Big Guns. 135 



reduced to shapeless ruin, and all the guns on the top of the fort, 

 or on the barbette plain, were dismounted or knocked to pieces. 



Then by means of the Swamp Angel Battery, fuur miles south of 

 Charleston, we were enabled to throw shells into Charleston, which 

 on several occasions set fire to the city. 



And, from Putnum, or Cumming's Point, we threw 4, 253 shells, 

 from one gun, into the city of Charleston. This rendered it unin- 

 habitable to women and children, and converted the ci.y into a mere 

 soldiers' barracks, where no business could be transacted, no quiet 

 or comfort obtained. 



No wonder that soldiers get to love their big guns, which pro- 

 duce such marvelous effects of waste and destruction of the powers 

 and resources of the enemy. 



I can never forget the dying admiration of an Indian chief for the 

 cannon of the white man.* He was buried in the Congressional 

 Cemetery at Washington. He caused these words to be engraved 

 on his monument: "When I am dead, let the big guns be fired 

 over me. ' 



A big gun needs no interpreter, it speaks the language of all 

 nations, and when the black people of Charleston, S. C, heard the 

 Swamp An«el, they cried out: "H.Trk! 'Tis the voice of an 

 angel shouting freedom," and hence the battery obtained the name 

 of, The Swamp Angel, 



