Although the Ministers at the capital affected to discredit the existence of any design to seize upon the city, their acts indicated an apprehension of danger, or at least a desire to take all possible precautions against treachery. The district militia were called out and sworn for service, and the result showed that there were more citizens in the ranks ready to stand by the Government than there were Secessionists who would not defend it. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday last were very busy days. The companies forming the battalions of the district militia were mustered and marched off from their various quarters to the inclosure in front of the War Department, where they took or refused the oath of service, as the humor moved them. It is scarcely possible to imagine a more heterogeneous-looking body of men; the variety of uniform, of clothing, and of accoutrements was as great as if a specimen squad had been taken from the battalions of the Grand Army of 1812. The general effect of the men and of their habiliments is decidedly French, and there is even a small company of Zouaves, but I cannot understand how these little independent bodies are to be brought into line of battle, or depended on for united action. On the days above mentioned the monotony of the wide, lifeless streets was broken at intervals by the tap of the drum, beating a pas in the French fashion, and then came the crowd of idlers who are fond of cheap martial display. To a company of forty rank and file there are generally two drummers and six or seven officers or more, and the glory of epaulettes shines out bravely through the cloud of French gray, and light and dark blue capotes. The musters are not, I am told, as they should be. There are some pale faces, rounded shoulders, and weak frames in the ranks, but the majority are very fair specimens of a fine race of men, and some companies were composed of soldier-like, stout fellows, who only required active service to set them up for any military duty. Not a fourth of those bound to serve were ready, however, to come forward and fight for the Government at Washington; and it is probable that nothing short of a struggle for life or death would induce one-half to take the field. Not one-half of the militia is properly armed. It is a great army on paper; no army in the world is so magnificently officered, even in proportion to its numbers. The strength of the militia of the whole of the ex-United States is nearly 3,000,000 men of all ranks. Of those there are no less than 3,833 generals of all sorts, 9,800 colonels and field officers, 38,680 captains and subalterns. Kentucky boasts of 188 generals, New York has not less than 392, Michigan is rich in 383 generals, and so on. But, unless there were some popular passion to excite the country, the actual force available for the field would be a fractional part of these grand totals. The American Minerva which sprang from the womb of the great Revolutionary War with panoply of proof, believes that she is invincible, and there is unquestionably a strong military spirit among the people, generated by the instances which attended their national birth, and developed by the subsequent small wars in which they have been engaged with rather impotent enemies. Whether this spirit will be called forth in the North and West as largely as it unquestionably has been in the South, remains to be seen. The evidences of the near approach of a civil war are now beyond all dispute, but the nature of the conflict will depend on the steps taken by the belligerents. If the Southern States await invasion they fight over a loaded mine. To avoid the horrors of a conflict on their own soil, they will probably seek to make good their boast of marching upon Washington; but whether they will reach it is quite another matter. The present means of defending it are very contemptible; but vast populations are close at hand which can furnish thousands of men for its protection. The city contains no stragetical points, and in a military sense its possession is not so important that it would be worth while to risk all to gain it; but its political significance is enormous, and it is likely enough that the Capital will become the object of military demonstrations on both sides. With the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay strongly held by the Federal Government, Virginia, in case she casts in her lot with the South, will find herself menaced in the most formidable manner. Southern men have complained to me in terms of the strongest indignation, that Virginia Secessionists have applied to South Carolina for five thousand men to enable them to seize the forts which command the rivers and the sea-coast. It proves that little active aid can be expected from that State if the Confederate party cannot do that little piece of business on their own account.
From the date of this letter it will be seen that I am on my way to the South; and, although I shall not arrive in time to give any account of the recent operations against Fort Sumter, I hope to gain some insight into the actual condition of the army of the Confederate States.
On Friday evening I bade good-by to Washington, and none of the Ministers had any idea that Sumter had been attacked, nor had Lord Lyons received any intelligence from Charleston.
LETTER V.
CHARLESTON, S. C., April 21, 1861.
