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and apparently approaching nearer and nearer to the magazine, the batteries of the enemy reverberating from every quarter, and their red-hot shot exploding above, around and near them, without intermission—still worked with dauntless resolution, and the officers gave their orders with the utmost coolness. Amid such a pandemonium the darkness of night descended upon the scene; and Friday, the first day of the assault, closed. But the fort was not yet reduced. During the night Major Anderson ordered his men to suspend their fire. Not so the assailants. Perfectly aware that after the third day the commandant must evacuate for want of provisions, they determined to make all the bluster and display possible; and hence they continued their useless and superfluous assault during the entire night. It was a grand spectacle for the populace of Charleston. . Never before had they witnessed such an exhibition. Never before had there been such a display of sky-rockets, at the public expense, as was made during that night in Charleston harbor. Accordingly, the whole population were out. The wharves, and what is called the Battery, were filled with a delighted and astonished multitude, who gazed with mingled wonder and exultation at the countless shells as they described their sym- . metrical parabolas through the midnight heavens, and then descended upon the silent fortress. That, however, for the most part was a display merely intended to demonstrate the prowess and skill of the besiegers. Little damage was done during the night; Major Anderson spent the interval in recruiting his men and preparing for the next day's work.

At length Saturday dawned, and Sumter began to respond to the fire of the enemy. The seven thousand Rebel troops who were assembled at the scene of conflict had not yet become exhausted; they still discharged their guns with uninterrupted regularity and frequency. Early in the day the barracks within the fort were set on fire for the fourth time; and it soon became evident that it would be impossible to extinguish the flames. No sooner would the exertions of the men succeed in suppressing the conflagration in one quarter, than the red-hot balls of the enemy would kindle them with fresh fury in another. Then it became necessary to remove the powder from the magazine. Ninety barrels were rolled through the very flames, wrapped in wet woolen blankets, to the port-holes, and thrown overboard. At last it was impossible to accomplish even this; and the doors of the magazine were closed and locked upon the remainder. And now the smoke became more stifling and insupportable than ever. The men were blinded and smothered beyond endurance. They could only breathe through wet cloths, and by lying on the ground. It is said that, at one moment, had not a propitious eddy of wind lifted the dense smoke from the area within the fortress, nearly all the garrison must have been suffocated. In such a situation there was yet no thought of surrender; but the guns of the fort could not be worked with the usual rapidity. They were fired slowly, only as

fast as cartridges could be made in the darkness produced by the smoke, and merely to announce the fact to the assailants and to the admiring citizens that the fort had not yet been silenced.

Amid such scenes the hours of Saturday wore away. The final catastrophe was rapidly approaching. Seven thousand valiant soldiers would not easily desist from the conquest of seventy men. Hence the attack was kept up more furiously during this day than on the preceding. A deluge of red-hot shot was still poured upon the shattered works; the fire within continued its unrestrained ravages; the smoke became more intense, and swelled high up into the heavens, a black rolling mass, which could be seen from afar above the fort; the main gate was battered down; the walls were full of breaches; and the towers had all been demolished. These were the results of the second day's assault, yet the stars and. stripes still waved from the flag-staff; their graceful lines of beauty being occasionally visible, as the thick curtain of smoke would be wafted aside by the breeze. The sun was beginning to descend the western heavens, when ex-senator Wigfall suddenly and unaccountably presented himself at one of the embrasures, with a white flag tied to his sword. Such a spectacle, at such a time and place, at once attracted attention. Lieutenant Snyder immediately approached him, and demanded his business. He received for answer, that the stranger was no less a personage than General Wigfall, who came from General Beauregard with an important message; and he desired to know why, the flag being down, the fort did not stop firing? The truth however was, that Wigfall had not come with any message from Beauregard, and that the flag was not down. Nevertheless a parley ensued, which amounted to nothing. The visitor then disappeared through the embrasure, and soon afterward a deputation arrived, consisting of Messrs. Chesnut, Pryor, Lee, and Miles, who bad been sent by General Beauregard. They brought propositions of surrender, which Major Anderson approved and at once accepted. It was stipulated between them, that the garrison should remove all their individual and company property; that they should march out with all their arms, at their own time, and in their own way; that they should salute their flag with the honors of war, and then take it away with them.

Thus was this memorable assault terminated. On Sunday morning, at half-past nine o'clock, the garrison withdrew, firing a salute of a hundred guns. They then embarked upon a transport furnished by the Rebels; the patriotic strain of Yankee Doodle floating meanwhile upon the breeze. They were subsequently transferred. to the "Baltic," and sailed for New York. It is superfluous to say that Major Anderson and his men behaved during the bombardment with the utmost gallantry and heroism. It would have been impossible to have defended the fort more ably, or to have surmounted the difficulties of their position more resolutely, than they had done. The fact that none were killed during

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the assault must be attributed to the precautions used by the commandant, who stationed a man at every port-hole who gave notice of the approach of shot or shell. President Lincoln subsequently expressed to Major Anderson, officially, his entire approval of the manner in which he had discharged his arduous duties on this occasion.

