--The object of general interest and attention now is
Charleston.
The enemy has a particular hatred for that city, and would enjoy a sweet revenge in its capture.
He is concentrating all the strength of enginery, naval and land, which it is in his power to bring to bear upon its defences.
The weight of metal that will be employed before the decision of the question whether
Charleston shall be taken or not, will exceed that concentrated in any of the sieges of this war, so notable for the magnitude of the means employed in them.
The enemy is never so completely at home as he is in such attacks.
Let him but undertake an enterprise where his machinery and the spade are chiefly available, and he proceeds upon it with a perseverance and energy that have never been surpassed.
So in the essay to break through the defences of
Charleston and reach the heart of that city he is engaged in the employment that suits him best of all, if any that is war like can be said to suit him at all. The bombardment of the place will perhaps exceed anything in history of the kind.--But there are defending
Charleston as brave men as ever walked the earth — men who love their country, and consider it glorious to die for it. They are commanded by an officer who is one of the best military engineers of his day, and who has earned a brilliant fame in this war. If taken at all the place will not be reached until all that man can do has been done to defend it; and we are gratified to learn from the Charleston
Mercury that it has been determined to defend the city "street by street, house by house, as long as there is a foot of earth left to stand upon."--This is in accordance with the expressed wish of the Convention of South Carolina in 1861, when an attack was anticipated.
But
Charleston has not fallen, and there is good reason to be not, only hopeful but cheerful about its fate.
It will be settled soon, and, we hope, by the signal repulse of the enemy.
