| From the Charleston Mercury |
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| July 11, 1864 |
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| The Bombardment of Fort Sumter |
| The Richmond Dispatch has seen
some interesting statistical tables descriptive of the different kinds
of missiles thrown at Fort Sumter, and other matters connected with
the protracted bombardment, a brief summary of which will doubtless
prove acceptable to our readers. The missiles embrace almost every
description of shells, shrapnel, bolt and shot, from 10 to 23 inches
in length and from3 1/2 to 15 inches in diameter. The heaviest shot
fired weighed 425 pounds. A classification of the shot fired by the
enemy, from April, 1863, to February 21, 1864, shows the following
results: From monitors, 1,443; land guns by day, 14,225; land guns by
night, 4,402; mortars, 7,167; total 27,247; of which number 20,216
struck and 6,964 missed. Yet, shattered and crumbling under the
hailstorm of iron hurled against it, the energy and shill of Southern
engineers has raised a new fort like a Phoenix from the debris, whose
resistive strength defies the utmost malice of the foe. The weight of
metal fired by the enemy against the fort is estimated at 3,627,990
pounds, or 1,620 tons. The number of men killed was 41, of whom 13
were killed by the falling of the wall of the garrison barracks, and
11 by the explosion of the magazine, leaving 17 killed by the enemy
shot. |
| The writer gives an estimate
showing the amount of metal thrown by the enemy to cause the loss to
us of one man: 41 men killed by 3,627,990 pounds of metal, that is
88,487 1/2 pounds, or 39 1/2 tons of iron to the man. Deducting the
number killed by accidents, 24, it leaves 17 men killed by 3,627,990
pounds or metal, that is 218,411 pounds, or 95 1/2 tons of iron to the
man. The following is an estimate showing the number of miles of
railroad track the amount of metal wasted on Fort Sumter would have
laid. A single rail weighs 50 pounds to the yard, which would require
80 tons to lay a track one mile; therefore, 1,620 tons, or the amount
thereon, would have laid a tract 20 1/2 miles. |
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