AEMY OPERATIONS. 



141 



To this note Gen. Beauregard replied as fol- 

 lows : 



s 



o'cli 



HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ) 

 GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA, CHARLESTON, 8. C., > 

 August 22d, 1863. ) 



JIB: Last night, at fifteen minutes before eleven 



clock, during my absence on a reconnoissance of my 

 fortifications, a communication was received at these 

 headquarters, dated " Headquarters Department of the 

 South, Morris Island, S.C., August 21st, 1863," demand- 

 ing " the immediate evacuation of Morris Island and 

 Fort Sumter by the Confederate forces," on the alleged 

 grounds '.' that the present condition of Fort Sumter, 

 and the rapid and progressive destruction which it is 

 undergoing from my batteries, seem to render its com- 

 plete demolition within a few hours a matter of cer- 

 tainty ; " and that if this demand were " not complied 

 with or no reply thereto received within four hours 

 after it is delivered into the hands of your (my) sub- 

 ordinate commander at Fort Wagner for transmission," 

 a fire would be opened " on the city of Charleston 

 from batteries already established within easy and ef- 

 fective range of the heart of the city." This commu- 

 nication to my address was without signature, and 

 was of course returned. 



About half past one o'clock one of your batteries did 

 actually open fire, and threw a number of heavy shells 

 into the city, the inhabitants of which, of course, were 

 asleep and unwarned. 



About nine o'clock this morning the communication 

 alluded to above was returned to these headquarters, 

 bearing your recognized official signature, and it can 

 now be noticed as your deliberate official act. 



Among nations, not barbarous, the usages of war 

 prescribe that when a city is about to be attacked 

 timely notice shall be given by the attacking com- 

 mander, in order that non-combatants may have an 

 opportunity for withdrawing beyond its limits. Gen- 

 erally the time allowed is from one to three days ; that 

 is, time for the withdrawal in good faith of at least the 

 women and children. You, sir, give only four hours, 

 knowing that your notice, under existing circum- 

 stances, could not reach me in less than two hours, 

 and that not less than the same time would be required 

 for an answer to be conveyed from this city to Battery 

 Wagner. With this knowledge, you threaten to open 

 fire on the city, not to oblige its surrender, but to 

 force me to evacuate these works, which you, assisted 

 by a great naval force, have been attacking in vain for 

 more than forty days. 



Batteries Wagner and Gregg and Fort Sumter are 

 nearly due north from your batteries on Morris Isl- 

 and, and in distance therefrom varying from half a 

 mile to two and a quarter miles. The city, on the 

 other hand, is to the northwest, and quite five miles 

 distant from the battery opened against it this morning. 



It would appear, sir, that, despairing of reducing 

 these works, you now resort to the novel measure of 

 turning your guns against the old men, the women, 

 and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping city, an 

 act of inexcusable barbarity from your own confessed 

 point of sight, inasmuch as you allege that the com- 

 plete demolition of Fort Sumter within a few hours by 

 your guns seems to you " a matter of certainty." 



Your omission to attach your signature to such a 

 grave paper must show the recklessness of the course 

 upon which you have adventured ; while the fycts that 

 you knowingly fixed a limit for receiving an answer 

 to your demand, which made it almost beyond the 

 possibility of receiving any reply within that time, and 

 that you actually did open fire and throw a number of 

 the most destructive missiles ever used in war into the 

 midst of a city taken unawares, and filled with sleep- 

 ing women and children, will give you a " bad emi- 

 nence" in history, even in the history of this war. 



I am only surprised, sir, at the limits you have set 

 to your demands. If, in order to attain the abandon- 

 ment of Morris Island and Fort Sumter, you feel au- 

 thorized to fire on this city, why did you not also in- 

 clude the works on Sullivan's and James's Island 



nay, even the city of Charleston in the same de- 

 mand ? 



Since you have felt warranted in inaugurating this 

 method of reducing batteries in your immediate 

 front, which were found otherwise impregnable, and 

 a mode of warfare which I confidently declare to be 

 atrocious and unworthy of any soldier, I now sol- 

 emnly warn you that if you fire again on the city 

 from your Morris Island batteries without giving 

 a somewhat more- reasonable time to remove non-com- 

 batants, I shall feel impelled to employ such stringent 

 means of retaliation as may be available during the 

 continuance of this attack. 



Finally, I reply, that neither the works on Morris 

 Island nor Fort Sumter will be evacuated on the de- 

 mand you have been pleased to make. Already, how- 

 ever, I am taking measures to remove all non-com- 

 batants, who are now fully aware of and alive to what 

 they may expect at your hands. 



Respectfully, your obedient servant, 



G. T. BEAUEEGARD, Gen. Com'g. 



To this letter Gen. Gillmore made the follow- 

 ing response : 



DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, HEADQUARTERS IN 

 THE FIELD, MORRIS ISLAND, 8. C., 



. August 22d, 9 p. M. 



G. T. Beauregard, Commanding Confederate State 

 Forces, Charleston, S. G. : 



Siu : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt 

 of your communication of this date, complaining that 

 one of my batteries has opened upon the city of Charles- 

 ton, and thrown a number of heavy rifle shells into that 

 city, the inhabitants of which, of course, were asleep 

 and unwarned. 



My letter to you demanding the surrender of Fort 

 Sumter and Morris Island, and threatening, in default 

 thereof, to open fire upon Charleston, was delivered 

 near Fort Wagner at -11.15 o'clock p. M. on the 21st in- 

 stant, and should have arrived at your headquarters in 

 time to ha^ permitted your answer to reach me with- 

 in the limit assigned, namely, four hours. 



The fact that you were absent from your headquar- 

 ters at the time of its arrival may be regarded as an 

 unfortunate circumstance for the city of Charleston, but 

 it is one for which I clearly am not responsible. , This 

 letter bore date at my headquarters, and was officially 

 delivered by an officer of my staff. The inadvertent 

 omission of my signature doubtless affords ground for 

 special pleading, but it is not the argument of a com- 

 mander solicitous only for the safety of sleeping wo- 

 men and children and unarmed men. 



Your threats of retaliation for acts of mine, which 

 you do not allege to be in violation of civilized warfare, 

 except as regards the length of time allowed as notice 

 of my intentions, are passed by without comment. I 

 will, "however, call your attention to the well establish- 

 ed principle, that the commander of a place attacked, 

 but not invested, having its avenues of escape open 

 and practicable, has no right to expect any notice of 

 an intended bombardment other than that which is 

 given by the threatening attitude of his adversary. 

 Even had this letter not been written, the city of 

 Charleston has had, according to your own computa- 

 tion, forty days' notice of her danger. During that 

 time my attack upon her defences has steadily pro- 

 gressed. The ultimate object of that attack has at no 

 time been doubtful. 



If, under the circumstances, the life of a single non- 

 combatant is exposed to peril by the bombardment of 

 the city, the responsibility rests with those who have 

 first failed to apprize the non-combatants, or secure the 

 safety of the city, after having held control of all its 

 approaches for a period of nearly two years and a half, 

 in the presence of a threatening force, and who after- 

 ward refused to accept the terms upon which the bom- 

 bardment might have been postponed. From various 

 sources, official and otherwise, I am led to believe that 

 most of the women and children of Charleston were 

 long since removed from the city. But, upon your as- 

 surance that the city is still full of them, I shall sus- 



