CAPT. JOHN MITCHEL AT FORT SUMTER.
Miss Claudine Rhett, of Charleston, paid tribute to the memory of Capt. John C. Mitchel some time ago, which paper was promptly forwarded to the Veteran by Miss Martha B. Washington, Corresponding Secretary of the Daughters of the Confederacy in Charleston. Capt. Mitchel was of the First South Carolina Artillery, and lost his life while in command of Fort Sumter.
SCENE ON THE DOCK AT CHARLESTON, 1863,
Capt. John Mitchel was a native of Ireland, and came to America under peculiar circumstances. His father was a leader of the home rule party in his own country, and was tried for high treason against the Crown, along with Smith O'Brian and General Meagher. Their estates were confiscated, and all were sent to Australia. John Mitchel, Jr., although a mere lad when his father was brought to trial, mantfully stood by his side in the dock, and even accompanied him to the prison in Australia, to prove to him that a faithful heart was willing to share evil, as well as good, fortune with an honored parent.
After his arrival in the United States, young Mitchel received his education at Columbia College, New York, and from that school of engineering
went to Tennessee, where he was engaged in laying out arailroad when a call to arms resounded through our land. In obedience to this martial summons, the young engineer at once engaged in the military service of the South, embracing the cause of constitutional liberty with ardent enthusiasm. In the aggressions of the North upon the rights of the Southern States, he saw reflected the same unjust desire of domination evinced by England towards Ireland, which 'had been so often resisted in his native land; and, with the generous zeal of an earnest nature, he gave to the country of his adoption the full support of an intrepid spirit and a warm heart, not stopping +o count the possible cost to himself.
Appointed a Lieutenant in the Battalion of Artillery stationed at Fort Sumter in the winter of 1861, John Mitchel entered upon the discharge of those duties which were to end only with the close of his life, three years later.
Major Anderson, having retired to Fort Sumter with the United States troops, it became incumbent
upon the Confederate forces to drive him thence and to get possession of that post, the key of Charleston Harbor. In accordance with this intention, by order of Gen. Beauregard, the Commander-inChief of this military district, at about 3 o'clock on the morning of April 12, '61, a bombshell was fired from Fort Johnson as asignal to the other forts and batteries around the harbor to begin the attack. No sooner had the roaring meteor sped across the bay, than an answering light was run up to the head of the flagstaff at Fort Moultrie, and behold! the fighting for Charleston, which was to continue until Feb. 19, 65, had begun.
The following day, April 13, about 8 o'clock, in the thickest of the bombardment, a thin smoke was observable curling up from Fort Sumter. It grew denser and denser as it steadily rose in the air, and it soon became apparent that the wooden barracks within that Fort had been set on fire '"'by a red hot shot, thrown from an 8 inch Columbiad gun at Fort Moultrie by a detachment of Company B," (Mitchel's company, reports Gen. Beauregard). This conflagration occasioned Major Anderson's surrender, as it endangered his powder magazine.
As soon as the Fort fell into our possession, this same Company B was sent over to Sumter, and Mitchel, therefore, formed one of the first Confed- | erate garrisons of that post.
At the capture of the Union gunboat, *'Isaac Smith," he commanded a battalion of infantry, and for this brilliant affair, Col. Yates, who commanded the entire expedition, received the thanks of the Confederate Congress, for himself and for his gallant comrades.
On the ever memorable 7th of April, 1863, when the ironclad fleet of monitors advanced to the attack of Fort Sumter, Capt. Mitchel's company not being directly engaged, he volunteered his services in the defense of this important post. Itis hardly necessary to state that the ''Keokuk," one of the best monitors, was sunk by the guns of Fort Sumter, and that the others were triumphantly repulsed by the Confederates. (4
Four months later, Aug. 10, on a terribly hot morning, the Union forces opened fire upon Morris Island, the out-post of Sumter. This attack lasted three hours, and was made with more than four times the number of guns and troops we had; fiftyfive cannon, of the heaviest caliber, poured shot and shell upon our small force, (the monitors assisting with their cross-fire in enfilading the position of the Confederate batteries). Our soldiers fought as long as their posts could be held, Capt. Mitchel commanding the artillery. In killed, wounded and captured, we lost in this action 294 men. Among the mortally wounded was that fine young officer, Lieut. John Bee, also Capt. Chas. Haskell, who was as handsome and accomplished an artillerist as the State could ever hope to produce. His last words to a comrade were, 'Tell my mother that I died for her and for my country."
The Confederate forces, having been obliged by superior numbers to retreat to Battery Wagner, were not allowed much rest, for that very night the Union troops made their first assault upon this important position. Capt. Mitchel on this occasion
Confederate Veteray. 7
commanded the Confederate Artillery, and, as was always the case, the guns in charge of the First Regular South Carolina Artillery were remarkably well handled by those extraordinarily skillful gunners.
Some of the Union soldiers actually got within Battery Wagner during this attack, but the assault failed and their forces were repulsed, they having lost 330 men by death, wounds and capture.
