INSIDE SUMTER IN ’61.

7i

approached that night would have been rated as enemies upon general prin-ciples. Fortunately nobody appeared; reveille sounded, and the men oiledtheir appetites with the fat pork at the usual hour by way of breakfast.

The second day’s bombardment began at the same hour as did the first; thatis, on the Sumter side. The enemy’s mortars had kept up a very slow fire allnight, which gradually warmed up after daylight as their batteries seemed toawaken, until its vigor was about equalto their fire of the day before. Thefleet was still off the bar—perhaps wait-

ing to see the end. Fire broke out onceor twice in the officers’ quarters, andwas extinguished. It broke out againin several places at once, and we real-ized the truth and let the quarters burn.They were firing red-hot shot. This wasabout 9 o’clock. As soon as Sumterwas noticed to be on fire the secession-ists increased the fire of their batteriesto a maximum. In the perfect storm ofshot and shell that beat upon us fromall sides, the flag-staff was shot down,but the old flag was rescued and nailedto a new staff. This, with much diffi-culty, was carried to the ramparts andlashed to some chassis piled up therefor a traverse.

We were not sorry to see the quartersburn. They were a nuisance. Built for

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A CASEMATE GUN DURING THE CONFLAGRATION.

fire-proof buildings, they were not fire-proof. Neither would they burn up ina cheerful way. The principal cisterns were large iron tanks immediately underthe roof. These had been riddled, and the quarters below had been delugedwith water. Everything was wet and burned badly, yielding an amount ofpungent piney smoke which almost suffocated the garrison.

The scene inside the fort as the fire gained headway and threatened themagazine was an exciting one. It had already reached some of our stores ofloaded shells and shell-grenades. These must be saved at all hazard. Soldiersbrought their blankets and covered the precious projectiles, and thus the mostof them were saved. But the magazine itself was in danger. Already it wasfull of smoke, and the flames were rapidly closing in upon it. It was evidentthat it must be closed, and it would be many hours before it could be openedagain. During these hours the fire must be maintained with such powderas we could secure outside the magazine. A number of barrels were rolledout for this purpose, and the magazine door—already almost too hot tohandle—was closed.

It was the intention to store the powder taken from the magazine in severalsafe corners, covering it with damp soldiers’ blankets. But safe corners were