from its position. Skilfully built of the sand of that region, which has been found to be the best material to withstand the effect of shell and shot; provided with a wet ditch; mounted with seventeen guns, and possessed of a bombproof for its garrison, Fort Wagner was in itself a powerful work. The advantages of its site were, moreover, very great. On the east it was guarded by the sea, on the west by a creek called Vincent's, and a marsh, and in the rear by the enemy's fortifications at Cummings' Point and on Sullivan's Island. The only approach in front was the narrow ridge of sand, which contracted to a width of twenty-five yards on reaching the work. It was on this ground that General Gillmore had made his approaches. Nothing could be more unfavorable for the regular operations of a siege. On one side was a marsh, and on the other the sea, which occasionally, at high tide, overflowed the sand spit and put a stop to work. The besiegers, moreover, were exposed to a heavy fire, lessened, however, by the demolition of Sumter, to which they could respond only by centre-batteries. Gillmore, in spite of all obstacles, pushed on his approaches.

"The first parallel and the batteries. in it were ready on July 18th, and the fire was opened at 1,350 yards, several hours prior to the assault on that day. The second parallel was opened by the flying sap on the 23d of July, at 750 yards from the fort, was made the principal defensive line, was well secured from sorties, and contained the breach

ing batteries afterwards used against Sumter. The third parallel, at 450 yards, was made by the flying sap also, on August 9th, and beyond this point the trenches were sometimes pushed forward by the flying sap, sometimes by the full sap, as opportunity demanded. The fourth parallel, at about 300 yards, was made on the 22d and 23d of August. The fifth parallel, at 200 yards, on a ridge wrested from the enemy, August 26th. Beyond this point the approaches were simply zig-zags, making very acute angles with each other, as there was not front enough for a parallel.

"Here came that period," says a professional writer,* "which almost every well-contested defence has shown, where the besieger, being in fact the enveloped party, his artillery to a great extent unavailable, his daily losses heavy, discouragement seizes upon the besieging force, and all but those who possess the bull-dog spirit are ready to give up. An officer present, writing to a friend, says: 'Matters seemed at a stand-still, and a spirit of dejection and discouragement began to pervade the entire command. There seemed, indeed, to be no adequate return for the daily loss of life which we suffered.'

"In this emergency new means and redoubled efforts were called for, and General Gillmore was equal to it. He moved to the front all his light mortars, enlarged the positions for his sharpshooters, obtained the co-operation of the Ironsides by day, used powerful calcium lights to blind the enemy by

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night, opened fire with as many heavy guns to his rear as he could without danger to his men in the trenches, thus essaying to keep the garrison confined to their bomb-proof, and to breach this through a breach in the work. These measures were inaugurated on the morning of September 5th, and for forty-two hours, one who was present writes, the spectacle was magnificently grand, even sublime.' The fort was silent. The garrison were immured in their bomb-proof, and the work went on in safety except from the batteries on James Island. The men moved about in the trenches, even sat on their parapets, and hunted torpedoes, at which they had become as skilful as ratcatchers at scenting out rat-holes. The counterscarp of the work was crowned on the night of September 6th, and some formidable obstructions in the ditch removed. All being now ready for an assault, the order for it was given; but seeing the hopelessness of their position, the enemy evacuated just in time to avoid the result."

Fort Gregg, at Cummings' Point, being evacuated at the same time as Fort Wagner, the whole of Morris Island remained in possession of the Union forces.

"About ten o'clock last night the enemy commenced evacuating the island, and all but seventy-five of them made their escape from Cummings' Point in small boats.

"Captured dispatches show that Fort Wagner was commanded by Colonel Keitt, of South Carolina, and garrisoned by 1,400 effective men; and Battery Gregg by between 100 and 200.

"Fort Wagner is a work of the most formidable kind. Its bomb-proof shelter, capable of holding 1,800 men, remains intact after the most terrible bombardment to which any work was ever subjected. We have captured nineteen pieces of artillery and a large supply of excellent ammunition.

