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see, fell much lower. It must be observed, however, that these brokers' rates, were invariably a long period in advance of the rates acted upon in the interiour. As late as the summer of 1862, Confederate money was taken at par in the settlement of all transactions originating before the war, and made the basis of the general transactions of the country at the old rate of prices. The brokers' rates were either unknown to the people or totally disregarded by them. Not until the volume of the currency had swollen beyond all reasonable proportion, did the people at large consent to fix a depreciated value upon this money. Even then they did so under compulsion. Remorseless speculators had succeeded in engrossing the entire stock of many of the comforts and prime necessities of life. These were held at exorbitant prices; and in order to compass the means of purchasing them, the yeomanry of the country were obliged to rate their own property at higher prices in Confederate money than the old prices obtaining before the war. It is a well-known fact that the Richmond rates of Confederate money were, throughout the war, far below those which prevailed in the Confederacy at large; and it is a general fact, that the rates of this money improved as the distance from Richmond increased. This fact was partly due to the circumstance, that Richmond was the great focus of Government disbursements, and was constantly flooded to excess with the currency; partly to the circumstance, that it was the base from which all smuggling operations were carried on, at which of course gold for the smuggling trade was more in demand, and commanded the highest prices; and thirdly, to the circumstance that it was the centre and resort of the speculating classes, and the principal depository of their wares, at which the final sales and last profits on the commodities bought up in the country for speculation, were realized. It may be remarked, without a material aberration from the truth, that after the first eighteen months of the war had elapsed, and the Confederate money had become very redundant, the business of the country, at a distance from Richmond, was done, for probably as long a period as twelve months, upon the basis of five for one in Confederate currency. After that period, the change of rate to fifteen or twenty for one was rather abrupt; and upon the latter basis transactions proceeded for another twelve months; after which the rate was very unsettled in the interiour.

Another observation must be made with reference to the brokers' prices of gold. A comparison of Confederate money with gold did not, during the war, afford a true criterion of the value of either commodity. Gold was unnaturally scarce and dear in the Confederacy. The old dollar's value, in property not affected by the condition of war, was not sufficient to purchase a dollar in gold. Real estate did not approximate the prices in gold which it had commanded before the war. Boarding at the best hotels could be procured for fifty cents a day in gold, which had cost two dollars

and fifty cents before the war. A suit of clothing which before the war would have cost thirty dollars, could now be obtained for ten or fifteen in gold. In short, gold had greatly appreciated in the Confederacy, and the gold dollar no longer represented the old dollar's worth. The extraordinary demand for it produced by blockade running, and the smuggling trade, and the small supply of it which the war had found in the Confederacy, rendered still smaller by the process of hoarding, had imparted to it an extraordinary value. It had thus ceased to be a standard of value, and had become a very scarce commodity of commerce. The real value of Confederate money is not to be estimated by the quantity of gold which it commanded at the brokers' shops.

The case of gold was different at the North, from that which we have just described. There commerce was unaffected by a blockade; the usual supplies of gold continued to be received; no extraordinary demands of specie for exportation were experienced, and it remained, throughout the period of war, as accurate and reliable a standard of value as ever. The depreciation of Federal currency can therefore be measured with absolute certainty by comparing it with gold. In the Confederacy, however, the case was not the same. As we have seen, gold bore an abnormal value; and conclusions in regard to the depreciation of Confederate money founded merely upon its relation to gold, would be erroneous. The old dollar's worth, if it could be definitely ascertained, in such commodities as were not affected by the condition of war, would be the true standard of value. Until the final six or eight months of the Confederacy, the general transactions of the interiour country proceeded on a basis of value for Confederate money measured by the old dollar's worth, which was much higher than the values furnished by the brokers' quotations in Richmond.

