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He then hastened to Morris Island to join in the attack on Fort Wagner. Five batteries were speedily erected across the island to confront Wagner, and at noon (July 13) Gillmore opened a bombardment of that fort. Dahlgren, at the same time, moved his "monitors" nearer to it, and poured a continuous stream of shells upon it. From noon until sunset 100 guns were continually assailing the fort, which replied with only two guns at long intervals.

When night fell, a tremendous thunderstorm swept over the harbor and the isl ands, when General Strong, with a heavy assaulting party, moved upon the fort. It was composed of a Massachusetts regiment of colored troops, under Col. R. G. Shaw, and one regiment each from Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania. The storming party advanced against a shower of shot and shell from Wagner, Sumter, and Battery Gregg. When at the fort they were met by a furious tempest of musketry, while howitzers swept the ditch where the assailants were crossing. Hand-grenades were also thrown upon the Unionists. Colonel Shaw was shot dead, and fell among the slain of his dusky followers. General Strong, and also Colonel Chatfield, of the Connecticut regiment, were mortally wounded. The Nationals were repulsed, when another brigade pushed forward to the assault, led by Col. H. L. Putnam. It was composed of Ohio and New York troops. Some of Putnam's men actually got into the fort, but were expelled. Finally their leader was killed, and the second storming party was repulsed. The loss on the part of the Nationals was fearful. The Confederates said they buried 600 of them in front of the fort. Among the bodies of the slain so buried was that of Colonel Shaw, who was cast into a trench, and upon it were piled those of his slain colored troops. He was hated by the Confederates because he commanded negro troops.

Siege of Fort Sumter.-Gillmore now abandoned the idea of assaults, and began a regular siege. He planted batteries of heavy siege and breaching guns at different points, and mounted a 200-pounder Parrott gun upon a battery constructed of timber in a marsh between Morris and

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James islands, which might hurl shell upon the city, or, at least, upon the shipping and wharves of Charleston. gun was named The Swamp Angel." It was about 5 miles from Charleston. On the morning of Aug. 17 Gillmore, having completed his arrangements for attack, opened the guns from twelve batteries and from Dahlgren's naval force on Forts Sumter and Wagner and Battery Gregg. Fort Sumter, 2 miles distant, was the chief object of attack-to make it powerless as an assistant of Fort Wagner. This was continued until the 24th, when Gillmore telegraphed to Washington, "Fort Sumter is to-day a shapeless and harmless mass of ruins." "The Swamp Angel" sent some 150-lb. shells that fell in Charleston-one penetrating St. Michael's Church and greatly alarmed the people.

On the fall of Sumter, the attack centred on Fort Wagner; and at two o'clock on the morning of Sept. 7 General Terry, with 3,000 troops, in three columns, was about to advance to assail that strong fortification, when it was found that the Confederates had evacuated it and Battery Gregg before midnight. During forty hours no less than 120,000 pounds of iron had been rained upon the fort. Dahlgren, believing the channel to be strewn with torpedoes, did not venture to pass the silent forts with his vessels and appear before Charleston.

Indeed, Sumter was not dead, but slumbering. On the night of Sept. 8 a portion of the men of the squadron went in thirty row-boats to take possession of Sumter. They scaled the ruins, where, as they supposed, the decimated garrison were sleeping, but were met by determined men, and repulsed. They were assailed not only by the garrison, but by neighboring batteries, a gunboat, and a "ram," and lost 200 men, four boats, and three colors.

