The story of the great march. From the diary of a staff officer. By Brevet Major George Ward Nichols.

A SALUTE IN HONOR OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 199
not give them time to reform, but drove the entire force
through the town at the double-quick. Our soldiers were
at one end of the bridge while the Rebels were leaving the
other, but too late to save it from the flames. We captured
twenty-five cannon which had been brought to this place
from Charleston; they were Blakelys, twenty-pound Parrotts, and two of Rebel manufacture. All but the Blakelys have been destroyed. These guns, used so effectively
upon our fleet at Charleston, will be carried to the sea-coast
as trophies. General Mower fired them to-day in a salute
in honor of the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln for his second
term. Our honored President would have been as glad
and proud as we, could he have heard the roaring of our
cannon and our shouts of joy and victory. His first inauguration was not celebrated in South Carolina by loyal
hearts and hands; but the glorification over the beginning
of his second term goes to make up the deficiency.
The rebels appear to have made this place a grand d6p6t
for the munitions of war hurried away from Charleston in
anticipation of attack. Besides the cannon, we have captured thousands of small-arms, a great quantity of fixed
ammunition, and twenty tons of gunpowder, with commissary stores more than sufficient to fill all the wagons of the
17th Corps, and part of those of the 15th.
There can now be no doubt that the Rebels, after discoving their mistake in supposing our movement was upon
Charleston, were united in their opinion that after the occupation of Columbia we would move at once upon Charlotte.
All our subsequent operations seemed to indicate that point
as our next objective; and, notwithstanding the delay in
crossing the Catawba, the Rebels were not undeceived even
up to the time of the appearance of the head of column of
the 17th Corps approaching on the Camden road. Although