The Manchester Journal

THE MANCHESTER JOURNAL
MANCHESTER, VT.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1865
FOWLER & HOYT.

The Fall of Charleston.

It is now nearly four years since the stars and stripes were lowered to traitors in Charleston harbor. After four years of continuous warfare, the flag of the Union is raised over the ruins of the fort which they surrendered, and the streets of Charleston are filled with loyal troops. The national honor is vindicated, and just vengeance has overtaken the rebellious city.

The circumstances attendant upon the surrender of Fort Sumter are well remembered. The balconies of the public buildings on the piers of Charleston were crowded with ladies in their gayest apparel, who watched the smoke of the distant conflict and listened admiringly to the roar of artillery. The city guards, in splendid uniform, were scattered here and there, sharing with the battle sights and sounds the attention of the brilliant audience above, who looked upon war as a pretty pastime. All Charleston took a holiday to see the flag of the Union trailed in the dust. The fort fell, and its fall was welcomed with the ringing of bells, and the firing of salutes, and every demonstration of delight. If in the midst of that great rejoicing, the curtain of the future could have been raised upon the next four years, with what horror would they have started back from the prospect. They were inaugurating an era of bloodshed and suffering such as has seldom been recorded. The bells that were ringing so merrily were summoning them to their death. In rejoicing over the fall of Sumter, they were rejoicing over the destruction of their city, the depopulation of the South, and the devastation of the fairest country on the continent. In a distant city, over the same news, there was a meeting of a different character: and an eloquent voice was proclaiming, in words that were echoed throughout the North, that the day of peace would never come until the tattered flag of Sumter again floated over its walls.

After the fall of Fort Sumter the troops were hurried to the North, and the war was transferred to distant fields. The Border States were made the battle-ground, and the nursery of secession seemed in little danger of being overrun by hostile armies. But the war became something more than a gay parade for men and a pleasant spectacle for ladies. Mighty battles were fought, and the dead were numbered by thousands. Four years of warfare as terrible as ever shook the plains of Europe, have left but few of that Palmetto chivalry who rushed so madly into the war of secession. The daughters of South Carolina who witnessed with such exquisite pleasure the bombardment of Sumter and cheered on the troops as they left for the Northern wars, are in mourning for those who have never returned; and her sons who went forth so gaily for the capture of Washington are under the sod of battle-fields over which the flag of the Union waves in triumph.

For four years the Union columns have struggled on towards the heart of the Confederacy, and the circle of fire so long seen from a distance has at last swept over the soil of South Carolina. The people of that State have sown the wind and reapt the whirlwind. The little tide of war which they rolled Northward with taunts and gibes, has come back upon them the mightiest conflict of the age, with pestilence, fire and famine, in its train. The disgraced flag which they sent North with a handful of released prisoners, has been brought back again by an army of a hundred thousand men. Whatever else the future may have in store for us, we have the consolation of knowing that the State responsible for this great crime of rebellion has not escaped without some of the horrors of the war.

The State of South Carolina, with all its chivalrous instincts, had an eye to interest in opening the war as it did. The Border States were to be drawn into the conflict and made the battle-field, in order that the cotton States might be free from the greater part of the evils of the war. Virginia was hesitating when Fort Sumter was taken for the purpose of drawing that State into the vortex of secession. It accomplished what was expected, and dearly has Virginia paid for her treason. But South Carolina was rousing a more powerful foe than she anticipated, and her calculations, although securing the destruction of Virginia, have not saved her from the same fate. Now that the war has reached South Carolina, we can feel that its end is not far distant.