|
Charleston-Charlottetown Fires
CHARLOTTETOWN- PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; CANADA- 1857 Fire info: 102-104 Water St. One of the oldest brick houses in Charlottetown, this tenement was built by Elizabeth and John Gainsford in 1833. It is of Island made bricks laid in Flemish bond, an interlocking pattern that produces strong walls. In 1857 when the rest of the block was razed, the house was saved from burning "by extraordinary exertions and constant application of wet sheets and blankets to the roof". How happy Mrs. Gainsford must have been that they had built in brick and how sorry she must have been to lose her precious blankets! 100 Water St. The fire of 1857 destroyed the residence of Mr. Robert Longworth. In 1858 he built this fine, two storey clapboard covered dwelling. The Benoit family were later owners and occupants.
CHARLOTTETOWN- PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; CANADA- The Burning Ship: What do people remember seeing? Let the question be answered in the words of those who have experienced these unusual encounters. The following is typical: "One October night I was returning from visiting a neighbor; while walking along I was looking out over the Northumberland Strait where I saw a ship burning. It was a clear night and I could make out the outline of the ship quite distinguishably. I watched it for about twenty minutes and then it disappeared. I had heard so much about the Phantom ship that I decided that it must be it. My sister, who was visiting friends nearby, said she saw the same thing on the same night." Upon occasions the outline of the ship is not reported, as in the following version: "About seven p.m. on January evening my attention was drawn to a ball of fire out on the strait about ten miles out to the right of Pictou Island. It was definitely not a lighthouse and the light, in the shape of a half moon, was a dark red color." Nova Scotian folklorist Helen Creigton has written that the phenomenon often starts out as a ball of fire which develops before the onlookers' eyes into a three-massed ship. Sightings have taken place during all seasons of the year, winter as well as summer; however, the vast majority of "happenings" have occurred during September, October and November, usually before a northeast wind.
CHARLESTON SEIGE (Fire at Ft. Sumter)- From “The Siege of Charleston by Milby Burton, U.S.C. Press, Columbia, SC 1970, pp. 207-208”: Whiskey has been the downfall of many a man. Whiskey has lost battles. But it is doubtful if whiskey has ever been responsible for the loss of a fort. Fort Sumter was holding out against the incredible odds of the combined might of the Union army and navy. The garrison deep down in the rubble dug tunnels within the ruin. These tunnels were not only for the purpose of fast communication between different parts of the fort, but also served as living quarters and storage space, On the morning of December 11, 1863, an explosion took place deep within the fort, killing 11 men and burning or wounding 41 others. For a time no one knew exactly what had happened. Men emerged from the tunnels and fought to get away from the flames and smoke. The offcial records state that the fort "caught fire from accidental explosion of small-arms ammunition depot." The unofficial report is that fumes ignited from a candle held too close to an open barrel of whiskey and caused it to explode." This in turn ignited the small-arms depot next to it. Because it occurred in a confined area, the intensity of the explosion was extreme. If the candle story is not correct, it is possible that the explosion was caused by a spark from the pipe of one of the men waiting in line to draw his rations; or possibly a spark fell on some loose powder leading to the storage depot. The actual cause of the accident will never be known; those who could have told were all killed. Capt. Edward D. Frost, assistant quartermaster, was one of the dead.
The fire became a raging inferno, and since it was underground, there was no way to combat it. A boat from one of the nearby gunboats was sent over with water buckets, and a fire engine was ordered to be sent from the city, but all these efforts were futile. The fire burned steadily, and walls and arches crumbled under the intense heat. The men living in the lower casemates had to evacuate the area, and those in the upper ones were completely cut off. The only way they were saved was by dropping ladders on the outside of the walls and climbing out. Strenuous efforts were made to barricade the passageways to contain the fire, but the barricades soon crumbled under the heat. Nothing could be done to arrest the fire, and it was left to burn itself out.
For a time neither the Union forces stationed on Morris Island nor the forts and batteries on Sullivan's realized that anything was wrong. Because the fire was underground, only a comparatively small amount of smoke was seen. But when the Union forces did realize that something of a serious nature had occurred, they opened up on the burning fort with every available gun and mortar. During the next few hours, over 200 shells were fired at Sumter. In order to try to slow down the Union fire, the mortars on Sullivan's Island opened up on Battery Gregg (Putnam). Colonel Elliott was wounded slightly by one of the Federal shells.
As soon as some semblance of order had been restored, to show that the fighting spirit of the garrison was still intact, although many at that time were unarmed, Colonel Elliott brought his band out on the parapet and had them play "Dixie." When the strains of the music carried to Morris Island, the Union soldiers ceased firing and cheered the garrison." It is possible that this act on Colonel Elliott's part convinced the troops on Morris Island that nothing too serious had occurred within the fort. The heat of the fire was so great that it was ten days before the brick and rubble had cooled sufficiently for the men to enter the area and search for the charred bodies. The troops had lost most of their equipment and were defenseless; that night 200 muskets were sent down from the city with thirty days' rations.
|