possession of the United States. The fort had been reinforced about the same time that the attempt was made to provision Sumter, and to make it still more secure a regiment from New York, called Wilson's Zouaves, was encamped near by on Santa Rosa Island. A small squadron of ships was also stationed off the entrance of the port, which is one of the best in the Gulf of Mexico. The Confederates felt the loss of this fort very seriously, for, although they held Pensacola and the other forts, it completely blockaded the harbor. The garrison of Pickens, too, had made several raids on the mainland, in one of which they

FORT PICKENS. FORT MCREE IN DISTANCE ON THE RIGHT.

burned the dry-dock in the navy-yard, and in another a schooner fitting out as a privateer.

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Wilson's Zouaves had a bad reputation. It is said that the regiment was largely made up of New York "roughs,' and many stories were told in the newspapers of the time at their expense. A clergyman in New York, who had been. collecting subscriptions to aid in fitting out the regiment, went one day to the City Hall Park, where the Zouaves were encamped, to carry some money to Colonel Wilson. He lingered a while among the tents, talking with the men and

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giving them good advice, and at last reached headquarters and informed the Colonel of the object of his visit; but on looking for his pocketbook he found to his dismay that it was gone.

"Did you come through the camp?" anxiously inquired Colonel Wilson.

"Yes," replied the clergyman, "directly through the main avenue."

"It's all right then," said the Colonel, with a bland smile, "the boys have got the money."

The reputation of the regiment had preceded it, and when it was sent to Santa Rosa Island, the Confederates around Pensacola thought it had been selected expressly to plunder them. They therefore determined to capture them, if possible. One dark night they landed about twelve hundred men at Deer Point, four miles east of Colonel Wilson's camp. The Zouaves, unsuspecting any danger, were surprised about two o'clock in the morning (Oct. 9) by the enemy, who rushed upon them with cries of "Death to Wilson! no quarter!" The Zouaves ran from their tents, which were quickly pillaged and set on fire by the Confederates, and fell back toward the fort in little groups. The night was very dark, and friend and foe could scarcely tell each other in the fitful light made by the blazing tents. The Confederates, as much disorganized as the Zouaves, followed them, firing their guns whenever they could see them. Colonel Brown, who commanded then in Pickens, sent Major Vogdes with two companies of regulars to the aid of the Zouaves. The Major missed his way and was captured by the enemy, but his men advancing rapidly and in order on the Confederates, put them to flight, and they retreated in disorder to their boats. Vollies of musketry were fired at them as they made off in haste, so that their loss was nearly double that of the Unionists. Most of the Union loss was among the regulars, the Zouaves having done but little fighting until the enemy was in retreat.

During the next month the commander of Fort Pickens, aided by the men-of-war Niagara, Richmond, and Montgomery, bombarded Forts McRee and Barrancas and destroyed with shells the village of Warrenton and part of the navy-yard. The Confederate forts replied, but little damage was done on either side, and after two days the bombardment ceased.

Soon after the burning of the camp of Wilson's Zouaves, the Confederates made a notable attempt to break the blockade of New Orleans by making an attack on the Union fleet guarding the mouths of the Mississippi. To effect this they had prepared an iron-clad vessel by cutting away the upper works of a river steamboat and covering it with an iron-plated roof, built so slanting that cannon-balls would glance off from it. Her bow was so made that a heavy gun could be fired directly in front, and under the water-line she had a sharp iron spike for ramming in the sides of ships, just as ancient war-galleys did. From this the vessel was called a ram, and she was named the Manassas, after the battle commonly called Bull Run. Great things were expected of this queer-shaped vessel, and if she had been managed properly she might have done much damage.

On the night of October 12, a very dark night, the Manassas, under command of Commodore J. S. Hollins, an old officer of the United States navy, steamed down the river, followed by seven small armed steamers towing some fire-ships. The ram, having no masts and showing only a rounded back as she glided along, looked more like a great turtle than a war-ship. She arrived among the Union ships, which were lying in one of the mouths of the Mississippi, called the Southwest Pass, before their crews knew of her coming. Passing the sloop-of-war Preble, she struck the war-steamer Richmond with her ram, staving a small hole in her side about two feet below the waterline. The Richmond and the Preble each fired into the monster, but their shots glanced off from her sides like hail from a roof. The fire-ships were now lighted and began to drift down, lighting up the river with their blaze, and Captain Pope, the commander of the fleet, fearful that some of his vessels might be set on fire by them, ordered the Preble and the Vincennes to go down the river, while he covered the retreat with the Richmond. The Preble passed the bar safely, but the Vincennes and the Richmond grounded. Captain Handy of the Vincennes, mistaking a signal, set a slow-match to the magazine of the Vincennes, intending to blow her up, and went with his men. on board of the other ships; but fortunately the match went out, and he returned and again took possession of her. About ten o'clock the enemy retired and went up the river, and the

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next morning the ships were got safely over the bar, though some of the guns of the Vincennes had to be thrown overboard to lighten her. It was afterward found out that the machinery of the ram had been damaged by the stroke she gave the Richmond, so that she was unable to ram any of the other vessels.

CHAPTER XII.

DEEDS OF THE NAVY.

THE PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION.-HILTON HEAD.-THE MOSQUITO FLEET.-PORT ROYAL.-BEAUFORT.-FRENCH COLONY OF 1562.-CAPTURE OF THE FORTS.-COTTON-BURNING.-MASSA BOBOLITION.-BIG TYBEE ISLAND.-MARTELLO TOWER.-SINKING OF THE STONE FLEET AT CHARLESTON.-MASON AND SLIDELL.-THE TRENT AND THE SAN JACINTO.-LIEUTENANT FAIRFAX AND MISS SLIDELL.-HONORS TO CAPTAIN WILKES.-THE BRITISH LION GROWLS AND GETS READY FOR WAR.-I'M OFF TO CHARLESTON.-MR. LINCOLN'S STORY OF THE Two DOGS.-MR, SEWARD'S JOKE.-MASON AND SLIDELL DELIVERED UP.

T the close of October, 1861, Hampton Roads presented a gay and exciting scene. Eighteen war-ships and thirtythree transports lay off Fortress Monroe, the latter with fifteen thousand soldiers on board, ready to sail on an expedition down the Southern coast. Besides these there were twenty-five vessels laden with coal, to form a depot for supplying fuel for the steamers as soon as a landing should be made. The naval part of the expedition was under the command of Commodore S. F. Dupont, while the land force was in charge of General T. W. Sherman. Many weeks had been spent in getting together this great fleet and in making it ready, yet the secret had been so well kept that no one but the commanding officers knew where it was intended to strike, and there was scarcely a Confederate port on the Atlantic or the gulf coast where it was not expected. The expedition sailed October 29, and after a stormy passage, during which four transports were lost and several disabled, most of the vessels came to anchor off Hilton Head, on the coast of South Carolina.

Hilton Head is an island forming the south side of the entrance of Port Royal Harbor, about fifty miles below Charleston. To guard this entrance, the Confederates had built there a large earthwork called Fort Walker, and on Bay Point of Philip's Island, on the opposite side of the channel, which is about two miles wide, a smaller one named Fort Beauregard. Within the harbor were eight steamers, mostly so small that they were called the "mosquito fleet," under command of Commodore Josiah Tatnall, a former officer of the United States navy, who had served bravely in the last war with Great