Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie

by Abner Doubleday

Regimental Band, First Artillery.

Sergeant James E. Galway. Corporal Andrew Smith. Private Andrew Murphy. Private Fedeschi Onoratti.

Private Peter Rice. Private Henry Schmidt. Private John Urquhart. Private Andrew Wickstrom.

Company E, First Artillery.

First Sergeant Eugene Scheibner. Sergeant Thomas Kirnan. Sergeant William A. Harn. Sergeant James Chester.1 Corporal Owen M’Guire. Corporal Francis J. Oakes. Corporal Charles Bringhurst. Corporal Henry Ellerbrook. Musician Charles Hall. Private Philip Anderman. Private John Emil Noack. Private Cornelius Baker. Private Thomas Carroll Private Patrick Clancy. Private John Davis. Private James Digdam.

Private George Fielding. Private Edward Gallway. Private James Gibbons. Private James Hays. Private Daniel Hough. Private John Irwin. Private James M’Donald. Private Samuel Miller. Private John Newport. Private George Pinchard. Private Frank Rivers. Private Lewis Schroeder. Private Carl A. Sellman. Private John Thompson. Private Charles H. Tozer. Private William Witzman.

Company H, First Artillery.

First Sergeant John Renehan. Sergeant James M`Mahon, Sergeant John Carmody. Sergeant John Otto. Corporal Christopher Costolan. Musician Robert Foster. Artificer Henry Strandt. Private Edward Brady. Private Barney Cain. Private John Doran. Private Dennis Johnson. Private John Kehoe. Private John Klein. Private John Lanagan. Private Frederick Lintner. Private John Magill.

Private John Laroche. Private Frederick Meier. Private James Moore. Private William Morten. Private Patrick Neilan. Private John Nixon. Private Michael O’Donald. Private Robert Roe. Private William Walker. Private Joseph Wall. Private Edmond Walsh. Private Henry R. Walter. Private Herman Will. Private Thomas Wishnowski. Private Casper Wutterpel.

List of Mechanics and Employés present in Fort Sumter during the
Bombardment, April 12th and 13th, 1861.

Employés of the Engineer Department.

George Coons, mason. John Schweirer, mason. John Buckley, smith.

John Lindsay, carpenter. John Sexton, rigger. James Tweedle, smith.

Wm. O. Lyman, overseer

Laborers.

Michael Berne. John Burns. John Brauley. Peter Caine. Patrick Conner. Michael Cummins. William Dorsey. Edward Davis. Patrick Donahoe. Peter Donley. William Eagan. Andrew Felton. Michael Goff. James Howlett. Patrick Heeney. Andrew Linsey.

Dennis Magrath. John M`Carty. James M’Mahon. Michael Meechins. Thomas Murphy. Thomas Myers. William Powers. Edward Quinn. Patrick Quinn. Martin Rafferty. John Riley. Michael Ryan. Jeremiah Ryan. James Ryan. James Shea.

Cooks.

Samuel Abraze.

Patrick Walsh.

––––––––––––––––––

The following is taken from a South Carolina official document, but it seems somewhat defective in detail:

List of Confederate Batteries constructed with a View to the Reduction of Fort Sumter.

––

ON MORRIS ISLAND.

Brigadier-general James W. Simons, commanding; Colonel Wilmot G. De Saussure, commanding Artillery Battalion. Lieutenant J. R. Macbeth, Captain J. Jones, and Lieutenant F. L. Childs, acting as aids to Colonel De Saussure.

––

STEVENS BATTERY. (Fired 1200 shots.)

Three Eight-inch columbiads.

Garrisoned by the Palmetto Guard, Captain George B. Cuthbert commanding; Lieutenant G. L. Buist. The ammunition was served out by Mr. Philips and Mr. Campbell. One gun was disabled on Friday.

––

CUMMINGS POINT BATTERY.

Two forty-two pounders, three ten-inch mortars, one Blakely gun.

Garrisoned by a detachment of the Palmetto Guard, and by cadets from the Citadel Academy in Charleston. Captain J. P. Thomas, of the Citadel Academy, commanding Blakely gun ; Lieutenant C. R. Holmes, of the Citadel Academy, commanding mortars; Lieu-tenant W. W. Armstrong, of the Citadel Academy, at the mortars; Second Lieutenant Thomas Sumter, of the Palmetto Guard, in charge of the forty-two-pounders.

––

CHANNEL BATTERY. (Did not fire.)

