enemy's engineers were quite as well aware as ours of the relative weakness of the north-west face of Sumter (which had never been completed -the fort being designed, indeed, to guard the harbor, but not against an offensive so formidable and persistent as ours), and had no idea of allowing our iron-clads to pass their heaviest batteries and concentrate their fire upon that quarter. Accordingly, when the Weehawken had come fully abreast of Sumter, and completely under the fire of Moultrie's and other batteries as well as hers, she found herself confronted by a stout hawser buoyed up by empty casks, stretching completely across the channel from the north-west angle of Fort Sumter to Moultrie, and festooned with nets, seines, cables, &c., attached to torpedoes below-all contrived, if the torpedoes failed to destroy any vessel which might attempt to break the hawser, at least to foul her propeller and deprive her crew of all command over her movements, leaving her to drift helpless and useless where a few hours at most must insure her demolition. Capt. Rodgers did not choose to squander his vessel so recklessly; and, after a brief hesitation, attempted to pass westward of Fort Sumter, between that and Cumming's Point: but this channel was found obstructed by a row of great piles, driven far into the earth and rising ten feet above the surface of the water; with another row stretching across its entire width a mile or so farther up the harbor; with still another behind this, backed by three Rebel iron-clads, all smoking and roaring in concert with the forts and batteries on every side. And now, as if our embarrassments were too trivial, the Ironsides is caught by the tide and veered off her course, refusing to mind her helm, and deranging the movements of her consorts: the Catskill and Nantucket running afoul of her on either side, and requiring a precious quarter of an hour to get clear again. This constrained Com. Dupont to signal the rest of the fleet to disregard the movements of the Ironsides, and take the positions wherein their fire would prove most effective. Thus directed, Lt. Rhind ran the Keokuk within 500 yards of Fort Sumter, and there held her, pouring in her hottest fire, till she was riddled and sinking; the Catskill and the Montauk being scarcely farther off. Let the observer already quoted depict for us the manner of serving the guns in those narrow, dim-lit caverns, the turrets of the monitors: "Could you look through the smoke, and through the flame-lit ports, into one of those revolving towers, a spectacle would meet your eye such as Vulcan's stithy might preHere are the two huge guns which sent. form the armament of each monitor-the one 11 and the other 15 inches in diameter of bore. The gunners, begrimed with powder and stripped to the waist, are loading the gun. The allowance of powder-thirtyfive pounds to each charge-is passed up rapidly from below; the shot, weighing four hundred and twenty pounds, is hoisted up by mechanical appliances to the muzzle of the gun, and rammed home; the gun is run out to the port, and tightly 'compressed;' the port is open for an instant, the captain of the gun stands behind, lanyard in hand'Ready, fire!' and the enormous projectile weight of ten thousand tons, home to its rushes through its huge parabola, with the mark." For half an hour thereafter, our sailors maintained the unequal and plainly hopeless contest-all of them under the fire of hundreds of the heaviest and best rifled guns that could be made, or bought, or stolen. The Rebel gunners had been direct OUR MONITORS REPULSED-THE KEOKUK SUNK. 471 ed by Beauregard, then in chief command at Charleston, to fire very deliberately and with careful aim; yet 160 shots per minute were counted: and one of our commanders declared that the great iron bolts of the enemy crashed upon the decks and sides of our vessels in succession as rapid as the ticks of a watch. Most of these, of course, rebounded or glanced off, and were added to the pavement of the harbor; but even these often left ugly mementoes of their hasty visit; while the attentions of some were far more impressive. The Nahant carried off thirteen ugly bruises; one of them made by a shot which struck her pilot-house, knocking out several of its bolts, one of which wounded all three of the inmatescaptain, pilot, and quartermaster— the last fatally. Four of her crew were injured by a similar injury to her turret. The Passaic had as many wounds—one of them from a shot which passed through the 11inch plates of her turret, and then had force left seriously to damage her pilot-house beyond. The Nantucket had, among others, a knock on her turret which so deranged it that her port could not be opened thereafter. The Ironsides had one of her port shutters shot away; and the Catskill was struck by a bolt which tore through her deck-plating forward, and still had force to break an iron beam beneath it. But the Keokuk, though not the strongest among them, had dared most and suffered most. She was struck 90 times, had both her turrets riddled, with 19 holes through her hull; some of them so large that a "Half a dozen pock-marks show conspicuous; while a huge crater is formed in the para boy might have crawled through, while her commander and 11 of her crew were wounded, five of them severely. She was at length compelled to draw off, mortally injured, and, limping away down the coast of Morris island to Lighthouse inlet, she had barely been relieved of her wounded, when, at 8 P. M., she sunk the last of her crew jumping into the sea as she went down, leaving only the top of her smoke-stack above the surface of the water. Three hours earlier, Com. Dupont, seeing half his vessels disabled, while Sumter, though somewhat damaged," was still vociferous and belligerent as ever-gave the signal for retiring; which was willingly, though not swiftly, obeyed. 