news. The Atlanta, which was a valuable prize, was taken to New York, repaired, and rendered excellent service for the Union to the close of the war. We have already seen (Chapter XVI.) how the monitors and the New Ironsides had bombarded Fort Wagner on the day of the assault by the troops of General Gillmore, and they were still hurling shot and shell upon it. General Beauregard determined to hold Morris Island at all hazards. General Gillmore was equally determined to gain possession of Wagner. It must be done by regular siege operations-by the shovel, by heavy cannon and mortars. On the 20th of June he had two new batteries ready, and in the afternoon of that day a shot dismounted a 10-inch Con federate gun. He began, also, a fire upon Sumter. His 30-pounder Parrott cannon were nearly two miles distant, but the shot had so marked an effect that he determined to keep his rifled guns pounding its walls. On the 28th General Gillmore's troops had dug their way to within sixteen hundred feet of Wagner. At night the sharp-shooters went in advance, with shovels, scooped rifle-pits in the sand, and through the day kept such a sharp watch that the Confederates could not work their guns. By August 9th the troops were only four hundred yards from the fort. Gillmore had twenty-eight heavy guns and twelve mortars ready, and on the 17th opened in earnest upon Sumter, while the monitors and gunboats rained their fire upon Wagner. During the morning six hundred and twelve shot and shell were fired at Sumter, dismounting or disabling five of its cannon and crumbling the wall. In seven days, up to the 24th, five thousand seven hundred and fifty shot and shell were fired, of which nearly four thousand five hundred struck the fort, making it a shapeless ruin, with nearly all its guns dismounted. "I consider it impossible either to mount or use guns on any part of the parapet, and I deem the fort in its present condition unserviceable for offensive purposes," was the report made by Colonel Rhett, the Confederate commander, to General Beauregard. The call of the Governor of South Carolina and of the Mayor of Charleston for slaves to work on the fortifications had been responded to by the planters, and earthworks were being thrown up at every point. Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, was of brick, but now great banks of sand, twenty feet thick, were heaped against its walls Heavy cannon were mounted. Batteries were erected along the shore. At the extreme end of the island was Fort Marshall, mounted with sixty-seven cannon, |