k of getting the men off the sinking craft was recommenced, and
boats were sent to their assistance. The sea was running too high for
them to approach close to the steamer's guards, so they lay off some
feet, and the soldiers jumped into them. It was a perilous leap, with
the boats pitching one way, and the ship another, and a raging sea of
tossing waters between; but it was made bravely by every man, and but
seven or eight were lost. Soon after the last man left the "Governor,"
she lurched to one side and sank, carrying with her the arms and
ammunition of the troops she was transporting.

It was on Monday morning, Nov. 4, that the flagship "Wabash" cast
anchor off Port Royal. In the offing were a few more sail headed for
the same point, and during the day some twenty-five vessels of the
scattered squadron came up. For the next day ships were constantly
arriving, and by Tuesday night the whole squadron lay safely anchored
in the broad harbor.

The defences which the Confederates had erected upon Hilton Head, a
lofty bluff overlooking the harbor, were powerfully designed
earthworks, poorly armed and manned. The forts were two in number,
placed on a commanding elevation, and might have been made impregnable
had the Confederates taken advantage of the warning sent them by their
spies in Washington. Fort Walker had fourteen guns which could bear on
an attacking fleet, and Fort Beauregard had twenty. When the fight
began, the gunners found that most of their ammunition was either too
large or too small for the guns. To support the forts in their fight,
was a wretched little fleet of tugs and schooners, mounting a gun or
two each, but absolutely powerless before the smallest of Du Pont's
ships-of-war. Indeed, when the battle began, the Union navy gave its
undivided attention to the forts, and did not even give battle to
Tatnall's mosquito fleet.

Thursday morning dawned bright and mild as a morning in June. The
shores of the beautiful bay were covered with woods, out of which rung
the clear notes of Southern song-birds. The scene from the ships was
one of the most charming imaginable. The placid bay, the luxuriant
shores, the ocean showing across the low-lying ridge of white sand,
the forts frowning from the steep headland, the fleet of majestic
frigates mustered for the attack, and in the distance the flotilla of
defenceless transports, safely out of range, their decks and rigging
crowded with fifteen thousand men--all th