oughed up and lifted and driven by resistless force now in
spray and now almost in waves over into the work, the men
sometimes half buried by the moving mass. The chief anxiety
was about the magazines. The profile of the fort might be
destroyed, the ditch filled up, the traverses and bomb-proof
barracks knocked out of shape, but the protecting banks of
sand would still afford their shelter; but if the coverings
of the magazines were blown away and they became exposed,
the explosion that would ensue would lift fort and garrison
into the air and annihilate all in general chaos. They were
carefully watched and reports of their condition required to
be made at short intervals during the day.

"Wagner replied to the enemy, her 10-inch columbiad alone to
the ships, deliberately at intervals of fifteen minutes, the
other guns to the land batteries whenever in range, as long
as they were serviceable. The 32-pounder rifled gun was soon
rendered useless by bursting and within two hours many other
guns had been dismounted and their carriages destroyed.
Sumter, Colonel Alfred Rhett in command, and Gregg, under
charge of Captain Sesesne, with the Sullivan and James
Island batteries at long range, threw all the power of their
available metal at the assailants and added their thunders
to the universal din; the harbor of Charleston was a
volcano. The want of water was felt, but now again
unconsciously the enemy came to the assistance of the
garrison, for water was actually scooped from the craters
made in the sand by the exploded shells. The city of
Charleston was alive and aflame with excitement; the bay,
the wharves, the steeples and streets filled with anxious
spectators looking across the water at their defenders, whom
they could not succor.

"At 2 o'clock the flag halliards were cut by a shot and the
Confederate garrison flag was blown over into the fort;
there was an instant race for its recovery through the storm
of missiles, over the broken earth and shells and splinters
which lined the parade. Major Ramsey, Sergeant Shelton and
private Flinn, of the Charleston Battalion, and Lieutenant
Riddick, of the Sixty-third Georgia, first reached it and
bore it back in triumph to the flagstaff, and at the same
moment Captain Barnwell, of the