Gillmore then laid regular siege to Wagner. Trenches were dug, and by the middle of August the batteries were within a quarter-mile of Wagner and within two and a half miles of Sumter. The work on these batteries had to be done mostly by night, for the forts kept up a heavy fire. Another battery was also begun in the marsh on the west side of Morris Island. The black mud there was so soft that it would not bear the weight of a man, and was at least sixteen feet deep. After the site was chosen, a lieutenant was ordered to superintend the work, and told to call for whatever materials he wanted. Being something of a wag, he sent to the quartermaster for a hundred men eighteen feet high, to work in mud sixteen feet deep; but as men of that height could not be had, he had to be

satisfied with workmen of common stature. All the work had to be done in the dark, for it was within range of the guns of the forts. During fourteen nights piles were driven through the mud into the solid ground beneath, and on them were piled fifteen thousand bags of sand to form a parapet. After breaking down several trucks, a monster eight-inch Parrott gun, a 200-pounder, was dragged across the swamp and mounted, and about the middle of August the Swamp Angel, as the soldiers named it, was ready to throw shells into Charleston, nearly five miles away.

On the 17th of August twelve land-batteries and the monitors opened fire on Sumter, Wagner, and Gregg. The heaviest of the fire was aimed at Sumter, as General Gillmore wished to

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SUMTER ASSAULTED.

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silence it before he made another assault on Wagner. The bombardment was kept up for seven days, when Gillmore sent a dispatch to General Halleck, saying: "Fort Sumter is to-day (Aug. 24) a shapeless and harmless mass of ruins.”

On the 21st of August, General Gillmore wrote to General Beauregard, who was in command in Charleston, demanding the evacuation of Fort Sumter and of Morris Island, threatening, in case of refusal, to bombard Charleston. Not hearing from him, he ordered a few shells to be thrown into the city from the Swamp Angel. Some of them fell in the streets and frightened the people, but did little damage. Beauregard then wrote him a letter in which he accused him of barbarity in "turning his guns against the old men, the women and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping city," and called the act "unworthy of any soldier." General Gillmore replied that it was the duty of the commander of an attacked place to see to it that the non-combatants were removed," and that he (Beauregard) had had forty days' time in which to do it. But the Swamp Angel was fired only a few times. At the thirty-sixth shot it burst and blew out the whole of its breech, and no other gun was mounted in its place.

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Gillmore then turned his attention once more to Fort Wagner, which he determined to assault again. To do this it was necessary to silence its guns and drive its defenders into the bomb-proofs; so a heavy fire was opened on it by the batteries, while the armored frigate New Ironsides poured eleven-inch shells into it from the sea side. The bombardment was kept up day and night, strong calcium lights being used by night to blind the Confederates and to show all parts of their works. The Confederates, driven from their guns, were obliged to fly for safety to their bomb-proofs. In the morning of September 7, the troops, under General Terry, were about ready to make the assault, when it was reported that the fort was empty. The garrisons of both Wagner and Gregg had fled during the night, and the whole of Morris Island was at last in possession of the Union troops. The next night an attack was made on Sumter by thirty boat-loads of men from the fleet. They reached the base of the walls and began to go up, thinking that the garrison was asleep; but before they reached the top a fire of musketry and hand-grenades was opened on them by the Confederates

within, aided by some gunboats outside, and the assailants were driven off with a loss of about two hundred.

But little more was done against Charleston during the rest of the year. General Gillmore thought that, as Sumter's guns were silenced, the fleet might easily pass into the harbor and capture Charleston. But Admiral Dahlgren did not care to run the risk of the torpedoes and powder-mines over which he knew he would have to pass. Besides, General Beauregard had taken advantage of the long delay in taking Wagner to strengthen the inner forts. Fort Johnson had been made into a powerful earthwork, and the fleet, even if Sumter were passed, would meet with as hot a fire as had been experienced outside. General Gillmore therefore contented himself with repairing Wagner and Gregg and turning their guns on Charleston and the forts defending it. As they were a mile nearer the city than the Swamp Angel battery, a slow bombardment was kept up until near the end of the year. About half of Charleston was reached by the shells, and many buildings were greatly injured. As the wharves and most of the harbor were under fire, blockade-runners could no longer run in, and the business of the city was thus wholly destroyed.

In December the Weehawken was unfortunately lost in a gale while lying at anchor off Morris Island. Her hatches being carelessly left open, the waves swept over her and filled her with water, and she went suddenly to the bottom, carrying down thirty of her crew.

