ceived, and at the same time their two guns might have gone forward and prepared for their charge with grape and canister. But nothing of the kind occurred. As soon as they were on their horses the guns limbered up, and all trotted off together. After seeing such an opportunity lost, I was not surprised to hear that mounted cavalry never attacked infantry. We continued our march unmolested. On the road I got into conversation with a sergeant of the signal corps. This signal corps is an institution peculiar to the American armies. On marches and during battles, high and commanding positions are occupied by squadrons of this corps, who communicate with each other by flags, on the old semaphore system, and report all important communications to their generals. The corps was found very useful last year, and has been much increased since. When Jackson was forcing the surrender of Harper's Ferry he was able to communicate from the Virginia heights with M'Laws, who was on the Maryland heights, by means of two posts of the signal corps; whilst, if he had been obliged to send couriers, they would have had to make a detour of twenty-five miles. This year Lee and Ewell were in constant communication from Culpepper to Winchester, I forget whether by twenty-five or thirtyfive posts. Sometimes they discover each other's alphabet. The Yankees did this just before the battle of Chancellorsville, but the Confederates found it out and changed their signals; so when the Yankees, having got to a Confederate post, telegraphed with the old alphabet to know where Lee and Jackson were, they got a wrong answer. Major Norris is the chief of this corps. CHAPTER VIII. We reached Culpepper Courthouse on the 24th of July; and as it was evident that the army would remain here inactive for some time, I "took the cars" to Richmond, where I spent ten days very agreeably. Richmond was never intended to hold so many inhabitants as it does now. Its population before the war was, I believe, about 30,000; now, they say, it is 100,000; so that many of the Government employés are hard up for lodging. One gold dollar is now worth about ten paper ones of Confederate currency,"fundable in stocks or bonds of the Confederate States six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States," and not A LEGAL TENDER for all debts, public and private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt," as the "greenbacks " in the North are. And as Government officials and the 66 army are paid in this currency, at the same rate as if it were worth its nominal value in gold, of course those who have no private means are obliged to be very economical. Planters, and those who have anything to sell, are nearly as well off as before, as they get proportionately high prices for their goods. For those who can command gold or exchange upon England, living is exceedingly cheap. Board and lodging at a first-rate hotel, for instance, is six paper dollars a-day, or about half-a-crown in English money. But as Richmond is crowded with Government officials, most of whom have only their salaries, and with refugees from parts of the country occupied by the Yankees, who have little or nothing at all, the war is much more severely felt here than anywhere else in the Confederacy. Still it is a pleasant place, and pleasant people live here. The houses are cosy and comfort able, especially in the better streets, which are lined with "shade" trees, a great feature of Southern cities. Americans, like the English, always have a house to themselves if they can, so the only very large houses are the hotels. with long Spanish moss, on ground which was almost a swamp. The spaces cleared on each side of the road were covered with canebrake several yards high; and in the ditches, full of black water, which ran parallel with the line, cooters and terrapins and various reptiles were swimming about. At intervals, and always near the stations, there were large clearings, with country houses and negro villages; and I have no doubt, from the look of the soil, that the plantations must be very productive. We reached Charleston at ten o'clock in the evening, and took up our quarters at the Mill's House Hotel, very hot and dusty and rather knocked up. However, after spoiling a good deal of cold water felt more comfortable before we retired to rest. Captain Scheibert, the Prussian Commissioner, with whom I had associated a great deal during the campaign, was my next-door neighbour at the Ballard House; and as he was soon to leave for Europe, we agreed to go down to Charleston together, where great events were expected to take place. The journey was very disagreeable. It was scorchingly hot, and the cars, always inconvenient, were excessively crowded. They invariably are so, both in the North and South, and the discomforts of travelling-making it very nearly black-we are greater than any one can imagine who has not experienced them. We left Richmond at five o'clock in the morning of Thursday, August 6th, and breakfasted at Petersburg, where we had to stop for four hours, which we spent in wandering about the "city." It is not necessary in this country for a city to have a bishop and a cathedral; a good-sized church is enough, and every town sufficiently large to boast such an ornament is