in that quarter, he halted them, inquired where General Hampton was, and ordered them back to tell him to hurry up, as the Federal troops were in his front in force. The men proved to be of Kilpatrick's command. and in the obscurity of the morning had inadvertantly got in behind the Confederate skirmish line. Before he became aware of his mistake they had cocked weapons at his head. compelled his surrender, and led him out to Col. W. D. Hamilton, of the Ninetieth Ohio Cavalry, and General Klipatrick, who was with him on the Bentonville road.
Under Brigadier General Taliaferro, Rhett's brigade held the first line for five hours, repulsing first a portion of Kilpatrick's division of cavalry, then Ward's division of infantry, and finally, being attacked in front and flank by Ward's division and Jackson's division, fell back to the second line of defense, which General Hardee easily maintained. The Confederate loss was about 500, mostly in this brigade. The Fed-
eral loss is stated by Gen. J. E. Johnston at 3,000. For its conduct at Averysboro, and afterward at Bentonville, this brigade was officially complimented by Lieutenant General Hardee for its "iron firmness and measureless gallantry."
General Taliaferro was made a Major General at Charlotte, N. C., receiving the last commission issued by the Confederate government. Col. Alfred Rhett was taken to Fort Delaware, where he remained a prisoner until August, 1865.
A personal note by the author concludes as follows: The work you are doing is grateful to all Confederates and worthy of all commendation, for time is passing, and those who know the history of the Southern cause of 1860-65 are rapidly going into the land of silence.