[The following takes place during the Fort Sumter incident, which would eventually act as one of the first sparks of the American Civil War. At this point, reinforcements and supplies have been cut off from the fort.]
On January 5 Crawford jotted into his diary, “Fuel short. Yesterday I placed a sentry over the coal which was fast going. Our fuel is restricted now. The officers had but general fire. None in the bed rooms. Camp women restricted. Hospital [allowed] one fire.” Other items they lacked were soap and candles.
The families made due somehow, the workmen too, but these mostly nameless men, women, and children remained in the background, a chorus in a Greek play, gray, formless things with hardly a murmur as evidence of their presence. One can imagine their discomfort and their fear. Lying upon damp mats on stone floors, huddled within their rank clothing in the darkness without enough blankets, eating miserable food, often half cooked, un-bathed for weeks, fearfully listening for the shouting, which might come at any moment, that the south Carolinians had begun their assault on the fort. Sumter would have been a gloomy residence during the summer. In mid-winter its inhabitants’ existence was little better than most of Charleston’s slaves, perhaps worse. The meager supply of food and fuel sped the departure of some of the laborers, and all the women and children.
Source:
Detzer, David. “Hostages.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 175. Print.
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