compelled to remain under the bomb-proof, where the heat was stifling, and greatly weakening and dispiriting them. While the shells were exploding the Union shovellers were at work, carrying their trench along the flank of the fortification. General Gillmore intended to storm the fort at ebb-tide on the morning of September 7th. He did not know that General Beauregard was reading all the signals that passed between the army and the fleet by the waving of flags; but he had discovered the key by capturing a Union signal-officer, who in some way, or by some inducement, gave away the secret. He read the signal waved from the shore to the New Ironsides that Wagner was to be assaulted, and as soon as it was dark the troops came out of the bomb-proof and made haste to Cumming's Point, and thence in boats to Charleston.

There was only one cannon remaining in Sumter, but a regiment of Confederate infantry was there to hold the fort. Admiral Dahlgren planned an expedition for the capture of Sumter by sailors in boats at night, but the Confederate officer watching the waving of the Union signal-flags read the message sent to Gillmore regarding the plan, and when the boats moved up in the darkness all the batteries on Sullivan's and James islands opened upon them, and they were quickly repulsed with a loss of more than one hundred men.

Admiral Dahlgren determined to bombard Fort Moultrie, and the monitors, on September 7th, steamed up the channel and opened fire. The Weehawken ran aground, and all the Confederate batteries opened upon her. The other monitors and the New Ironsides replied, continuing the fire several hours, when suddenly there came an explosion in Moultrie, lifting a great cloud of sand high in the air, together with planks and timbers and shells, which exploded about the garrison with a concussion that jarred all the windows of Charleston, and which was heard far away.

It was seen that though the magazine had been exploded, the fort was little damaged by the bombardment. The Navy Department at Washington did not wish Admiral Dahlgren to attempt to run into Charleston harbor, for the iron-clad ram which had been launched at Birkenhead, England, was nearly ready for sea, and the monitors alone could cope with so formidable a vessel.

Going over to London, we see Mr. Adams during those September days writing vigorous letters to Lord John Russell.

A second ram had been launched. It was well known that the vessels were being built for the Confederate Government, and although Mr. Adams had repeatedly called Lord John Russell's attention to them, the building and outfitting were allowed to go on.

"The Government cannot interfere in any way with these vessels," wrote Lord John Russell in reply to Mr. Adams.

"The ram is taking coal on board, and she may go to sea at any time," was the despatch from the United States Consul at Liverpool to Mr. Adams September 3d.

"In the name of my government I make this last solemn protest against the commission of such an act of hostility against a friendly nation," said Mr. Adams to Lord John Russell the next day. Two days later he wrote:

"At this moment, when one of the iron-clad vessels is on the point of departure from this kingdom on its hostile errand against the United States, it would be superfluous for me to point out to your lordship that this is war."

Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston began to see things in a new light. They sympathized with the Confederacy, but were not quite ready to go to war with the United States; for in that case British ships as well as American vessels might possibly be burned at sea, and orders were issued to prevent the sailing of the iron-clads. Several large war-ships took position off the ship-yard where the ram was lying.

To be prepared for them, the monitors waited in the outer harbor of Charleston; while General Gillmore planted his heavy long-range rifled cannon on Cumming's Point, and began the bombardment of the city, which was to go on, day after day, to the end of the war.

THE

CHAPTER XVIII.

EAST TENNESSEE.

HE section of country called Eastern Tennessee includes thirty counties. From its many mountain ranges it has been called the Switzerland of America, but it has no gleaming ice-clad peaks, no lofty summits white with snow in midsummer, no rivers of ice grinding through deep gorges. Upon the north are the Cumberland Mountains, where the rivulets which course down the valleys form the Cumberland River, flowing westward through Kentucky to the Ohio River. On the south are the Alleghany Mountains, extending in a continuous chain into Georgia and Alabama. Between these two great ranges are others of less magnitude. Through the valleys flow the Holston River, the French Broad, Clinch, Hiawassee, and other streams, which, when united, form the Tennessee. It is a region of mountains, wooded hills, undulating plains. Along the Holston and Hiawassee, the lands are fertile, and in midsummer the air is fragrant with clover-blooms, and the landscape golden with ripening wheat. In the autumn the orchards are laden with apples, peaches, and plums. But in many places the soil is thin, and yields scanty harvests to the farmers. The mountains are clothed with dense forests, the haunts of deer. There are few roads for wagons, but many paths leading up the valleys, across streams, and over the mountain ranges.

The people were a hardy race of mountaineers. They lived plain, simple lives. Their homes were log-cabins, with a great fireplace at one end, a chimney of sticks and mud; the floors were of hewn timber. Their wants were few. The men planted a little patch with corn, another with potatoes. They raised pigs that they might have bacon. The women and girls spun yarn upon the old-fashioned wheel, and wove cloth in the household loom. Their gowns were of cotton and wool. The garments of the men were cotton jeans dyed brown with butternut bark.

These people had few of the comforts of civilization, and were content with their lot in life. The corn which they raised was ground to coarse meal in a hand-mill or in a rude water-mill upon a mountain brook.

They hunted deer and bear in the forests, or supplied themselves with fish from the streams.

There were few slaves in Eastern Tennessee. The climate was not suited to the profitable cultivation of cotton, and so they had no sympathy with the Confederacy, which was established on a slave-holding aristocracy of cotton-planters. They had ever been free and independent, and no ar

gument, however persuasive, could turn them from their allegiance to the Union established by their fathers.

The legislature which had been elected in 1860 was in favor of seceding from the Union, and passed a vote submitting the question of holding a convention to the people. The people of the State, by a majority of more than twenty thousand, voted not to hold a convention. In the counties composing Eastern Tennessee, seven thousand five hundred voted for the convention, thirty-four thousand against it.

The governor of the State, Isham G. Harris, was a Secessionist, and, not to be thwarted in his plans, called the legislature together. It met on April 25, 1861, when the whole country was aroused over the firing on Fort Sumter. He said in his message that the time had come for imme

diate action; that they need not wait to submit the question to the people. A commissioner from the Confederate States, Henry W. Hilliard, addressed the members, setting forth the future greatness and glory of the Confederacy. The Secessionists, having a majority, authorized Governor Harris to enter into a military league with the Confederate States. The eighteen members from East Tennessee, being in a hopeless minority, did not vote. The governor was authorized to raise fifty thousand volunteers, and five million dollars was appropriated to enable him to do so. By this act the whole military force of the State was placed under the control of Jefferson Davis, in opposition to the expressed will of the people.

Not only the troops but the treasury was given into the control of the President of the Confederacy-an act destined to drench the State with blood, ravage its fields, destroy its wealth, sweep into untimely graves thousands of brave men, array brother against brother, and engender feuds which would remain long after the closing of the war. The legislature