It is interesting to observe the similarity of career which is presented in the cases of the money of the Southern Confederacy, and of the Congress of the first American Confederation. We have already stated the gradual depreciation of the one. The progress of the depreciation in the old Continental money, though somewhat more tardy, was in the same degree. In May, 1777, the Continental paper dollar was worth at the rate of two and two-thirds for one in specie. In December it was worth four for one. In March, 1778, it was worth five for one; in December, six for In February, 1779, it was worth ten for one; in June, twenty; in September, twenty-four; in December, thirty-nine. After the year 1779 it seemed to have no value. The total amount of this old Continental money that was issued, was two hundred millions of dollars; and it was worth to those who received it, at the period when paid out by the Government, only thirty-six and a half millions of dollars. A similar scaling of the money of the Confederate Treasury would reduce the cost of the war on the Southern side to less than a thousand millions of dollars. The differ

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ence between that sum and the nominal cost measures the aggregate depreciation of the money.

The principal cause of the depreciation of this money, in the last twelve months of the war, was the distrust of success entertained by the classes who controlled the value of the money. The principal causes of its deprecation in the antecedent period, were the excessive issues of it by Government, and the influence of speculation. It is probably useless to declaim against a vice so prejudicial as speculation to both the individual and general interests of a country circumstanced like the Confederacy. It is a display of the worst form of selfishness; a selfishness that feeds upon the privation, want, and necessity of fellow-citizens engaged in mortal struggle with a formidable public enemy; a selfishness that appropriates all that it can grasp, at a time when each individual should give up for the general good all that can be spared; a selfishness worse than that for which Ananias and Sapphira were struck down by the hand of God, inasmuch as it seeks not only to withhold what is one's own, but to engross also whatever else can be compassed by craft and greed. The best communities contain persons of this sordid temper; and the temptation to its indulgence in a country isolated and beleaguered by armies and blockading fleets, where the supplies of every article are limited, are too strong to be resisted by the class whose inclinations are set in that direction. The speculation commenced in such articles as cut nails, salt, and leather. There were but two nail factories in the Confederacy, and the stocks of these establishments were accessible and easily engrossed. Within the first six months of the war, the entire stock of cut nails in the Confederacy were in the hands of less than half a dozen speculators in Richmond; and the price was abruptly put up from four dollars to seven, and then to ten per keg. There was but one considerable saline in the Confederacy, and this was operated by a single firm, which ran up the price of this prime necessary of life, within two years, from the ante-war price of one cent per pound, to twenty-five cents per pound in specie or fifty cents in Treasury notes. Leather was one of those articles which, though tanned in very numerous establishments conducted. on a small scale throughout the country, yet was everywhere found to be in smaller quantity than was needed by the people, and which might safely be bought up right and left wherever found. These are but examples of the subjects of the speculation and extortion that became rife throughout the Confederacy. The effect was greatly to augment and aggravate the burden of the war upon the people; but its most serious evil was in the depreciating influence it exerted upon the currency. The great mass of the people were desirous to receive this money at the normal rates; but finding themselves obliged to pay extortionate prices for commodities which they stood in need of purchasing, they were driven, against their will, to demand increased prices for the products and property which they

sold. The fury and intensity of speculation forced the people into reluc tant acquiescence in the depreciation of the currency. But there is this consolatory observation to be made on the subject: namely, that the classes who devoted themselves assiduously to speculation, as a general rule, came out losers at the close of the war; while the masses of people who eschewed this disreputable avocation, generally saved a comfortable portion of their original means.

That the depreciation of the Confederate currency was partially superinduced by speculation and circumstances other than its mere redundancy, is sufficiently proved by the fact, that the grand total of circulation in the North reached the stupendous figure of nine hundred and fifty millions of dollars, while the depreciation of greenbacks, at the close of the war, was less than one and a half for one. It is plain, therefore, that depreciation is not the necessary result of mere redundancy, and may be prevented by provident and timely measures. The ability with which the Federal finances were conducted, especially in avoiding this depreciation, is one of the most remarkable incidents of the war.

