separation from the Union. The fire from the batteries at once became general.

The fort began its return at seven o'clock. All the officers and men, including the engineers, had been divided into three reliefs of two hours each, and the forty-three workmen yet remaining all volunteered for duty. It was, however, an absurdly meagre force to work such a number of guns and to be pitted against the surrounding batteries, manned by more than six thousand men. The number of cartridges was so reduced by the middle of the day, though the six needles available were kept steadily at work in making cartridge bags, that the firing had to slacken and be confined to the six guns bearing towards Moultrie and the batteries on the west end of Sullivan's Island. The mortar fire had become very accurate, so that when the 13-inch shells "came down in a vertical direction, and buried themselves in the parade-ground, their explosion shook the fort like an earthquake." 1 The horizontal fire also grew in accuracy, and Anderson, to save his men, withdrew them from the barbette guns and used those of the lower tiers only. Unfortunately, these were of too light a caliber to be effective against the Morris Island batteries, the shot rebounding without effect from the face of the iron-clad battery there, as well as from the floating iron-clad battery moored behind the sea-wall at Sullivan's Island. The withdrawal of the men from the 1 Doubleday, Sumter and Moultrie, 147.

heavier battery could only be justified by the already foregone result, and no doubt this was in Anderson's mind. The garrison was reduced to pork and water, and, however willing, it could not with such meagre food withstand the strain of the heavy labor of working the guns; to add to the difficulties, the guns, strange to say, were not provided with breech-sights, and these had to be improvised with notched sticks.1

The shells from the batteries set fire to the barracks three times during the day, and the precision of the vertical fire was such that the four 8-inch and one 10-inch columbiad, planted in the parade, could not be used. Half the shells fired from the seventeen mortars engaged came within, or exploded above, the parapet of the fort, and only about ten buried themselves in the soft earth of the parade without exploding. Two of the barbette guns were struck by the fire from Moultrie, which also damaged greatly the roof of the barracks and the stair towers. None of the shot came through. The day closed stormy and with a high tide, without any material damage to the strength of the fort. Throughout the night the Confederate batteries threw shell every ten or fifteen minutes. The garrison was occupied until midnight in making cartridge bags, for which all the extra clothing was cut up, and all the coarse paper and extra hospital sheets used.2

1 Doubleday, Sumter and Moultrie, 147.

'Foster's report, in War Records, Serial No. 1, pp. 20, 21.

At daylight, April 13, all the batteries again opened, and the new 12-pounder Blakely rifle, which had arrived but four days before from abroad,' caused the wounding of a sergeant and three men by the fragments thrown off from the interior of the wall by its deep penetration. An engineer employed was severely wounded by a fragment of shell. Hot shot now became frequent, and at nine o'clock the officers' quarters were set afire. As it was evident the fire would soon surround the magazine, every one not at the guns was employed to get out powder; but only fifty barrels could be removed to the casemates, when it became necessary from the spread of the flames to close the magazine. The whole range of the officers' quarters was soon in flames, and the clouds of smoke and cinders sent into the casemates set on fire many of the men's beds and boxes, making the retention of the powder so dangerous that all but five barrels were thrown into the sea.2

By eleven o'clock the fire and smoke were driven by the wind in such masses into the point where the men had taken refuge that suffocation appeared imminent. "The roaring and crackling of the flames, the dense masses of whirling smoke, the bursting of the enemy's shells, and our own which were exploding in the burning rooms, the crashing of the shot and the sound of masonry falling in every direction, made the fort a pande2 Ibid., p. 22.

1 War Records, Serial No. 1, p. 293.

VOL. XIX.-12

monium. . . . There was a tower at each angle of the fort. One of these containing great quantities of shells . . . was almost completely shattered by successive explosions. The massive wooden gates, studded with iron nails, were burned, and the wall built behind them was now a heap of debris, so that the main entrance was wide open for an assaulting party."1

But however great the apparent damage and the discomfort and danger while the fire lasted, the firing could have been resumed "as soon as the walls cooled sufficiently to open the magazines, and then, having blown down the wall projecting above the parapet, so as to get rid of the flying bricks, and built up the main gates with stones and rubbish, the fort would actually have been in a more defensible condition than when the action commenced." 2

But want of men, want of food, and want of powder together made a force majeure against which further strife was useless; and when, about 1 P.M., the flag-staff was shot away, though the flag was at once flown from an improvised staff, a boat was sent from the commanding officer at Morris Island, bringing Colonel (Ex-Senator) Wigfall and a companion bearing a white flag, to inquire if the fort had surrendered.

Being allowed entrance, Major Anderson was sought for, and Wigfall, using Beauregard's name,

1 Doubleday, Sumter and Moultrie, 158.

* Foster's report, in War Records, Serial No. 1, p. 24.

offered Anderson his own terms. Wigfall exhibited a white handkerchief from the parapet, and this being noticed brought from Beauregard himself Colonel Chesnut, Colonel Roger A. Pryor, Colonel William Porcher Miles, and Captain Lee, followed soon by Beauregard's adjutant-general, Jones, ExGovernor Manning, and Colonel Alston. It transpired that Wigfall had not seen Beauregard for two days, and that his visit was wholly unauthorized. The proper authorities, however, being now at hand, arrangements were concluded at 7 P.M., Anderson surrendering (after some correspondence), with permission to salute the flag as it was hauled down, to march out with colors flying and drums beating and with arms and private baggage.1

Noticing the disappearance of the colors, a flag of truce was sent in from the squadron outside, and arrangements made for carrying the garrison north. Next morning, Sunday, April 14, with a salute of fifty guns the flag was finally hauled down. It had been Anderson's intention to fire a hundred guns, but a lamentable accident occurred in the premature discharge of one, by which one man was killed, another mortally wounded, and four others seriously injured. This accident delayed the departure until 4 P.M., when the little company of some eighty men, accompanied by the forty laborers, marched

2

appear.

1 Foster's report, in War Records, Serial No. 1, pp. 23, 24. Doubleday, Sumter and Moultrie, App., where the names

2