I FIND some consolation for the disappointment of not arriving in time to witness the attack upon Fort Sumter in describing the condition of the work soon after Major Anderson surrendered it. Already I have upon my table a pamphlet entitled “The Battle of Fort Sumter and First Victory of the Southern Troops,” &c.; several “poems,” and a variety of versicules, songs, and rhetorical exercitations upon this event, which, however important as a political demonstration, is of small value in a military sense, except in so far as the bloodless occupation of a position commanding Charleston Harbor is concerned. It may tend to prevent any false impressions founded on imperfect information to state a few facts connected with the fire in the work, and its effects, which will interest, at least, some military readers.
In the first place, it may be well to admit that the military preparations and positions of the South Carolinians were more formidable than one was prepared to expect on the part of a small State, without any considerable internal organization or resources. This comparative efficiency was due mainly to General Beauregard and his assistant engineer, Major Whiting, who are both professional engineer officers of the United States Army, and who had capacity and influence enough to direct the energies of the undisciplined masses in the proper direction, instead of allowing them to rush on their fate in the perilous essay of an escalade, as they intended. The State of South Carolina had for a long time past been accumulating arms and munitions of war, and it may be said that ever since the nullification contest she had permitted herself to dwell on the idea of ultimate secession, to be effected by force, if necessary. When General Beauregard and Major Whiting came here, the works intended to resist the fleet and to crush the fort were in a very imperfect state. Major Anderson and his officers had a true professional contempt for the batteries of the civilians and militiamen, which was in some measure justifiable. One morning, however, as they took their survey of the enemy’s labors for the previous night, they perceived a change had come over the design of their works. That “some one who knows his business is over there” was evident. Their strange relationship with those who were preparing to destroy them if possible, however, prevented their recourse to the obvious means which were then in abundance in their hands to avert the coming danger. Had Major Anderson maintained a well-regulated fire on the enemy the moment they began to throw up their batteries and prepare Fort Moultrie against him, he could have made their progress very slow and exceedingly laborious, and have marked it at every step with blood. His command over the ground was very decided, but he had, it is to be supposed, no authority to defend himself in the only way in which it could be done. “Too late”—that fatal phrase—was the echo to every order which came from the seat of government at Washington. Meantime the South Carolinians worked at their batteries, and were soon able to obtain cover on the soft sandy plains on which they were planting their guns and mortars. They practised their men at the guns, stacked shot and shell, and furnished their magazines, and drilled their raw levies with impunity within fourteen hundred yards of the fort. We all know what impunity is worth in offensive demonstrations. It is a powerful agent sometimes in creating enthusiasm. Every day more volunteers flocked to the various companies, or created new associations of armed men, and the heterogeneous and motley mass began to assume some resemblance to an army, however irregular. At the present moment Charleston is like a place in the neighborhood of a camp where military and volunteer tailors are at work trying experiments in uniforms, and sending in their animated models for inspection. There is an endless variety—often of ugliness—in dress and equipment and nomenclature among these companies. The head-dress is generally, however, a smart cap like the French kepi; the tunic is of different cuts, colors, facings, and materials—green with gray and yellow, gray with orange and black and white, blue with white, and yellow facings, roan, brown, burnt sienna, and olive—jackets, frocks, tunics, blouses, cloth, linen, tweed, flannel. The officers are generally in blue frocks and brass buttons, with red sashes, the rank being indicated by gold lace parallelograms on the shoulder straps, which are like those in use in the Russian army. The arms of the men seem tolerably well kept and in good order. Many, however, still shoulder “White Bess”—the old smooth-bore musket with unbrowned barrel. The following is an official return, which I am enabled to present to you through the courtesy of the authorities, showing the actual number of men under arms yesterday in and around Charleston:—
MORRIS ISLAND.—17th Regiment, 700 men; 1st Regiment, 950
men; 2d Regiment, 975 men. Total, 2625.
SULLIVAN’S ISLAND.—5th Regiment, 1,075 men; detachment of 8th
Regiment, 250 men; detachment of 6th Regiment, 200 men; cavalry
and others, 225 men. Total, 1,750.
Stone and other points, 750 men; Charleston, 1,900 men; Columbia,
1,950 men.