every two
days; but it is hoped very soon that one of these guns may be finished
daily. The guns are made of a metal recently invented by the Austrians,
and recommended to the Confederate Government by Mr Mason. They are
tested by a charge of ten pounds of powder, and by loading them to the
muzzle with bolts. Two hundred excellent mechanics are exempted from the
conscription, to be employed at the mills. The wonderful speed with
which these works have been constructed, their great success, and their
immense national value, are convincing proofs of the determined energy
of the Southern character, now that it has been roused; and also of the
zeal and skill of Colonel Rains. He told me that Augusta had been
selected as a site for these works on account of its remoteness from the
probable seats of war, of its central position, and of its great
facilities of transport; for this city can boast of a navigable river
and a canal, besides being situated on a central railroad. Colonel Rains
said, that although the Southerners had certainly been hard up for
gunpowder at the early part of the war, they were still harder up for
percussion caps. An immense number (I forget how many) of these are now
made daily in the Government factory at Atlanta.

I left Augusta at 7 P.M. by train for Charleston. My car was much
crowded with Yankee prisoners.

* * * * *

_8th June_ (Monday).--I arrived at Charleston at 5 A.M., and drove at
once in an omnibus to the Charleston hotel. At nine o'clock I called at
General Beauregard's office, but, to my disappointment, I found that he
was absent on a tour of inspection in Florida. He is, however, expected
to return in two or three days.

I then called on General Ripley, who commands the garrison and forts of
Charleston. He is a jovial character, very fond of the good things of
this life; but it is said that he never allows this propensity to
interfere with his military duties, in the performance of which he
displays both zeal and talent. He has the reputation of being an
excellent artillery officer, and although by birth a Northerner, he is a
red-hot and indefatigable rebel. I believe he wrote a book about the
Mexican war, and after leaving the old army, he was a good deal in
England, connected with the small-arms factory at Enfield, and other
enterprises of the same sort. Nearly all the credit of the efficiency of
the Charleston fortifications is due to him. And notwit