Finally, on Oct. 26, perceiving the garrison mounting cannon on the southeast face of Sumter, to command Fort Wagner, Gillmore opened heavy rifled cannon on the former, which soon reduced it to an utterly untenable ruin. From that time until near the close of the year Gillmore kept up an irregular fire on Charleston, when, seeing no prospect of the fleet entering the harbor, he kept silent. When Hardee, in command of the Con

federate troops at Charleston, heard of the fall of COLUMBIA (q. v.), he perceived the necessity for his immediate flight, by the only railway then left open for his use, and of endeavoring to join Beauregard, with the remnant of Hood's army, then making their way into North Carolina, where Johnston was gathering all of his available forces in Sherman's path. Hardee at once fired every building, warehouse, or shed in Charleston stored with cotton, and destroyed as much other property that might be useful to the Nationals as possible. The few remaining inhabitants in the city were filled with consternation, for the flames spread through the town. An explosion of gunpowder shook the city to its foundations and killed fully 200 persons. Four whole squares of buildings were consumed.

that stood upon the northern slope of the Wyllys Hill, in Hartford, a beautiful elevation on the south side of Charter Oak Street, a few rods east from Main Street. The trunk was 25 feet in circumference near the roots. A large cavity, about 2 feet from the ground, was the place of concealment of the original charter of Connecticut from the summer of 1687 until the spring of 1689, when it was brought forth, and under it Connecticut resumed its charter government.

In 1800 a daughter of Secretary Wyllys, writing to Dr. Holmes, the annalist, said of this tree: "The first inhabitant of that name [Wyllys] found it standing in the height of its glory. Age seems to have curtailed its branches, yet it is not exceeded in the height of its coloring or the richness of its foliage. The cavity which was the asylum of our charter was near the roots, and large enough to admit a child. Within the space of eight years that cavity has closed, as if it had fulfilled the divine purpose for which it had been reared."

That night (Feb. 17, 1865), the last of Hardee's troops left Charleston. On the following morning Major Hennessy, sent from Morris Island, raised the National flag over ruined Fort Sumter. The mayor surrendered the city, and some National troops, with negroes in Charleston, soon This tree was blown down by a heavy extinguished the flames that threatened gale on Aug. 21, 1856. The Wyllys Hill to devour the whole town. On that day (Feb. 18, 1865), the city of Charleston was repossessed" by the national government, with over 450 pieces of artillery, a large amount of gunpowder, and eight locomotives and other rolling-stock of a railway. General Gillmore took possession of the city, and appointed Lieut.-Col. Stewart L. Woodford military governor.

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Charlestown, a town in West Virginia, where on Dec. 2, 1859, John Brown was hung, and on the 16th, Green, Copeland, Cook, and Coppoc, and on March 16, 1860, Stephens and Hazlett. See BROWN, JOHN.

Charlevoix, PIERRE FRANÇOIS XAVIER DE, traveller; born in Saint-Quentin, France, Oct. 29, 1682. He was sent as a Jesuit missionary to Quebec in 1705; later returned to France; and in 1720 again went to Canada. On his second visit he ascended the St. Lawrence River; travelled through Illinois; and sailed down the Mississippi to New Orleans; and returned to France in 1722. His publications include Histoire de la nouvelle France. He died in La Fleche, France, Feb. 1, 1761. See JESUIT MISSIONS.

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THE CHARTER OAK.

has been graded to a terrace, called Charter Oak Place, fronting on old Charter Oak Street, running east from Main Street, and now called Charter Oak Avenue. On the terrace, a few feet from the entrance to Charter Oak Place, a white-marble slab marks the exact spot Charter Oak, THE, a famous oak-tree where the famous tree stood.

Charters, granted to corporate towns to protect their manufactures by Henry I. in 1132; modified by Charles II. in 1683; the ancient charters restored in 1698. Alterations were made by the Municipal Reform act in 1835. Ancient Anglo-Saxon charters are printed in Kemble's Codex Diplomaticus, 1829. For colonial charters in the United States, see different State articles.

Chase, ANN, patriot; born in Ireland, in 1809; came to the United States in 1818; settled in New Orleans in 1832, and in Tampico, Mexico, in 1833, where she married Franklin Chase, United States consul, in 1836. During the war with Mexico she held possession of the consulate, in the absence of her husband, to protect the American records. A mob attempted to remove the American flag which floated over the consulate, but she protected it with drawn revolver, exclaiming that her flag would not be touched except over her dead body. Later, through her efforts, the city of Tampico was captured without the loss of life or treasure. She died in Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1874.

