August 31.—The rebel transport, Sumter, having on board the Twentieth regiment of South Carolina volunteers, and the Twenty-third regiment of Georgia, was sunk in Charleston harbor by the guns of Fort Moultrie. The Twenty-third Georgia had been on duty at the rebel Battery Wagner, and, being relieved, went on board the steamer to go to Fort Johnson. The tide being low, they could not go the usual course, but steamed off in the direction of Sullivan’s Island. The watch at Moultrie, supposing it to be a Yankee monitor, awakened the gunners, when they opened a spirited fire on the defenceless vessel. Every means possible were employed to signal to them, both from Sumter and the boat, but they recognized no signal.
“The third and fourth shots sunk the boat, yet they kept firing until a small boat was sent to tell them who we were. This was about three o’clock A.M. The men were panic-struck, and leaped off into the water by fifties and hundreds, and it seemed for a while that nearly all would be either killed or drowned; but the cool conduct of Major Ballinger, the Commandant of the Twenty-third Georgia, and a sand-bar on the left of the boat, covered by some four or five feet of water, saved them from a watery grave.
“By nine o’clock, the whole regiment was once more on dry land, and, miraculous as it was, not a single life has been lost by the dangerous wreck. But guns, blankets, oil-cloths, haversacks, canteens, boots and shoes, and, in fact, all kinds of clothing, were left upon the rugged waters of the boiling deep.”—Atlanta Intelligencer.
—The sloop Richard, loaded with cotton, was captured off the coast of Florida, by the United States bark Gem of the Sea.
