though beaten in the Middle
States, driven from the Mississippi, and with their very citadel at
Vicksburg in the hands of the Federals, they still fought with a
courage and desperation that for a long time baffled the attacks of
the Unionists.

From the very opening of the war, Charleston Harbor had been the scene
of naval hostilities. The Confederates, looking upon their mouldering
wharves, and vessels tugging idly at their chains, then looking out to
sea past Fort Sumter, could see the ships of the blockading-squadron
maintaining the watchful guard that was slowly reducing the city to
penury. What wonder that the blood of the good people of Charleston
boiled, and that they built, and hurled against their hated enemy,
weird naval monsters, shapeless torpedo-boats running beneath the
water, or huge rams that might even batter in the heavy walls of Fort
Sumter!

One attack so made was successful to a certain extent. It was in
February, 1864, that an inventive genius in the beleaguered city
brought out a steam torpedo-boat. The craft was about twenty-five feet
long, shaped like a cigar, built of boiler iron, and propelled by a
screw. She had no smokestack, and her deck barely rose above the
surface of the water. Running out from her bow was a stout spar
fifteen feet long, bearing at its end a huge torpedo charged with two
hundred pounds of powder. Just before nine o'clock one night, the
lookout on the deck of the frigate "Housatonic" saw this strange
object approaching the ship. It was a bright night, with no sea on. As
yet torpedoes were hardly known, so the lookout took it for a large
fish, and simply watched with interest its playful movements. Not
until it came so close that no guns could be brought to bear, did any
suspicion of danger enter the lookout's mind. Then there was the roll
of the alarm-drums; while the men rushed to the side, and poured a
fierce fire from small-arms on the mysterious object. The "Housatonic"
started her engines, and tried to escape; but, before any headway
could be gained, the launch dashed alongside, and a slight jar was
felt. Then, with a tremendous roar, a huge column of water was thrown
high in air, washing away men and boats from the deck of the warship.
A hole large enough to drive a horse through was rent in the hull of
the ship. Great beams were broken in twain, the heaviest guns were
dismounted, and men were hurled fifty feet into the air. In five
minutes the ship had gone to