Chase, SALMON PORTLAND, statesman; born in Cornish, N. H., Jan. 13, 1808. When twelve years of age he was placed in charge of his uncle, Bishop Chase, in Ohio, who superintended his tuition. He entered Cincinnati College; and after a year there returned to New Hampshire and entered Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1826. He taught school and studied law in Washington, D. C., and was admitted to the bar there in 1829. The next year he went to Cincinnati to practise, where he became eminent. He prepared an edition of the Statutes of Ohio, with copious notes, which soon superseded all others. In 1834 he became solicitor of the Bank of the United States in Cincinnati. Acting as counsel for a colored woman who was claimed as a slave (1837), he controverted the authority of Congress to impose any duties or confer any powers, in fugitive-slave cases, on State magistrates. The same year, in his defence of J. G. BIRNEY (q. v.), prosecuted under a State law for harboring a fugitive slave, Mr. Chase asserted the doctrine that slavery was local, and dependent upon State law

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Ohio, and was ever afterwards active in its conventions, as well as in the ranks of the opposers of slavery. The Democrats of the Ohio legislature elected him (1849) to a seat in the United States Senate, where he opposed the Fugitive Slave Bill and other compromise measures, and, on the nomination of Mr. Pierce for the Presidency, he separated from the Democratic party. He opposed the KANSASNEBRASKA BILL (q. v.), and in 1855 was elected governor of Ohio.

He was one of the founders of the Republican party in 1856, and was governor until 1859. In 1861 he became Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, under President Lincoln, and managed the finances of the nation with great ability until October, 1864, when he was appointed Chief-Justice of the United States in place of Judge Taney, deceased. In that capacity he presided at the trial of President Johnson in the spring of 1868. Being dissatisfied with the action of the Republican majority in Congress, Mr. Chase was proposed, in 1868, as the Democratic nominee for President. He was willing to accept the nomination, but received only four out of 663 votes in the convention.

He then withdrew from the political field, but in 1872 he opposed the re-election of General Grant to the Presidency. He died in New York City, May 7, 1873.

Chase, SAMUEL, jurist; born in Somerset county, Md., April 17, 1741; admitted to the bar in 1761; entered on practice at Annapolis, and soon rose to distinction. He was twenty years a member of the colonial legislature; was a strong opposer of the Stamp Act; a member of the Committee of Correspondence; and a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-79). In 1776 he was a fellow-commissioner of Franklin and Carroll to seek an alliance with the Canadians, and was efficient in changing the sentiments of Maryland in favor of independence, so as to authorize him and his colleagues to vote for the Declaration, which he signed. In 1783 Mr. Chase was sent to England, as agent for Maryland, to redeem a large sum of money intrusted to the Bank of England, $650,000 of which was finally recovered. From 1791 to 1796 he was chief-justice of his State, and was a warm supporter of the administrations of Washington and Adams.

In the session of Congress in the early part of 1804, it was determined by the leaders of the dominant, or Democratic, party to impeach Judge Chase, then associate-justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was an ardent Federalist, and warmly attached to the principles of Washington's administration. At the instance of John Randolph, of Virginia, Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, he was impeached for his conduct during the trial of Callender and Fries, solely on political grounds. Eight articles of impeachment were agreed to, most of them by a strict party vote. One was founded on his conduct at the trial of Fries (see FRIES), five on the trial of Callender (see CALLENDER, J. T.), and two on a late charge to a Maryland grand jury. Having been summoned by the Senate to appear for trial, he did so (Jan. 2, 1805), and asked for a delay until the next session. The boon was refused, and he was given a month to prepare for trial. His case excited much sympathy and indignation, even among the better members of the administration party. His age, his Revolutionary services, and his pure judi

cial character, all pleaded in his favor, and not in vain, for he was acquitted.

