THE OLD FLAG AT FORT SUMTER. 465 firm, and judicious management, he soon established friendly relations between the citizens and soldiers. His orders were marked by conciliation, justice, firmness, and forbearance, and commanded universal respect; and, at the end of a month after the evacuation of the city by the Confederate troops, when Woodford resigned his command into the hands of Colonel Gurney, that which, it was supposed, would remain the most rebellious of all cities, was really the most docile and orderly. The inhabitants "accepted the situation," and society, in a large degree, resumed its normal condition." A few weeks after the fall of Charleston, and on the anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter, four years before," the identical flag which was then taken down, folded up and borne away by Major Anderson, the brave defender of the post, was, by the same April 14, 1861. hand, again flung to the breeze over that fortress, which had been reduced to an almost shapeless mass of rubbish. Major Anderson had borne away the tattered flag, with a resolution to raise it again over the fortress, or be wrapped in it as his winding sheet, at the last. He was permitted to raise it there again, before the war had ended, and then to bear it away a second time, for the next office to which he had dedicated it." 1 There was a general expectation in Charleston, that a spirit of vengeance would be manifested by the conquerors, and they were astonished to find that about the only kind of "tyranny" to which they were to be subjected, was foreshadowed in the following paragraph in Colonel Woodford's first order : "The people are invited to open their schools and churches, and resume, as far as possible, the avocations of peace. They are required to behave in an orderly manner. No disloyal act or utterance will be tolerated. The National flag must be honored and the National laws obeyed." James Redpath was appointed Superintendent of Education, for the post. 2 The following extract, from Woodford's General Order No. 19, will indicate what had been accomplished in Charleston, in the space of a single month:-"The churches and stores have been generally opened. Three thousand children attend public school. Four thousand citizens have voluntarily taken the oath of allegiance, and the six offices established for that purpose, have been constantly thronged." 3 See page 331, volume I. 4 This was the general appearance of the interior of Fort Sumter, when the writer sketched it, at the beginning of April, 1866. 'April 14. 5 When intelligence reached Washington of the evacuation of Charleston, the President of the United States appointed the anniversary of the fall of Fort Sumter,' as the day when the old flag should be raised again over that fortress, by Major (now General) Anderson. Preparations were made accordingly. A large number of citizens went from the harbor of New York in the steamer Oceanus, to assist in the ceremonies. Colonel Stewart L. Woodford had charge of the exercises of the day, a the fort. When the multitude were assembled around the flag-staff, William B. Bradbury led them in singing his song of Victory at Last, followed by Rally Round the Flag. The Rev. Mathew Harris, Chaplain of the United States Army, who made the prayer at the raising of the flag over Sumter on December 27, 1860 (see page VOL. III.-108 |