To the Sumter Club,

Extemporized in origin: unexampled in occasion: abounding with the representatives

of pulpit, press, forum, and counting-room: graced with feminine

beauty and culture: a synonym for patriotic

devotion to

F THE FLAG OF OUR UNION,''

the anniversary of whose resurrection in Charleston Harbor it is henceforth to

celebrate with

FEAST OF REASON, AND FLOW OF LOYAL SOUL,"

this volume is primarily and cordially

DEDICATED.

THE TRIP OF THE OCEANUS

ΤΟ

Fort Sumter and Charleston, South Carolina.

CHAPTER I.

WHEN the welcome intelligence reached the North that Charleston was occupied by the victorious legions of Gen. Sherman, the expectation was universal that a day would be appointed for the formal raising of the United States flag over the ruins of Fort Sumter.

That expectation, our President did not disappoint. With that unerring discernment of appropriate times and seasons, for which he was ever remarkable, he named the fourteenth of April, the fourth anniversary of the surrender, and the lowering of the banner for a four years' banishment. From the first appearance of this proclamation, it was felt that the occasion would

be one around which national and historic interest would gather. Upon that day, every loyal son of the United States would exult, and give praise to God; every traitor or sympathizer with treason, if not too hardened, would blush for the temerity and wickedness which attempted dishonor to the nation's standard; every wellwisher to the American Republic, in foreign lands, would sing in his heart a glad "Te Deum.”

It was known that a steamer, officially commissioned, would convey to the Fort all those who were to take active part in the exercises, together with a few more favored individuals; but what should they do, who were not within that charmed circle, the "ignobile vulgus," who were not so happy as Government patronage, just at this time, would have made them? Fortunately, a few gentlemen, to whom all the passengers of the Oceanus, upon that ever-memorable excursion, will always be grateful, conceived and executed a plan to afford this pleasure to a goodly number of their fellow-citizens.

These gentlemen were Messrs. Stephen M. Griswold and Edwin A. Studwell, of Brooklyn, who subsequently associated with themselves Mr. Edward Cary, Editor of The Union, whose services were confined, however, to issuing the tickets and receiving the money at the office of that paper. In pursuance of a plan arranged by these gentlemen, the steamer "Oceanus" was chartered of the Neptune Steamship Company, G. S. Howland, President, for nine days, for which time she was turned over to the Committee for a trip to Charleston, and such other

TRIP OF THE OCEANUS.

points as the passengers should decide to visit. Origi nally, the plan of the trip embraced not only Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter, but Hilton Head, Fort Fisher, Fortress Monroe, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and possibly City Point, to which-when we heard of the fall of the Rebel capital-Richmond, also, was conditionally added. The expenses of the trip were divided among the passengers equally, so that $100 paid for berth and meals for the round trip.

The first announcement of the proposed excursion was made in The Union of March 30th, in a very modest and succinct manner; the statement was repeated on the following day, and also made from Mr. Beecher's pulpit on Sunday. The result was a rush for tickets, beginning on the 31st, and increasing to such an extent that on Monday, the 3d of April, the Committee enlarged the number of passengers from one hundred and fifty, as originally determined, to one hundred and eighty. The scenes in the office of The Union were extremely amusing, resulting from the earnestness of the applicants, their nervous anxiety each to secure the best accommodations possible, and from the hearty good humor with which all treated each other. The increase in the number of passengers wholly failed to satisfy the demand; twice as many would have eagerly taken the opportunity to go, if possible, and another party was projected, which was abandoned only because no other suitable steamer could be obtained.

Finally, on the eighth of April, it was duly announced