Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Telegram To The Secretary Of The Navy
by Abraham Lincoln
HEADQUARTERS ARMY POTOMAC,
April 9, 1863.
HON. SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:
Richmond Whig of the 8th has no telegraphic despatches from
Charleston, but has the following as editorial:
"All thoughts are now centred upon Charleston. Official intelligence
was made public early yesterday morning that the enemy's iron-clad
fleet had attempted to cross the bar and failed, but later in the day
it was announced that the gunboats and transports had succeeded in
crossing and were at anchor. Our iron-clads lay between the forts
quietly awaiting the attack. Further intelligence is looked for with
eager anxiety. The Yankees have made no secret of this vast
preparation for an attack on Charleston, and we may well anticipate a
desperate conflict. At last the hour of trial has come for
Charleston, the hour of deliverance or destruction, for no one
believes the other alternative, surrender, possible. The heart of
the whole country yearns toward the beleaguered city with intense
solicitude, yet with hopes amounting to confidence. Charleston knows
what is expected of her, and which is due to her fame, and to the
relation she sustains to the cause. The devoted, the heroic, the
great-hearted Beauregard is there, and he, too, knows what is
expected of him and will not disappoint that expectation. We predict
a Saragossa defense, and that if Charleston is taken it will be only
a heap of ruins."
The rebel pickets are reported as calling over to our pickets today
that we had taken some rebel fort. This is not very intelligible,
and I think is entirely unreliable.