43 The iron-clad attack on Fort Sumter and its adjuncts was a failure— not a disaster. We lost few men, and but one vessel; for all but the Keokuk were susceptible of easy repair; while the expenditure of ammunition was many times greatest on the side of the Rebels, and one that they could not afford so well as we could. It was computed that 3,500 shots were fired by them that day; the value of which was hardly to be measured by Confederate currency in its then advanced stage of decomposition. Two guns on Fort Sumter were disabled, and one was burst; while they had but few men injured and only one killed. But their exultation over our repulse was unbounded: Beauregard, for once, hardly going beyond the average sentiment in averring, in his general order, that "the happy issue" of this conflict had "inspired confidence in pet near the eastern angle," reports Mr. Swinton aforesaid. will be complete." the country that our ultimate success after in South Carolina under Hunter; save that Col. Montgomery, with 300 of his 2d S. C. (negroes) on two steamboats, went " 25 miles up the Combahee river, burnt a pontoon-bridge, with some private property, and brought away 727 very willing slaves-all that they could take, but not nearly all that wished to be taken. The 2d S. C. recruited two full companies out of 'the spoils.' Gen. Hunter had a supporting force of some 4,000 men, under Gen. Truman Seymour, carefully concealed behind a thicket of palms just below Lighthouse inlet, with pontoons, guns, &c., all ready to rush across to Morris island and attack the Rebel forces stationed thereon-either party screening its position and numbers by the usual picket-firing at the front. When it was made manifest that Dupont was worsted, Adjutant Halpine was sent with all haste to Seymour with orders to desist: so no useless slaughter on land intensified the bitterness of our failure on the water. The Rebels say that a blockaderunner in the harbor during the fight ran out through our fleet during the ensuing night, unperceived or unsuspected; and it is certain that our gunboat George Washington, reconnoitering next day," up Broad river, having got aground, was attacked by a party of Rebels, who succeeded in throwing a shell into her magazine and blowing her up; killing 2 and wounding 8 of the 3d R. I. Artillery. Dupont, like most old sailors, was naturally partial to fighting on deck, and not a lover of iron-clads. The issue of this struggle ripened his distrust into detestation. He had failed, with 1,000 men and 30 guns, to take, at the first effort, what was probably the best fortified seaport on earth, defended by at least ten times his force in men and metal; and he utterly refused to repeat the experiment. The Fingal, a British-built blockade-runner, which had slipped" into Savannah with a valuable cargo of arms, and been loaded with cotton for her return, found herself unable, especially after the fall of Pulaski, to slip out again; and, after many luckless attempts, was unloaded, and iron-clad into what was esteemed a high state of warlike efficiency—14 months having been devoted to the work. She was now christened the ATLANTA, and, wafted from the wharves of Savannah by a breeze of prayers and good wishes, moved down the inlet known as Wilmington river into Warsaw sound, attended by two gunboats and intent on belligerency. Meantime, two poor Irishmen, tired of the Confederacy, had escaped to Hilton Head, and there revealed the character of the craft and the nature of her seaward errand. Hunter's Adjutant, Halpine, a brother Irishman, who had wormed out their secret, by the help of a fluid which seldom fails to unloose the Celtic tongue, at once sped the information to Dupont; who forthwith dispatched the Weehawken and the Nahant to Warsaw sound, wherein the Cimarone alone had There were no movements there- been previously stationed. 44 April 8. 45 June 2. 46 Nov. 12, 1861. GILLMORE AND DAHLGREN TAKE COMMAND. Capt. John Rodgers, in the Weehawken, had been several days in Warsaw sound ere the Atlanta made her appearance. At length, just after daylight," he espied her emerging from Wilmington river, with the Rebel flag defiantly exalted. Perceiving his approach, the Atlanta sent him a ball, then halted to await his coming. The Rebel tenders, it was said, had only come down to tow up the prizes, leaving the Atlanta at liberty to pursue her victorious career: their decks being crowded with ladies, who had voyaged from Savannah to enjoy the spectacle and exult over the victory. But there was not much of a fight-certainly not a long one. Rodgers disdained to answer the Rebel's fire till he had shortened the intervening distance to 300 yards; when, sighting his 15-inch gun, he struck and shivered the shutter of one of her port-holes, with the iron and wood-work adjacent. Loading and sighting again, he fired and struck her iron pilot-house; carrying it away bodily, and severely wounding two of her three pilots. His next shot grazed the wreck of what had been the pilot-house; his fifth, fired at 100 yards' distance, smashed through her side, bending in her four inches of iron armor, shivering eight inches of plank, killing one and wounding 13 of her gunners; passing through and falling into the water. Hereupon, the Rebel flag came down and a white one went up; just 26 minutes after Rodgers first descried his antagonist; and 15 after she had opened the battle. Her consorts slunk away unharmed; their passengers returning to advise their fellow 47 June 17, 1863. 