September 2 [188]6
Chief of Ordnance 
Washington, D.C.
    Sir:
    I hope the earthquake has expended itself, although slight shocks continue.  As stated in my telegram it occurred at 9:20 P.M. Friday, August 31st.  I was seated in a hammock on the porch, my wife was putting the children to sleep upstairs when I heard a rumbling noise and felt a shaking of the house.  I thought that gas had exploded in the cellar.  I hurried into the hall, the noise and shaking increasing until the house swayed and  rocked like a ship on a rough sea.  My wife called me to come upstairs and get the children out.  When I reached the room the rocking was as great as to render it difficult to stand.  The plaster was falling all round.  I got the smaller child from his bed and told my wife to hurry the elder ones downstairs.  We got out amidst falling plaster and cornice, a noise as of rolling thunder and a creaking of mortar and bricks indescribable.  When we reached the reached the front piazza of heavy granite columns and body, it was swaying as a tree in a strong breeze.  My wife hesitated to cross it but I told her to go on and we got out safely.  We went some ten or fifteen yards to a tree and stood there as the successive shocks waved and swayed the earth to and fro, the houses creaking and rocking; all in terror and disarray.  The shrieking of one of our servants made it my duty to return to the back room upstairs to aid her, but she had essayed to get down and out the back way by the time I got to her room.  Her shrieking called the soldiers to my quarters where they expected to find dead and dying.  They had been driven from their barracks by the earthquake.  They gallantly entered the house in darkness and terror, but all were out.  They did everything possible to assure and aid us.  They were cool and eager to do.  Capt. Grealish by this time had gotten his family to a small adjoining cottage of wood occupied by Mr. Oliver the Asst. Storekeeper and came to me.  I sent him to ascertain whether we could aid our neighbors on the "Hill", if they needed it.  But my own and his house, both of brick and nearly two and a half feet thick were the only ones in the vicinity seriously affected.  Wooden houses vibrated, but did not sustain serious injury.  To withstand earthquakes houses must not be rigid as are the officers quarters here or rather as were our quarters; for I consider them as hardly habitable hereafter, certainly not now.  They are racked into fissures all over.  The parapets fell from them and the exposed timbers are rotten.  I will quarter temporarily in the office building.  Capt. Grealish with the Asst. Storekeeper.  His house is worse racked than my own and it is dangerous even to enter it.  I consider our escape as miraculous, a little more trembling of the earth would have buried us all in the ruins of our houses. 

    The storehouses, soldiers quarters and shop building, were racked somewhat and will need repairing, but not extensively.  Several hundreds of dollars will suffice.  But some early estimate is necessary as regards my own and the storekeeper's quarters.  The old ought to be taken down; or very extensively renewed.  The roofs are badly used up and will not keep water out.

    I have necessarily stated my personal experience in the foregoing.  No one was hurt fortunately, but none was without a slight tremor at this recollection of last Friday night. 

                                                                                     Very Respy. Your Obt. Servt.
                                                                                         (Signed) J. M. Reilly
                                                                                            Maj. Ord.
                                                                                            Comdg.
 
 

Return to Charleston Earthquake Pit Feature page