But little was done in North Carolina during 1863, the Union troops contenting themselves with holding the places along the coast which they had won. In March the Confederate General D. II. Hill tried to retake New Berne, but was driven off. He then attacked Little Washington, on the Pamlico River. General Foster hastened thither from New Berne. Hill, who had a large force, nearly surrounded the place and began a regular siege, and soon the garrison got out of supplies, excepting what could be brought to the town in small boats during the night. At last the steamboat Escort ran the blockade of the batteries by night with a supply of provisions and ammunition. General Foster returned to New Berne in her at great risk, for she was struck by forty-seven cannon-shot as she went down the river, and putting himself at the head of seven

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I'SE JUST SAM.

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thousand men, marched back to raise the siege. But Hill did not wait for him, and Foster found the Confederates in full retreat.

A few raids were made inland during the rest of the year, chiefly for the purpose of destroying railways, mills, machine shops, cotton, and whatever might aid the enemy in a military way. Many negroes followed the raiding parties back to the coast, some bringing along their wives and little ones and all their household goods, as if intending to leave their old homes forever. They were received kindly and generally set at work to build earthworks or to raise food for the soldiers, but some of the able-bodied ones were formed into companies and drilled as soldiers. On arriving within the Union lines the contrabands were generally sent to headquarters, and funny scenes often took place when they were questioned by the officer in charge. One day a bright-looking negro came to report.

"What's your name?" asked the officer.

"Sam."

"Sam what?"

"No, sar, not Sam Watt. I'se just Sam."

"What's your other name?"

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'Hasn't got no oder name, sar. I'se Sam, dat's all."
"What's your master's name?"

"Got none; massa runned away. Yah! yah! free nigger now." And Sam's mouth stretched from ear to ear, as if he enjoyed the situation.

"Well, what's your father's or your mother's name?" persisted the officer.

"Got none, sar.

nobody else."

Nebber had none. I'se just Sam. Aint

"Haven't you any brothers or sisters?"

"No, sar, nebber had none: no brudder, no sister, no fader, no mudder, no massa-nothin' but Sam. When you see Sam, you see all dere is of us.”

CHAPTER XXXIII.

PRIVATEERS.-MOBILE BAY.

EXPEDITION TO FLORIDA.-BATTLE OF OLUSTEE.-LOSS OF PLYMOUTH.-RAID OF THE ALEE MARLE.-HER DESTRUCTION BY CUSHING.-THE CONFEDERATE PRIVATEERS-THE ALA BAMA.-CAPTAIN SEMMES.-THE FIGHT WITH THE KEARSARGE.-RESCUE OF SEMMES-THE FLORIDA AND THE WACHUSETT.-THE SHENANDOAH.-WHALERS BURNED. THE LAST HOSTILE ACT.-RAMS FOR THE EMPEROR OF CHINA.-THE STONEWALL-THE ALABAMA CLAIMS. --MOBILE BAY.-FARRAGUT PASSES THE FORTS. THE ADMIRAL IN THE SHROUDS.—SINKING OF THE TECUMSEH.-TORPEDOES.-FOUR BELLS.-THE RAM IS COMING.-FIGHT WITH THE TENNESSEE.--RAMMING THE RAM.-SAVE THE ADMIRAL-SURRENDER OF THE FORTS.

G

ENERAL GILLMORE, finding it impossible to do much more at Charleston without a larger force, determined to send an expedition to Florida. Early in February, 1864, a fleet of twenty steamers and eight schooners sailed from Port Royal, went up the St. John's River and occupied Jacksonville. From there the troops, about six thousand in number, marched westward on the railroad to Baldwin, when General Gillmore returned to Port Royal, leaving General Truman Seymour in command. On the 20th of February, Seymour had advanced to Olustee, where he fell into an ambuscade set for him by the Confederate General Finnegan, and was badly defeated with a loss of five guns and about fifteen hundred men, while that of the enemy was only about half as many. Seymour fell back to Jacksonville, burning large quantities of stores to keep them from falling into the hands of the enemy, and this ended the Florida expedition.

In April, 1864, the Union General Henry W. Wessells was attacked in Plymouth, on the Roanoke River, North Carolina, by the Confederate General R. F. Hoke, with about seven thousand men. The place was well fortified and defended by twenty-four hundred men and three gunboats. Hoke first attacked Fort Warren, a small earthwork a little way up the river. He was aided in this by an iron-clad ram, named the Albemarle, which the Confederates had built up the Roanoke. The gunboat Bombshell went up to help the garrison, but the ram disabled and captured her. The Confederates next took Fort Wessells, a mile further down the river, and then laid siege to Plymouth. The Albemarle ran by Fort Warren, sunk