ng position after they
had been scattered by the shells, he would strike on the head with the
piece of iron he carried in his hand, and, as his victim fell, would cry
out to some other negro, "Put that fellow in his box," meaning his
coffin.

Whether the superior officers in Fort Sumter knew that Deburgh was
killing the negroes off almost as fast as the shells from Fort Wagner,
or whether they did not know, and did not care, I never have learned.
But I have every reason to believe that one of them at least, namely,
Major John Johnson, would not have allowed such a wholesale slaughter,
had he known. On the other hand I believe that Capt. J.C. Mitchell was
not only mean enough to have allowed it, but that he was fully as
heartless himself.

Whatever became of Deburgh, whether he was killed in Fort Sumter or not,
I never knew.

OUR SUPERIOR OFFICERS.

The two officers in command of Fort Sumter in July of 1864 were Capt.
J.C. Mitchell, and Major John Johnson.

Major Johnson was as kind, gentle, and humane to the negroes as could
have been expected.

On the other hand, the actions of Capt. Mitchell were harsh and very
cruel. He had a bitter hatred toward the Yankees, and during the rain of
shells on Fort Sumter, he sought every opportunity to expose the negroes
to as much danger as he dared.

I remember that one night Capt. Mitchell ordered us outside of Fort
Sumter to a projection of the stone-bed upon which the Fort was built,
right in front of Fort Wagner. At that place we were in far greater
danger from the deadly missiles of the Union forces than we were exposed
to on the inside of Sumter, and I could see no other reasons for his
ordering us outside of the fort that night than that we might be killed
off faster.

It seems that during the incessant firing on Fort Sumter the officers
held a consultation as to whether it was not best to evacuate the fort.
It was at this time that it was rumored,--a rumor that we had every
reason to believe,--that Capt. Mitchell plotted to lock us negroes up in
our quarters in Sumter, known as the Rat-hole; and put powder to it and
arrange it so that both the negroes and the Yankees should be blown up,
when the latter should have taken possession after the evacuation of the
fort by the Confederates.

But we learned that Major John Johnson, who has since become an
Episcopal minister, in Charleston, S.C., wholly refused to agree with
Capt. Mitchell in such a barbarous and cowar