d, whose guns were
immediately turned upon them.

By this time, Fort Sumter was in ruins, its artillery could not be
served, and its garrison comprised only a detachment of infantry. Upon
being summoned to surrender by Dahlgren, the commander invited the
admiral to come and take the fort. The effort to do so was made by a
military force and the ironclads on the 9th of September, but failed. No
more important attempts followed. The result had shown that the defenses
of Charleston were practically impregnable, and, though shells were
occasionally sent into the forts and city, the latter was not captured
until near the end of the war, and then it was brought about, as may be
said, by the collapse of the Confederacy itself.

When the war began the Southerners were the superiors of the Northerners
as regarded their cavalry. Horseback riding is more common in the South
than in the North, but it did not take the Union volunteers long to
acquire the art, and, as the war progressed, the cavalry arm was greatly
increased and strengthened. One of the natural results of this was
numerous raids by both sides, some of which assumed an importance that
produced a marked effect on the military campaigns in progress, while in
other cases, the daring excursions were simply an outlet to the
adventurous spirit which is natural to Americans and which manifests
itself upon every opportunity and occasion.

ONE OF GENERAL STUART'S RAIDS.

Mention has been made of the embarrassment caused General Lee during his
Gettysburg campaign by the absence of Stuart with his calvary on one of
his raids. In the autumn, Stuart started out on a reconnaissance to
Catlett's Station, where he observed French's column in the act of
withdrawing from the river, whereupon he turned back toward Warrenton.
Taking the road leading from that town to Manassas, he found himself
unexpectedly confronting the corps of General Warren. Thus he was caught
directly between two fires and in imminent danger of defeat and capture,
for his force was but a handful compared with either column of the
Federals. Fortunately for the raider, he and his men were in a strip of
woods, and had not been seen, but discovery seemed certain, for their
enemies were on every hand, and the slightest inadvertence, even such as
the neighing of a horse, was likely to betray them.

Stuart called his officers around him to discuss what they could do to
extricate themselves from their dangerous situ