long one of the old-fashioned gales would drive the whole fleet ashore.

The bar was a difficult one to blockade; in addition to the natural obstacles, the active and skilful defenders of the harbor were so aggressive in the use of their torpedoes, torpedo-boats, and other novel devices that the calm weather brought more causes of anxiety to the blockaders than even the most violent gales. They could measure the forces of nature, and knew exactly the extent of their capacity to resist them; but the invisible foes and the unseen dangers made most unpleasant complications. Through the long hours of the night-watches, the anxious officers and the alert lookouts were speculating whether they would next be called upon suddenly to contend with an ironclad ram, a torpedo or torpedo-boat, or a swift blockade-runner at full speed. A good reason for this anxiety is found in the statement of General Rains, chief of the Confederate torpedo service, who reported that they had destroyed fifty-eight of our vessels by torpedoes during the war.

The fleet at first kept about four miles from the land, until after Admiral Dupont's attack with the monitors; then the ironclads remained inside the bar. There were vague rumors at the time of an attack on the monitors by torpedo-boats. In the book recently published by the ex-Confederate Captain Parker, the explanation thereof is given. He states that he was ordered to organize a fleet of torpedo-boats to blow up the monitors. He accordingly collected fifteen boats, with spar torpedoes, and assembled them near Fort Sumter, awaiting the approach of darkness before starting out to attack the monitors. While engaged in preparing for the attack, an officer informed him that the monitors were all leaving; and to his surprise he saw the seven monitors under way, crossing the bar, going southward. This was when they were ordered to St. Helena Sound, for repairs, by Admiral Dupont. Captain Parker goes on to state that

with the aid of Lieutenant Glassell he then took his fleet of torpedo-boats through Wappoo Cut and the inland passages, down to St. Helena Sound, intending to attack the monitors there; but, just on the eve of his attempt, his

chief torpedo man deserted to the enemy, so he gave up the plan. He adds that Lieutenant Glassell had been out several times at night in one of the torpedo-boats, trying to blow up the vessels of the fleet; but on every occasion. he was discovered, which made his hasty retreat necessary. Our most discreet officers had doubts as to the prudence of keeping the monitors in the channel off Morris

Island. It was confidently asserted by the foreign naval officers and by the Confederate officers that they could not be continuously maintained there. But when Admiral Dahlgren relieved Admiral Dupont in the command of the South Atlantic squadron, he made the attempt, and succeeded in keeping the monitors there until they went up into Charleston Harbor. It was a very difficult thing to do, however. The channel was narrow, with dangerous shoals on all sides. The current swept across the channel diagonally; and when there was a strong wind against the tide, eddies or counter-currents. were formed that increased the risk of getting aground. The monitors were very hard to steer in a current. If an eddy gave them a sheer one way or the other, the rudder could not check them within the limited space to which they were restricted; consequently, there were many narrow escapes from serious damage by grounding. During the heavy gales, they were kept pretty well covered by the seas that would break over them. The Rebels sent torpedoes of various designs at the monitors so frequently that it became necessary to surround them all with a heavy torpedo netting of ropes, supported by spars projecting from their sides. These contrivances the sailors called "hoopskirts."

Admiral Dahlgren, in an official report concerning this service, wrote: "No one who has not witnessed it can appreciate the harassing nature of the never-ceasing vigilance necessary to sustain the monitor service off this harbor during the extremes of weather, from the heat of summer to the heavy winter gales which so often visit this anchorage."

Only the most hardy officers and men, or those who volunteered, were detailed for service on the monitors; yet the effect of it was so debilitating that the tour of duty was shortened to a few months, after which the men were sent to a large wooden steamer, called the "Home," where they could rest and recuperate.

Admiral Dahlgren was punctiliously exact in the performance of every detail of duty, regardless of wind or weather. Every Sunday, the church pennant was hoisted on the flagship, and divine service was held, - all the officers and crew not on duty voluntarily attending, though frequently the deep tones of the reader's voice. could scarcely be heard amid the roar of the elements or the jarring din of the heavy guns.

The Admiral used a twelve-oared barge, modelled like a large surf-boat, built expressly for this service, so that he could cross the bar when ordinary ship-boats would have been swamped. Usually when the monitors went into action he would hoist his pennant on the leading one. His chief of staff, who accompanied him on one of these occasions, was killed while inside a monitor's pilothouse, and, on a subsequent occasion, the officer then acting as his chief-of-staff was wounded, though he also was inside the pilot-house; the cause in both cases being the flying inward of armor bolt-heads when the pilot-house was struck by heavy projectiles.

It had been found impossible for the outer line of vessels to stop blockade-running. Steamers would manage to slip in or out at every favorable opportunity. But the presence of the monitors enabled us to maintain a more strict blockade. Seven or eight launches would picket the channel between Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie. They were supported by two picket tugs; the monitor, on advanced picket, would keep under way, while the reserved picket monitor would anchor where the entrance channels converge. The first steamer that tried to run in, after this plan was inaugurated, passed the outer line. of vessels without detection; but when she found a monitor right in her way, and received a shell from it, she was at once run ashore, where we destroyed her. When this became known to the blockade-runners, as it immediately did, the regular trade with Charleston ceased,

until the improved vessels, built expressly for the purpose of evading these new obstacles, began to try to run in; but even these could not slip by with impunity. The picket-launches were so vigilant that they almost always gave the alarm, and were sometimes able to drive the steamers ashore. In one instance, they drove the English steamer "Florie" ashore, then boarded her, capturing her and her crew.

The blockade-runners would sometimes try to run down the picket-boats, and in such cases it required alertness on the part of the pickets to avoid destruction. There were two instances where the swift blockade-runners, when headed off by blockading steamers, deliberately tried to sink the blockaders by running into them. One was when the "Chameleon," commanded by Captain Wilkinson, while running at the rate of thirteen knots, tried to run down the steamer that sought to intercept her, the intercepting vessel barely escaping the intended collision by a dexterous manoeuvre. Another instance was that of the blockade-runner "Ella and Annie," which tried to run down the "Niphon," that sought to stop her. When the captain of the "Niphon" saw that a collision was inevitable, he changed his course, so that the blow struck was a glancing one; then, at the moment of contact, he led a boarding party over the bow of the "Ella and Annie," capturing her and her crew.

The blockaders were in the habit of sending up rockets as signals when steamers tried to run in or out, the rockets being thrown in the direction that the blockaderunner was going, so as to indicate the course to the pursuers. Very soon the Rebels procured rockets of exactly the same kind, and when the pursuers would send up the signal rockets, the pursued vessel would send up other rockets in the opposite direction, so that the fleet would be misled, even if the blockader which discovered the chase was not so thrown off the pursuit. The increasing difficulties of evading the blockade made it necessary