The Senate-the tribunal before which he was tried-was presided over by Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, who had returned from his flight southward after his duel with Hamilton. He had taken a seat in the Senate, notwithstanding his reputation was permanently blasted and an indictment for murder was impending over him. Judge Chase's trial served to check the overbearing demeanor of the judges on the bench which prevailed in his time. He died June 19, 1811.

Chastellux, FRANÇOIS JEAN, CHEVALIER DE, historian; born in Paris, France, in 1734; served in the American Revolution under Rochambeau as a major-general. His amiability gained him the friendship of Washington. He was the author of Voyage dans l'Amérique septentrionale dans les années 1780-82; Discours sur les avantages et les déssavantages qui résullent pour l'Europe de la découverte de l'Amérique, etc. He also translated into French Humphrey's Address to the Army of the United States. He died in Paris, Oct. 28, 1788.

Chatham, EARL OF. See PITT, WILLIAM. Chatham Island, one of the Galapagos Archipelago, in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles west of Ecuador, to which it belongs. It is of volcanic origin, the fifth in size of the Galapagos, and abounds in turtles and a small species of cat. Chatham Island has been the subject of negotiation between the United States and Ecuador, the former desiring it as a coaling station. It would possess strategic importance in the event of the opening of an isthmian canal.

On

Chattahoochee, PASSAGE OF THE. the morning of July 3, 1864, General Johnston's Confederate army passed in haste through Marietta, Ga., and on towards the Chattahoochee River, a deep and rapid stream, closely followed by Sherman with the National army, who hoped to strike his antagonist a heavy blow while he was crossing that stream. By quick and skilful movements, Johnston passed the Chattahoochee without much molestation and made a stand behind intrenchments on its left bank. Again Sherman made a successful flanking movement. Howard laid a pontoon bridge 2 miles above the ferry where the Confederates crossed. Demon

Chauncey, ISAAC, naval officer; born

strations by the rest of the Nationals made ary Ridge, within 3 miles of the town. Johnston abandon his position and retreat See CHICKAMAUGA, BATTLE OF; CHICKAto another that covered Atlanta. The left MAUGA NATIONAL PARK. of the Confederates rested on the Chattahoochee, and their right on Peach-tree Creek. There the two armies rested some time. On July 10, or sixty-five days after Sherman put his army in motion southward, he was master of the country north and west of the river on the banks of which he was reposing-nearly one-half of Georgia-and had accomplished the chief object of his campaign, namely, the advancement of the National lines from the Tennessee to the Chattahoochee.

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Chattanooga, ABANDONMENT OF. 1863 the Army of the Cumberland. under Rosecrans, after crossing the Cumberland Mountains in pursuit of the Confederates under Bragg, was stretched along the Tennessee River from a point above Chattanooga 100 miles westward. Rosecrans determined to cross that stream at different points, and, closing around Chattanooga, attempts to crush or starve the Confederate army there. General Hazen was near Harrison's, above Chattanooga (Aug. 20). He had made slow marches, displaying camp-fires at different points, and causing the fifteen regiments of his command to appear like the advance of an immense army.

On the morning of Aug. 21 National artillery under Wilder, planted on the mountain-side across the river, opposite Chattanooga, sent screaming shells over that town and among Bragg's troops. The latter was startled by a sense of immediate danger; and when, soon afterwards, Generals Thomas and McCook crossed the Tennessee with their corps and took possession of the passes of Lookout Mountain on Bragg's flank, and Crittenden took post at Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley, nearer the river, the Confederates abandoned Chattanooga, passed through the gaps of Missionary Ridge, and encamped on Chickamauga Creek, near Lafayette in northern Georgia, there to meet expected National forces when pressing through the gaps of Lookout Mountain and threatening their communications with Dalton and Resaca. From the lofty summit of Lookout Mountain Crittenden had seen the retreat of Bragg. He immediately led his forces into the Chattanooga Valley and encamped at Ross's Gap, in Mission

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