HIGHLY IMPORTANT: FORT SUMTER A HEAP OF RUINS; A Terrific Fire---The Fort Struck Four Hundred and Nineteen Times in One Day (8/26/1863)

New York Times archives – Times Machine ^ | 8/26/1863

[Homer_J_Simpson]

By the arrival of the steam-transports Columbia and America at this port, from Morris Island, we have dates to the 21st inst. at midnight.

The bombardment still continued, and the south side of Sumter has been demolished almost to its base. Forts Wagner and Gregg and Point Cummings Battery still replied at short intervals. The batteries on James Island had greatly annoyed the Union troops, and an expedition had been fitted out to silence them. The casualties on the Union side were very small.

Gen. GILLMORE and all the officers were confident of final success in reducing all the fortifications on Morris Island.

Schooner Maxon Rogers, FARREN, from Folly Island vid Charleston Bar 20th inst., also arrived yesterday. Capt. FARREN reports that when he left the Bar on the 20th, at 6 P.M., the siege of Fort Sumter was progressing in great earnest. The entire top of the fort was gone, and every parapet gun dismounted, most of which had fallen into the sea. It was further reported that Wagner would surrender soon.

The steamship Constitution, Capt. WM. GREENMAN, from Hilton Head, which port she left on Saturday Aug. 22, at 7 A.M., and Charleston Bar at 5 1/2 P.M., arrived last evening, consigned to the United States Quartermaster. She left at anchor off Charleston the United States steamer Brooklyn, with steam up for New-York, having on board the remains of Capt. GEORGE W. RODGERS and Paymaster WOODBURY, of the Monitor Catskill, killed in the attack on Fort Wagner.

The bombardment was going on with great energy and the firing was very rapid. The last report from Morris Island was that Sumpter had not responded to our guns for the last two days previous to the Constitution leaving Charleston.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4177576/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Highly Important: Fort Sumter a Heap of Ruins – 2-4
Kentucky and Tennessee: The Advance of Rosecrans and Burnside – 5
The Lawrence Massacre: The Pursuit of Quantrell’s Guerrillas – 5
Dreadful Marine Disaster: The United States Brig Bainbridge Foundered at Sea – 5
Another Disaster on the Mississippi: Explosion of the Ammunition Steamer City of Madison – 5-6
Loss of the Steamship George’s Creek – 6
News from Washington: Our Special Washington Dispatches – 6
Brooklyn News: The Draft – 6
Editorial: The Battle in Charleston Harbor-Gen. Gillmore’s Splendid Operations – 6
Editorial: Rosecrans Before Chattanooga – 6-7
Guerrillas – 7
Our Mexican Policy – 7
The Exemption Ordinance Vetoed – 7
A Hint to the Navy Department – 7
End of Another Blockade Runner: Destruction of the British Steamer Hebe Off New Inlet – 7
From the Pacific Coast – 7
News from Fortress Monroe – 7
Lord Lyons in Canada – 7

[Apparatchik]

…and Douglas MacGregor declared the war over for the Union in less than two weeks. “They’re finished,” he said of the North, “the Confederate sledgehammer is scheduled to fall on the Lincoln regime in the September or October 1863 timeframe.”