a city here. Petersburg, moreover, is a good-sized place, has several churches, some handsome "stores," and is said to be a delightful residence. From Petersburg to Wilmington we were constantly travelling through the enormous pine forests for which North Carolina is famous, and from which, in time of peace, they extract rosin enough to supply the world. It was getting daylight as we crossed the river at Wilmington. We counted twelve blockade-runners lying at the wharves. From thence to Charleston most of the road was through forests, but of a different description from those of the day before. The trees were chiefly live oak, and others of a tropical character, bearded all over Next morning, in spite of the scorching sun, we paid a round of visits to the generals and others, presenting letters of introduction with which we had been furnished at Richmond. We were very kindly and cordially received, and I soon began to feel at home in Charleston. "Charleston, the metropolis of South Carolina, is picturesquely situated at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which combine to form its harbour," says Appleton's Guide. "It was founded about 1670, and subsequently laid out on a plan furnished from England, which was then considered of very magnificent scale." There are some fine churches and public buildings, museum, orphan asylum, libraries, &c. No State has so many charitable institutions as South Carolina. Before the war Charleston had nearly 70,000 inhabitants, but now there are less than 20,000, they say. A terrific fire, in December 1862, destroyed one-third of the city, with the Roman Catholic cathedral, several churches, the theatre, and many of the finest public and pri vate buildings. The centre of Charleston is now a wide waste of ruin and rubbish. There is a fine arsenal here, and a military college. It is a curious fact that several of the Southern States have had for many years military colleges, where the pupils received a complete military education, although they were never intended for soldiers, and, indeed, could not enter the regular army, which was exclusively officered by graduates from Westpoint, the United States military school. At dinner I met V., whom I immediately recognised from having seen his photograph, and we walked out in the evening to the "Battery," a promenade on the bay, whence there is a splendid view of Fort Sumter and the shore on each side of Charleston Bay, now covered with forts and batteries. Fort Sumter is three miles off, Fort Wagner four; so when battles take place it is perfectly safe to look on, and on such occasions the Battery is crowded with ladies and gentlemen. Cannonading is kept up night and day between Sumter and the batteries on James Island on one side, and the Yankees on the other. These last have now a firm footing on Morris Island, and are working their way towards Fort Wagner, which they failed to take by storm the other day. In the evening especially it is very interesting to watch the contest, as all the guns use hollow shot, with time fuzes, which go blazing through the air like meteors. The mortar-shells are the prettiest, going high up into the air, and then slowly descending. One of my first excursions was to Fort Sumter, whither I went one evening with General Ripley in his barge. It was then almost entirely intact, having been hurt very little indeed by the Monitor attack in April; and when I observed the thickness of its walls, and compared them with what I had seen in other countries, and when I saw that no land - batteries could be brought within much less than a mile of it, I confess I did not foresee the destruction it was to undergo within a very short time. They were blazing away from a mortar in the yard at the Yankee works on Morris Island; and Colonel Rhett, the commandant at Sumter, told us as a curiosity that this firing from the fort spoils their bread, as it shakes the foundation so that the yeast cannot make the dough rise. From Sumter we rowed over to Battery Gregg, on Morris Island, and thence took horse to Fort Wagner, a very strong little work made entirely of sand, lined or faced with palmetto wood, which does not splinter. Every one knew it was doomed, and must fall in time, but it was intended to hold it as long as possible. The garrison is relieved every five days. The impression of most people then was that the Yankees would work their way up to Fort Wagner and force its evacuation and that of Battery Gregg, and then place their own batteries there and attack Sumter. The bombproofs at Fort Wagner were stiflingly close and hot, but we went outside and lay on the parapet for an hour, chatting. The Yankees were so obliging as not to shell whilst we were there, as they otherwise do pretty nearly all day and all night long, keeping the garrison under-ground, with the exception of those who are working the guns. But the land guns do not trouble them so much as the monitors, and especially the new Ironsides, an iron-clad frigate carrying seven 11inch Dalgrens on a side, as well as two 200-pounder Parrots on pivots, which are used as broadside guns. It is surprising how little damage they do to the fortification. A 15inch shell, weighing 340 pounds, will bury itself in the sand, explode, and create an enormous