• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 6956 0

attentions,” he wrote to his wife, who remained in Greenville. “But it was the right thing to do under the circumstances, for we shall soon have to undertake active operations.” No one was sure whether Sherman would head to Charleston after Savannah or march to Richmond via Columbia, South Carolina’s state capital. Either way, the state and its port were doomed. “One thing you may be sure of,” promised Henry, “you will have to be looked after, and I will resign my commission sooner than not be able to do so.” He had persuaded one of the last blockade runners in Charleston to take out £100 worth of cotton for them. This was all the non-Confederate money they possessed, “and will give us some little exchange in the hour of need.”30 Feilden had again been recommended for promotion, this time by General Beauregard and General Hardee. As it was, not only was there no response to the generals’ requests, but Feilden also fell victim to the growing confusion in the War Department. He received contradictory orders, sending him hither and thither, much to the annoyance of Hardee and Beauregard, who both wanted him on their staff. He managed to have the orders rescinded, but his promotion remained in abeyance.31

On January 4, 1865, General Lee detached the veteran South Carolina regiments from his shrinking army and sent them home to defend their state. Feilden was already thinking about evacuation plans. “If we can’t hold Charleston,” he wrote to Julia on the fifth, “I am very sure we shall not burn it up, because there are now in the city and would be left behind, some 15,000 poor men, women and children and negroes, who cannot possibly leave the city in any case, for they would have no place to go, and would die of starvation.” Julia had fantasies about burning their house rather than letting it fall into Federal hands. “It would be a good deal like cutting off one’s nose to spite the face,” he chided. “If Charleston is to be burnt, let the Yankees have the disgrace of doing it. Sherman’s army will commence active operations in South Carolina in a few days.”32 Feilden tried to reassure Julia that a Federal occupation would not be as terrible as she feared. He could not comprehend the pent-up rage many Northerners felt toward South Carolina, and Charleston in particular, for being the cradle of rebellion.33 Nor did he understand the Southern horror of “Negro troops.” “I know it would make no difference to me for I lived in places where there was nothing but Negro troops, Nassau for instance,” he wrote to her, “and I noticed that people; Southerners, English and others seemed to enjoy life just as much as if all the troops in the island were white.”34

The South was undergoing a late but hard lesson in the fighting ability of black soldiers as five Negro regiments joined the Federal assault force for the next attack on Wilmington. At four in the morning on January 13, Admiral Porter’s fleet once again appeared on the horizon, and by eight o’clock the first landing transports were disgorging troops onto the beach. Frank Vizetelly had remained at Fort Fisher, hoping to draw a picture of the fighting. His patience was rewarded with a perfect view of the attack. He was able to capture the entire scene for the Illustrated London News, from the Federal soldiers landing in the distance to the Confederates desperately trying to shore up the fort’s walls in the foreground.

The fort fell two days later, on January 15, although Wilmington itself remained in Confederate hands for the moment. Feilden urged Julia to remain in Greenville. “The people are now dreadfully scared here,” he wrote on January 19. “Many I am sure are sorry that they did not clear out before this. It cannot be long before this city is attacked. I suppose we shall have to yield in the end unless strong reinforcements reach us, of which I see very little hope at present.” Sherman had already set out from Savannah, and stories of Federal atrocities were preceding his advance.35

Ill.58 The fall of Fort Fisher, by Frank Vizetelly.

Julia may have been safe in Greenville,