If early and proper measures had been adopted, the Confederate currency would doubtless, likewise, have proved as manageable as any other branch of the Confederate finances. These measures should have looked to the provision of an adequate demand for the circulation that was issued in such profusion. This demand could have been abundantly established by means of taxation, of the sale of Government bonds of long dates, and by the intervention of a system of discounts through the instrumentality of a Bank of Exchequer. The circulation should not have been issued directly from the Treasury. It should have been placed under the absolute control of an issuing agency, which would have served as a regulator and balance-sheet in the movement, and preserved an equilibrium between the efflux and influx of the circulation. Taxation should have been imposed from the beginning, and executed promptly; not postponed several years, and then tardily put in force. The sales of bonds should have been conducted by a great and respectable banking institution, directed by eminent and reputable financiers; not entrusted to ignorant and irresponsible stock and exchange brokers. Such a financial institution could have established and maintained an influx of the circulation commensurate with the efflux. With this reflux in full flow, the volume of the currency might have been increased with impunity. And, if, besides, the circulation had been in the form of notes of the bank, rather than in that of notes of the Treasury; then, when the unfortunate end came, the debts due to the bank would still have given a partial value to this circulation; and prevented the total wreck of cash means which at last overtook the people of the South.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE NEW ATTEMPT UPON FORT SUMTER AND CHARLESTON.-GEN. GILLMORE'S COMMAND.-HIS PLAN OF OPERATIONS.-WHAT WAS PROPOSED BY THE REDUCTION OF THE WORKS ON MORRIS ISLAND.-A BASE OF OPERATIONS ON FOLLY ISLAND.-HOW GEN. BEAUREGARD WAS BLINDED AND DECEIVED.-FORTY-SEVEN GUNS OF THE ENEMY UNMASKED. THE ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER.-GALLANTRY OF A CONNECTICUT REGIMENT.-THE ASSAULT REPULSED. -GEN, BEAUREGARD'S PLANS.—HIS OBJECT IN HOLDING MORRIS ISLAND.-SECOND ASSAULT ON FORT WAGNER IN CONJUNCTION WITH DAHLGREN'S FLEET.—THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT WAGNER.-PROFOUND AND SIGNIFICANT SILENCE OF THE GARRISON.-ADVANCE OF THE STORMING COLUMN.-ITS REPULSE.-TERRIBLE SCENES OF CARNAGE.-SIEGE OPERATIONS. APPEALS TO THE SOUTH CAROLINA PLANTERS, AND THEIR INDIFFERENCE.—GILLMORE PREPARES TO BOMBARD AND DESTROY CHARLESTON.-" THE GREEK FIRE."—" THE SWAMP ANGEL."-GILLMORE'S NOTICE OF BOMBARDMENT.-SHARP AND MEMORABLE REPLY OF GEN. BEAUREGARD.-COWARDLY REJOICINGS IN THE NORTH.-THE BOMBARDMENT A FAILURE.-ATTEMPTED DEMOLITION OF FORT SUMTER.-HOW FAR THE FORT WAS INJURED BY THE BOMBARDMENT.-GILLMORE ANNOUNCES ITS REDUCTION.-THE ANNOUNCEMENT FALSE AND ABSURD.-PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE OPERATIONS AGAINST FORT WAGNER.-A TERRIFIC FIRE OPENED UPON IT.-SURPASSING GRANDEUR OF THE SCENE.-GILLMORE PLANS ANOTHER ASSAULT UPON THE FORT.-THE CONFEDERATES EVACUATE IT AND MORRIS ISLAND. WHAT GEN. BEAUREGARD ACCOMPLISHED BY THE RETENTION OF MORRIS ISLAND FOR TWO MONTHS.-THE ISLAND NOT THE KEY TO CHARLESTON.-ADMIRAL DAHLGREN REFUSES TO ASCEND THE HARBOUR WITH HIS IRON-CLADS.-HE SUMMONS FORT SUMTER TO SURRENDER.—BEAUREGARD'S REPLY.-A BOAT-ATTACK ON THE FORT.-ITS DISASTROUS REPULSE. THE ENEMY'S OPERATIONS AGAINST CHARLESTON DEGENERATE INTO A CHRONIO AND FRUITLESS BOMBARDMENT.-DISAPPOINTMENT IN THE NORTH.

THE most remarkable military event of the midsummer of 1863 was the successful defence of Charleston against a most imposing demonstration of the enemy's power by land and by sea. We have seen how unsuccessful was the naval attack upon this city in April, 1863. It was not long, however, before another attempt was planned upon Fort Sumter and Charleston, the steps of which were the military occupation of Morris Island and the establishment of batteries on that island to assist in the reduction of Fort Sumter. The establishment of these batteries and the reduction of the Confederate works-Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg-was a matter of