"The city and harbor of Charleston are now completely covered by my guns."

From the ruins of Fort Sumter the enemy, though they had not a single gun in position, still hung out their flag. Admiral Dahlgren, accordingly, fitted out an expedition with the view of taking by surprise and capturing the troops in possession.

"At about eleven o'clock at night,' says a correspondent,* *"the expedition, consisting of over twenty boats, with thirty-four officers and 413 men, of which 120 were marines, was placed under the direction of Commander Thomas H. Stevens, of the Patapsco, with Lieutenant - Commander S. B. Bunce, and Lieutenant Moreau Forrest, as aids. Lieutenant-Commander Williams, of the Wissahickon, was placed in charge of

the first division of boats; Lieutenant Remey, of the naval battery, of the second; Flag-Lieutenant Preston, of the third; Lieutenant Higginson, of the Powhatan, of the fourth, and Captain McCawley, commanding the marines, and Ensign Craven, of the Housatonic, the fifth division. Captains Stevens and his aids led the flotilla in the admiral's barge.

"The plan of attack was to assail the fort on three sides-one party landing on the gorge wall and attempting to ascend the débris and gain the parapet; a second was to attempt to gain entrance through the lower embrasures, and a third was to act as a reserve. The Daffodil took the boats in tow and steamed up to a short distance from Sumter, when they cast off and formed in line of attack. The boats pulled cautiously along and made slow progress necessarily, as the proper line of attack had to be observed.

"At half-past one the first line of boats approached closely the fort, and were discovered by the sentry on the walls of the work and sharply challenged. No reply was made to the question of 'What boat is that?' A second challenge of the same nature failing to elicit a reply, the sentry discharged his musket and called to the officer below to 'Turn out the guard.' The boats on being hailed pulled quickly to the fort; but before they could reach it, several shots had been fired at them. The boats had dashed rapidly up, the formation of the line of advance being broken, and each boat striving to effect he first landing.

"Seven boats succeeded in getting alongside of the débris on the gorge wall; the others while pushing up were met with a sharp fire of musketry. Signal lights were burned from Sumter, and in a moment all the rebel batteries. bearing on the fort opened a fire of shell and shrapnel on the fort itself, and, of course, on any party that might be about its base. About 150 sailors and marines got ashore, and instead of finding a slope of débris up to the parapet of the gorge wall, they found a perpendicular range of masonry, which the rebels had constructed, meeting them full in the face. All their efforts to find a place of ascent were fruitless. Not a soul could ascend the wall, and the party found themselves in a critical position. The rebels had manned the parapet with infantry, and were also firing through loopholes, formed by sand-bags, in the upper slope of the débris. In addition to this, five handgrenades were hurled upon the assaulting party's heads, and bricks were detached and tumbled down upon them: Three of the boats were torn to pieces by hand-grenades or shells from the distant rebel batteries, and retreat was being rapidly cut off. At this juncture a rebel ram came down and opened fire with grape and canister upon the boats, the rebels on the fort throwing flashes. of light upon the dark waters about them from a large locomotive lamp. As each boat was brought to light, volleys of musketry, canister, and grape were poured in from the fort and gunboat, and many men killed and wounded.

The only mark for our men to fire at was this light, and a volley or two was thrown at it, but to little effect. Finally, a continuance of their effort to carry out the plan being evidently of no avail, and promising only a heavy loss of men without any gain, the order to retire was given. Four boats came off from the landing at the gorge, and three, being destroyed, were left. there. Only a small portion of the storming party succeeded in regaining their boats. Many were killed and the balance taken prisoners."

The loss in this untoward expedition was, according to the Union accounts, ten officers and 104 men. General Beauregard in his official account gave a higher estimate.

"Last night," he wrote in his dispatch of September 9, 1863, "thirty of the launches of the enemy attacked Fort Sumter. Preparations had been made for the event. At a concerted signal all the batteries bearing on Sumter, assisted by one gun-boat and a ram, were thrown open. The enemy was repulsed, leaving in our hands 113 prisoners, including thirteen officers. We also took four boats and three colors."