473 The citizens that raising the siege of Charleston was not so easy a task as they had fondly supposed it. Atlanta, it now appeared, had grounded, broadside to, just as she began the fight, but had nevertheless fired briskly and harmlessly to the end of it. She had 4 large guns and 165 men. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore having relieved Gen. Hunter," as Com. Dahlgren soon after relieved" Com. Dupont, movements were at once set on foot looking to systematic operations against Fort Sumter and Charleston. To a comprehension of these movements, a preliminary glance at the situation seems necessary. Gen. Gillmore found in the Department of the South a total force of 17,463 officers and soldiers-the most of them veterans of approved quality, in good part brought thither by Foster. Considering the naval cöoperation that might at all times be counted on, his real force must, for all purposes except that of a determined advance into the heart of the enemy's territory, have been fully equal to 20,000 men. For defense, against any but a sudden attack or surprise, it was hardly less than 25,000. But he had so many posts to hold in a hostile region, and such an extensive line (250 miles) to picket, that 11,000 was the very utmost that he could venture to concentrate for any offensive purpose that might not be consummated within a few days at farthest. And he had, apart from the navy, 96 heavy guns (all serviceable but 12 13-inch mortars, which proved too large, and were left unused), with an abundance of munitions, engineering tools, &c. nah. He found our forces in quiet pos- | tion of rëenforcements from Savansession of nearly or quite all the Sea islands west of the Stono, with Seabrook and Folly islands, east of that inlet. Our pickets still-as on the day of Dupont's attack-confronted those of the enemy across Lighthouse inlet, which separates these from Morris island. Save as a distraction of the enemy, this latter movement proved a failure. Col. Higginson, with 300 men and 3 guns, on the gunboat John Adams and two transports, pushed " up the Edisto, making an opening through a row of piles at Wiltown, Gillmore's plan of operations- to within two miles of the railroad carefully matured before he entered bridge; but he was so long detained upon his command-contemplated a here as to lose the tide; so that the descent by surprise on the south end two transports, going farther up, reof Morris island-well known to be peatedly grounded, and found the strongly fortified and held-which, bridge defended by a 6-gun battery, being taken, was to be firmly held as whereby Higginson was worsted and a base for operations against Fort beaten off; being compelled to burn Wagner, a strong and heavily armed the tug Gov. Milton, as she could earthwork at the north end of that not be floated. He balanced the acisland, 2,600 yards from Fort Sum-count by bringing off 200 negroes. ter, held by a strong garrison under Col. Lawrence M. Keitt. This carried, the less formidable earthwork at Cumming's Point, on the extreme north, must fall, enabling us to plant batteries within a mile of Sumter, and within extreme shelling distance of Charleston itself. Thus, even prior to the reduction of Sumter, it was calculated that our iron-clads might pass that fortress, remove the channel obstructions, run the batteries on James and Sullivan's islands, and go up to the city. To distract the enemy's attention and prevent a concenstration of forces from a distance to resist our establishment on Morris island-which Gillmore regarded as the most critical point in his programme-Gen. A. H. Terry was sent up Terry's movement was successful, not only in calling off the enemy's attention from the real point of danger, but in drawing away a portion of their forces from Morris island, where they were needed, to James island, where they were not. Folly island—a long, narrow beach or sand-spit, skirting the Atlantic ocean south of the entrance to Charleston inner harbor-is, like most of the adjacent islands, barely elevated above the sea-level, and in part flooded by the highest tides. Though naked for half a mile toward the north end, it is, for the most part, densely wooded; and ridges of sand, covered by a thick screen of forest and underbrush along Lighthouse inlet, effectually shield it from observation from Morris island. Here Saxton found Gen. Vogdes firmly posted, alert and vigilant, and gradually, circumspectly strengthened him without attracting hostile observation 60 July 10. the Stono to make a demonstration on James island; while Col. Higginson, steaming up the Edisto, was to make a fresh attempt to cut the railroad, so as to prevent the recep |