After the victory came the exultation, and it was such exultation as had never before convulsed the chivalrous South. Seven thousand men had conquered seventy men; and shouts of joy reverberated throughout the whole length and breadth of the Rebel States. General Beauregard immediately issued a proclamation, in which he congratulated the troops under his command for their success; spoke of the great privations and hardships which they had endured in the conflict; and declared that they "had exhibited the highest characteristics of tried soldiers." He took occasion also to thank his staff, the regulars, the volunteers, the militia, and the naval forces for the prodigious heroism and gallantry which they had exhibited.

Much surprise was expressed at the time that President Lincoln did not reinforce the garrison, and that surprise seemed founded in justice. But the Executive himself explained at a later period the reason of this apparent anomaly. That reason, which was amply sufficient, was briefly this: It was the opinion of the chief officers, both of the army and navy, at Washington, whom Mr. Lincoln consulted on the subject—and it was also the opinion of Major Anderson himself—that it would require twenty thousand men to defend the fort successfully, and that the possession of it was not really worth so great an expense and outlay of men and money. Accordingly the orders given to the commandant simply were, that he should vindicate the honor of his flag by making such a resistance as his resources enabled him to make, and then, if necessary, abandon the fort. This he would have done at any rate on the Monday after the attack, and thus would have saved South Carolina the half million dollars which her two days of empty glory cost her.

On the 17th of April, Governor Letcher of Virginia issued a proclamation, in which he recognized the independence of the Rebel States, and ordered that all armed volunteers, regiments and companies in Virginia should hold themselves in readiness for efficient service. On the same day the convention, which had been summoned to discuss the policy of secession, passed an ordinance repealing the ratification of the Constitution of the United States by the State of Virginia, and resuming all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.

Immediately after these events President Lincoln issued a proclamation, calling for seventy-five thousand troops to suppress the Rebellion, and summoning the Federal Congress to meet at Washington on the ensuing 4th of July, 1861, in extraordinary session.

CHAPTER VI.

ENTHUSIASM OF THE REBEL STATES-PROJECTED CONQUEST OF WASHINGTON-PROOFS THAT IT WAS CONTEMPLATED-WHY IT WAS NOT ACCOMPLISHED-SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND FEDERAL TROOPs ordered OUT-DAVIS ISSUES LETTERS OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL-PROCLAMATION OF GOVERNOR LETCHER-SECESSION OF VIRGINIA-BLOCKADE OF THE SOUTHERN PORTS -ASPECT OF THE LOYAL STATES-FIRST IN THE FIELD-THE ATTACK ON FEDERAL TROOPS IN BALTIMORE-FURY OF THE REBEL MOB-RESULTS OF THE ATTACK-ITS INFAMY-THE FEDERAL FORTS ARE GARRISONED-SECESSION OF MISSOURI-RAPID MARCH OF FEDERAL TROOPS TO WASHINGTON-THE CHICAGO ZOUAVES-THE GALLANT ELLSWORTH-ORIGIN OF THE TERM ZOUAVE-HISTORY OF THE FRENCH ZOUAVES IN ALGERIA, IN THE CRIMEA, IN ITALYTHEIR PECULIAR CHARACTERISTICS-AMERICAN ZOUAVES.

THE fall of Sumter, together with the proclamation of President Lincoln summoning a large body of troops to convene at the Federal capital, which followed that event, appear to have inflamed the military ardor of the Rebel States to a prodigious degree; and gorgeous visions of extensive conquests rose to their excited views. Prominent among these was the immediate attack and capture of Washington.

It has been seriously doubted whether the leaders of the secession movement ever really entertained that ambitious purpose, and especially at so early a stage of the Rebellion. It has been asserted that their views were always confined to the defence of the invaded territory of these States, which had become identified with the secession movement; and that the project of the threatened march on Washington was the sole product of the groundless terrors of the inhabitants of the North. This supposition is erroneous. At the period of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, it was boldly asserted by the Rebel leaders that their next movement, after the reduction of that fortress, would be the capture of the Federal capital. Mr. Walker, the Secretary of War to the Rebel Government, declared on the 12th of April, at Montgomery, that no man could prophesy where the war would end; but that he would predict that the flag of the Southern Confederacy would float in splendor over the dome of the capitol at Washington before the first day of May. He moreover warned the "hostile Yankees" that, if they were not careful how they insulted the chivalry of the South, they would ere long see that flag waving in defiant majesty over Fanueil Hall itself.

A similar sentiment was expressed at the same time by many of the leading journals of the South. The Richmond Inquirer declared that nothing was more probable than that President Davis would soon march a triumphant army through North Carolina and Virginia into Washington. The Richmond Examiner asserted that Washington was perfectly within the power of Maryland and Virginia, and added that the whole popula