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letter it appears that the Confederate government or the State of South Carolina was connected with the business; for, to the president of the company, who contemplated resigning and later did resign, he writes: "You must not think of deserting us in our infancy and with the State as a partner." He also, in this letter, indicates the disadvantages attending any purchases of existing types of vessels, of these "the Dover boats being the nearest to what would suit our business. They would cost a great deal and need various alterations for the trade that would be expensive and take a great deal of time.” He adds, "I should not like to buy unless there were a near approach to perfection. The ship built for Frasier at Liverpool is a failure in speed and draft, and instead of drawing 8 feet will draw 10; otherwise she is a fine ship, very far from perfection, however." 1

Capt. Carlin's visit to Great Britain was probably due not only to a considerable widening of the activities of the company through the participation therein of southern railroads, as well as the Confederate government, but, in addition to the capture just prior thereto of the most successful of the company's fleet, operating between Charleston, Wilmington, Nassau, and Bermuda, on an attempt, about the last of October or the first of November, 1863, to enter Wilmington. On her last outward trip from Charleston to Bermuda the value of her cargo is put by her master at $143,000; passenger fares, $3,000. But if her capacity for cotton was fully utilized, as he also claims, the value of that alone, by account sales subsequently rendered, must have been $296,400. The "partnership" of the Confederate government was evidently one of those euphemistic terms by which governments at a pinch help themselves. The Boers coined an excellent word for it, "commandeer." With regard to the blockade runners from Charleston, it was, in the last 18 months of the war, a claim for half of the profits, and I think quite properly so.

Master's pay seems to have been as follows: From August, 1863, bringing steamer from Nassau to Charleston, $8,000, Confederate currency (about $600 in gold); taking steamer out to Nassau, $2,000, payable at Nassau; from Nassau to Wilmington, N. C., $10,000; Wilmington to Bermuda, $2,500.

The first of the steamers contracted for with William Denny & Bros. is announced as sailing July 30, 1864, drawing 8 feet, with 550 tons dead weight on board, which Capt. Carlin writes he regards as remarkable and only fears that her return cargo of cotton may not sink her deep enough, as she should draw at least 6 feet, and better still, 7 feet 2 inches on an even keel.* From the same letter

1 Letter of Capt. James Carlin to William C. Bee, Feb. 10. 1864

2 Letter of F. N. Bonneau, Dec. 10, 1864.

3 Statement of Capt. Carlin, Aug. 25, 1863.
Letter of Capt. Carlin, July 30, 1864,

it appears that as the vessels were completed they were fitted out, manned, and officered by Capt. Carlin, who kept a full complement on shore pay to meet all requirements; and by the disbursement sheets of the agent at Nassau, May, 1865, there were then operating from that port the Alice, the Caroline, the Emily, and the Fannie.1 The Ella does not appear on this, and in December, 1864, Capt. Bonneau alludes to his regret at hearing of her loss; but as, in another letter, he states that the loss of the Ella and Annie was the only loss suffered by the company he may have been mistaken. The five vessels above named, however, did not represent all that the company was operating; for in the final accounting of the Liverpool agent in December, 1865, appear charges referring to the Flying Scud, the Wild Pigeon, the Monmouth, the B. De Wolf, the Fearless, the Frygia, the Pleiades, the Troya, the Pembroke, the Crocodile, the Storm King, the Enterprise, the Orizava, the Pink, the Electra, the Maria, the Orion, the Mary Garland, the Urania, the Star of the East, the Ariosto, and the Harriet. But around none centers that personal interest which attaches to the Ella and Annie, a fairly accurate representation of which has been preserved in a faded water-color sketch made just prior to her capture. She was, as appears, painted a cream white, an absolutely new departure from accustomed ideas up to her appearance, the prevailing color until then, as I have been informed, having been black, and the experiment of her coat being due to the advice of Capt. Carlin, who insisted that cream white was the most invisible of shades. In the letter of the retiring president of the company I note an allusion to the courage displayed by her captain on the night of her capture, and, whether somewhat apocryphal in its details or not, I shall venture the short account told me by the last president of the company, as an illustration of how gallantly and chivalrously war may be waged by fearless combatants.

On the night that his vessel was overhauled, seeing that his capture was otherwise inevitable, Capt. Bonneau put on all steam and steered for the nearest of the captors in the desperate hope of escaping over her rammed and sinking hulk, for which acknowledged design he was, on trial by court-martial, condemned to death, which sentence was blandly set aside by the United States admiral presiding, with the calm declaration that in Bonneau's place he would have done the same thing himself.

Fifty years have passed since those stirring times, and in all probability many of the captors with their gallant old chief have long since gone to "the reconciling grave that swallows up distinctions that first made us foes," but the captured captain still lives, an illustration of the chances of war.

1 Statement of disbursements of Henry Adderley & Co., May, 1865.
* Duplicate Importing & Exporting Co, in account with James Calder,

XI. THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER, 1861.

By OLIVER LYMAN SPAULDING, JR.,

Captain Fourth Field Artillery,

United States Army.

62513°-15-12

177

THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER, 1861.

By OLIVER LYMAN SPAULDING, Jr.

On Christmas Day, 1860, the federal garrison of Charleston harbor consisted of two companies of the First Artillery, with the regimental band, all stationed at Fort Moultrie. The companies were very weak, only 75 men all told.1

The commanding officer was Maj. Robert Anderson, an officer of high reputation; he had served in the Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars, had been wounded at Molino del Rey, and held two brevets for gallantry. Besides this he had become widely known as a member of boards to arrange and revise the systems of instruction at the Military Academy and at the Artillery School, and to prepare drill regulations for the Artillery; in connection with this latter work he had published translations of several French artillery manuals, which were extensively used in our service. He had held his present command only about a month; his selection for it was doubtless due in part to a hope that his presence might tend to moderate the growing hostility to the Government. He was from Kentucky and his wife from Georgia, and he had until recently owned land and slaves in Georgia, so that his connections were largely southern. He also had a peculiar interest in Charleston, for his father had taken part in the defense of Fort Moultrie in the Revolutionary War, and he himself had been stationed there once before.

Moultrie was a fort of no great strength, built in 1811 on the site of the Revolutionary battery. The walls were of brick, filled in with sand, 12 feet high. Batteries faced the water on three sides; the most important were the "sea battery," facing southeast, and the "Sumter battery," facing southwest. There were no casemates, the guns all being in barbette. Magazines and barracks were of brick; the hospital and storehouses were of wood and outside the walls.

1 Field return, Nov. 28, " Official Records," I, 79.

2 Doubleday, 41, 74; Cullom, 406; Birkhimer, 305, 307.

Roman, I, 24; Johnson, 20; Doubleday, 14; Porter to Adjt. Gen., Nov. 11, "Off. Rec.,"

I, 71.

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