After this, Capt. Mitchel was assigned to the command of the Confederate Batteries at Shell Poiut on James Island, whence he kept up a sustained fire until February, 1864
When Col. Stephen Elliott was promoted and sent to the field in Virginia, Capt. Mitchel was selected by those in authority to succeed him in the command of Fort Sumter—the most important military post in the Harbor of Charleston—May 4, 1864. Here, by his untiring energy, administrative ability and vigilance, Mitchel proved himself worthy of the confidence of his superior officers, and of this high honor.
Major John Johnson, the resident engineer officer stationed at that post, thus writes: ''Capt. Mitchel was unremitting in the discharge of all his arduous duties. Allowing himself but little rest in the daytime, he was particularly alert to guard against assault by night; and the constant watchfulness of this spirited young officer became imparted to his whole garrison."
During the morning of July 20, 1864, the sentinel on the parapet of Fort Sumter requested permission to withdraw into the shelter of the bombproof sentry box, on account of the extraordinary severity of the firing by the enemy from Morris Island. At first, Capt. Mitchel refused to permit him' to leave his post of observation, deeming a seeking of safety whilst on duty a bad precedent to establish; but when the soldier sent him a second message, he ascended the ramparts to ascertain for himself if the man should indeed be withdrawn,
' Mitchel had been there but a short time whena mortar shell of the largest kind was thrown from a 'Union battery,and came on its awful mission of
. destruction, roaring and hurtling through the clear
summer sky, towards Fort Sumter and its doomed 'Commander, who could, however, have found security from this terrific projectile by simply stepping within the adjacent sentry box. But, with a high sense of honor, Capt Mitchei considered it his duty 'to stand his ground upon the ramparts, kaving obliged the sentinel to remain for a time exposed to similar danger, and, with his elbow resting on the parapet, and his field glass raised to his eyes, ~which were fixed upon the fleet, he never moved from his original position. None, save those who 'have heard the appalling sound' made by a bomb'shell, can fully appreciate the cool courage shown 'by the young officer in thus disregarding that voice 'of woe. Bursting overhead, a large fragment of 'this shell struck Capt. Mitchel to the ground, and he was borneto the hospital below mortally wounded.
He lingered in great agony nearly four hours, and 'expired 'about five o'clock of a bright summer's afternoon, having died, ashe had lived, a true sol'dier, repressing every outward manifestation of suf-
fering, solicitous that he might teach his garrison by his example how a brave manshould meet death. Once, when the pain overcame him and he groaned aloud, checking himself, he looked up, attempted to rise, and gave command that the men should not be allowed to pass and repass the hospital as they were then doing, lest they should overhear some other expression of suffering. Lateron, upon being asked by Major Johnson what could be done for him, he replied, ''Nothing, except to pray for me."
All in Charleston were greatly pained when the fall of the gallant Commander of Fort Sumter was announced. His remains were brought to the city that night, and lay in St. Paul's Church under guard of the Cadets until the following afternoon, when the burial service was read by the late Bishop Howe. A large concourse of friends gathered there, mingling with the military and naval officers, who were atixious to do honor to their departed comrade.
Quiet and still in death lay the soldier, ''life's fitful fever o'er," the star-crossed Fort Sumter flag his pall, upon which rested his sword, a wreath of laurel and some white roses.
When the solemn burial service was concluded, the fine brass band of his old regiment, the First Artillery, played a plaintive dead march, and, escorted by the Cadets, bearing their arms reversed, Gen. Jones and Staff, Gen. Ripley and Staff, and many other officers, dressed in full uniform, the cortege wended its way to Magnolia Cemetery, where he had desfred to be laid.
A peculiar gloom was added to this sad scene by the approach of a heavy thunder storm. The sky had a dark and lowering appearance; fitful gusts of wind swept through the church; brilliant flashes of lightning gleamed incessantly, whilst loud reports of heaven's artillery reverberated from on high and mingled their awe-inspiring fury with the organ tones and the wailing cadences of the dead march.
Some years later his comrades of the first Artillery placed a granite column over the grave of their brother-in-arms, at the suggestion of Lieut. Henry Frost; but, as long as the waves beat against the ruins of Fort Sumter, that war-worn fortress will be John Mitchel's best and most enduring mouument.
Col. Samuel McFarland, of the Nineteenth Iowa Regiment, was killed in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. His sword was found by Captain J. H. McClinton, of the Thirty-fourth Arkansas Infantry, and was presented recently to members of that regiment. Ata reunion they returned formal thanks to Captain McClinton, and gave the sword to a son of the former owner, an editor at Marshalltown, Iowa.
In answer to inquiry in Vrreran for July, Comrace T. F, Moriarty, of Natchez, Miss., names Dr. Wm. Maguin as author of poem, 'The Soldier
Boy," and makes reference to Ford's National Li-'
brary, Ballad Poetry of Ireland, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 161.
At the regular meeting of Camp Isham Harrison, No. 27, U. C. V., Columbus, Miss., on November 7th, Dr. A. C. Halbert was elected Commander and Thomas Harrison, Adjutant.