He added, though apocryphally, "We took the original flag of Fort Sumter which Major Anderson was compelled to lower, and which Dahlgren had hoped to replace."

There was much public disappointment that the fleet had apparently effected so little, while the land operations had been so successful. After the guns of Sumter had been silenced, it

was thought that the iron-clad gunboats would have been able to approach Charleston. The enemy, however, had so obstructed the harbor, that to attempt to enter it without a further reduction of its defences was deemed too hazardous. Apart from the regular fortifications, whose means of resistance being obvious, could be easily opposed, there was a number of ingenious contrivances for offence and defence, which were so hidden that they could not be readily provided against. Among these were torpedoes, some of which were fixed, and others movable. The latter were either allowed to float down the current and left to the chance of contact, or were pushed down by external force against the object it was intended to destroy. The floating torpedoes occasionally picked up were found to be constructed of staves bound together by iron hoops, in the form of elliptical barrels, supplied with nipples and primed with fulminating mercury, which, on being struck, would explode the coarse powder with which the machine was filled.

A memorable attempt was made with one of the other kind of movable torpedoes. "It was on the night of Monday, the 5th of October," wrote a correspondent,* "that a little cigarshaped craft was descried approaching the New Ironsides. She was towed

down to the vicinity of our picket-boats by a steamer, and there cast off, and while her consort was manoeuvring about the harbor, and by her move

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ments attracting the attention of the pickets, the venturesome little craft made her way without discovery to within a few hundred feet of the frigate.

"As soon as the stranger was made out, she was hailed and challenged by Ensign Howard, the officer of the deck. The only reply received was a volley of musketry. Instantly all hands were piped to quarters, and the marines, the earliest on hand, answered with their rifles to the volley of the stranger. They seemed to produce no effect on the coming craft, which, dashing on with all the speed it could make, soon struck the frigate on the starboard side. Instantly a terrific explosion followed, the Ironsides trembled from stem to stern. Vast columns of water were thrown up, and, descending, extinguished the fires of the venturesome steamer. By the fearful shock, some sailors lying on the gun-deck of the Ironsides were thrown with violence up to the under surface of the spardeck, and one of them had his leg broken by the fall.

"This was all the damage the New Ironsides sustained. As soon as her guns could be brought to bear upon the rebel craft, they were opened, and when the smoke of the first fire cleared away, the stranger was no longer visible. Only the circling waves where it had gone down, and a few objects floating or struggling in the water, marked the spot where it had been a moment

before.

"On the following morning, Captain Rowan, thinking it not unlikely that some of the rebel crew had been picked

up by vessels of the surrounding fleet, ordered a search to be made; and on a coal schooner from Philadelphia, Lieutenant Glassell, of the rebel navy, and a rebel sailing-master, named Toombs, were discovered. The lieutenant had already assumed the garb of a Union coal carrier, for which he had paid the captain of the schooner the sum of 300 dollars and a gold watch, and was patiently awaiting an opportunity to get back to Sullivan's Island, in which effort the Philadelphia skipper had covenanted to aid him. The three persons were chained together and taken in irons to Port Royal.

"From all that we could learn of the strange craft," adds the writer, "she was built expressly for the purpose of destroying the New Ironsides, and was constructed by means of a public subscription circulated in Charleston. Five months have been consumed in getting her ready. Her hull, though long, was narrow and shallow, affording room only for her engines and a crew of four or five picked men. Projecting thirty or forty feet beyond her bows was an immense torpedo, which, although exploding by percussion as intended, had no other effect than to jar the frigate it was meant to annihilate."

General Gillmore, immediately on occupying Forts Wagner and Gregg, set vigorously to work to adapt them to his own purposes. After strengthening the works and mounting them with oct. more and heavier guns, he opened 26. fire upon Fort Sumter, where the enemy were suspected to be engaged in erect