We believe that the evacuation of Charleston and of all our scabbard cities would long ago have added to the strength of the Confederacy. It is mortifying to give up a city which is the peculiar object of Federal vengeance, and which has been so long and so heroically defended. But, after a four years resistance to the utmost power of the United States, it loses no honor by the evacuation, which military necessity has compelled. The Yankees may hold Charleston for a time, as the British did in the Revolution, but the end of the war will restore it to the Confederate flag, and it will enter a new career of prosperity and importance. Whatever the event of the struggle, Charleston has covered itself with renown, and will long live in history.