Captain Calhoun, commanding; First Lieutenant A. M. Wagner; Lieutenant –– Sitgreaves ; Second Lieutenant M. C. Preston.

––––––

ON JAMES ISLAND.

Major N. G. Evans, A. A. G., commanding.

––

BATTERY OF TWENTY-FOUR-POUNDERS.

Captain George S. James, commanding.

MORTAR BATTERY.

First Lieutenant W. H. Gibbes, of the Artillery ; Lieutenant H. S. Farley ; Lieutenant J. E. M’Pherson, Washington; Lieutenant T. B. Hayne ; Doctor Libby.

UPPER BATTERY. (Fired 2425 shots.)

Two ten-inch mortars.

LOWER BATTERY.

Two ten-inch mortars.

Captain S. C. Thayer, of the S. C. Navy, commanding.

––––––

ON SULLIVAN’S ISLAND.

Brigadier-general John Donovant, commanding. Lieutenant-colonel Roswell S. Ripley, commanding the Artillery ; Captain J. B. Burns, of General Dunovant’s staff; Surgeons P. J. Robinson, R. F. Mitchell, and Arthur Lynch; Assistant-surgeons D. W. Taylor, Doctor F. F. Miles, Doctor F. L. Parker.

––

THE IRON-CLAD FLOATING BATTERY. (At the Cove. Fired 1900 shots.)

Two forty-two-pounders. Two thirty-two pounders.

Garrisoned by Company D, of the Artillery. Captain James Hamilton ; First Lieutenant J. A. Yates, Second Lieutenant F. H. Harleston.

THE DAHLGREN BATTERY. (Near the Floating Battery.)

One nine-inch Dahlgren gun.

Garrisoned by Company D, of the Artillery. Captain S. R. Hamilton; Mr. John Wells.

THE ENFILADE BATTERY. (Fired 1825 shots.)

Garrisoned by Company K, of the Artillery, Captain James H. Hallonquist, Company B, of the Artillery, commanding; First Lieutenant J. Valentine, B. S. Burnett.

MORTAR BATTERY, NO. 1. (Between Fort Moultrie and the Cove.)

Captain James H. Hallonquist, Company B, of the Artillery, commanding. Lieutenant O. Blanding, Lieutenant Fleming.

––––––

FORT MOULTRIE. (Fired 1825 shots.)

Three eight-inch columbiads, two thirty-two-pounders, four twenty-four-pounders.

Garrisoned by the Artillery Battalion under Lieutenant-colonel Ripley. Captain W. R. Calhoun, Company A, of the Artillery, executive officer.

SUMTER BATTERY. (Facing south-south-west.)

Lieutenant Alfred Rhett, Company B, Artillery, commanding; Second Lieutenant John Mitchell, Jun.; Mr. F. D. Blake, Volunteer Engineer.

OBLIQUE BATTERY. (On the west.)

Two twenty four-pounders.

Lieutenant C. W. Parker, Company D, of the Artillery.

MORTAR BATTERY, No. 2. (East of Fort Moultrie.)

Two ten-inch mortars.

Captain William Butler, of the Infantry ; Lieutenant J. A. Hugenin; E. Mowry, Mr. Blocker, Mr. Billings, and Mr. Rice assisted. This battery was joined to the Maffit Channel Battery.

THE TRAPIER BATTERY. (Fired 1300 shots.)

Three ten-inch mortars.

Garrisoned by the Marion Artillery, J. Gadsden King, commanding. Lieutenant W. D. H. Kirkwood, J. P. Strohecker, A. M. Huger, E. L. Parker. The Marion Artillery was afterward relieved by the Sumter Guard, under Captain John Russell.

––––––

AT MOUNT PLEASANT.

BATTERY. (Fired 2025 shots,)

Two ten-inch mortars.

Captain Robert Martin of the Infantry, commanding; Lieutenant G. N. Reynolds, Company B, of the Artillery; Lieutenant D. S. Calhoun, of the Infantry.

THE END

---

1. In some accounts, James Chester is referred to as one of the officers. A career soldier, Chester was a sergeant at Sumter, breveted as a second lieutenant in April 1863 and eventually reached the rank of major during his 44-year service.  While a captain after the civil war, he had at least 3 articles published—with his rank of Captain at the time of writing in the byline—relating his time at Forts Moultrie and Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Some writers inferred from the byline of his post-war writings that he was one of the Sumter officers.

<—back  ­