amount of dust; but the sand not being heavy enough to be thrown far, it presently subsides, and the damage is repaired by a very little shovelling. As yet there have not been many casualties on the Confederate side since the siege of Charleston has commenced; and General Jordan tells me he has calculated that it takes the Yankees 70,000 pounds weight of iron to kill or wound a Confederate soldier. Still the incessant, tremendous, deafening, agaçant crashing of the enormous guns affects the nerves of the men, and they are thoroughly knocked up at the end of their five days' service; and the worthy missionaries, who hold revival and prayer meetings at the different camps, reap a large harvest of repentant converts each time the garrison is relieved. We did not return from our expedition till near daylight the next morning. Another day we drove over to see the fortifications on James Island. When the British took Charleston in May 1780, it was through James Island that they made their attack, and General Beauregard is very thankful that the Yankees did not follow their example. It is now, however, covered with strong works. Formerly, it was considered certain death to sleep out one night there during the malaria season, and now thousands of men are quartered on it. They have to be well dosed with quinine, however. Major Lucas, who commanded at the principal work on the island-Fort Pemberton-told me that he made his men take their dose regularly every morning after dress-parade. Last year, when it was left more to the option of the men, there was a great deal of fever; but this year, since the men had no choice in the matter, they are very healthy. The island used before the war to be covered with cotton - plantations, but it has gone out of cultivation Colonel drove me over in his buggy, and Scheibert, V., Captain Fielden, an Englishman on General Beauregard's Staff, and Mr Walker, a Charlestonian, followed in a carriage. We spent a delightful day, roaming over cotton-fields and rice plantations, woods, and "park-like meadows," studded with the most magnificent live oaks. At lunch, some fruit was brought in, which I began to eat, and said, "What delicious gooseberries!" upon which I was informed that I was not eating gooseberries at all, but grapes Scuppernong grapes, an indigenous fruit of the country. I found a vine afterwards in the garden with these grapes growing upon it, singly and in bunches of two or three, like cherries. They have a hard skin, rather hairy: a capital wine is made from them. It is remarkable that most attempts to make wine in this country have failed, though of course the grape thrives in perfection; but I am told that they ripen too early, and the juice will not ferment properly in the hot weather which follows the pressing. One of the most striking features in the forests are the enormous wild vines which twine round the larger trees. The house at Ashley Hall, like many more on the old plantations, was built before the revolutionary war, of bricks brought from England. We had hardly been a week at Charleston, before the Yankees, having mounted some heavy batteries at a distance of from two and a half to three miles from Sumter, commenced a furious bombardment of that fort, firing over Fort Wagner and Battery Gregg, and at the same time continuing their approaches. It was an entirely novel feature of war; but it soon became evident that they would have the best of it, and that the brick walls of Sumter would not be able to stand the pounding of their two and three hundred pound shells, thrown from that extraordinary distance. From Fort Jackson on James Island, which is distant about three-quarters of a mile from Sumter, and where we went now daily to watch the progress of events, we could clearly see the effect of every shot fired. Day by day more of the wall disappeared, and more guns were knocked from the parapet and the upper casemates, into the area behind them. Every now and then the fleet would come in and join in the attack. Thus, on Monday morning, August 17th, the new Ironsides, six monitors, and six wooden ships, and all the Yankee batteries, commenced a furious attack on Forts Sumter and Wagner, and Battery Gregg. Fort Moultrie and the batteries on Johnson's Island joined in the affray, and the din was tremendous till halfpast ten, when the fleet drew off. Again, on the 23d, there was a furious combined assault by the fleet and the batteries, which did not, however, last very long, and then there was a lull for a week. Speaking of this last attack, the 'Charleston Mercury' of August 31st says: "There are few who have known how fortunate for that fort was the inaction of the enemy. When the monitors drew off after their brief assault, in which their fire had been exceedingly accurate, Sumter was in a very precarious condition. If the fleet had then pushed the bombardment with vigour, or if they had renewed it with determination after a brief interval, they would have penetrated the magazine, and, doubtless, have blown up the fort or compelled the garrison to surrender. As it happily turned out, the monitors withdrew before the destruction was complete. In the interval that has elapsed the powder has been taken care of, and the defences of the fort strengthened by sand-bags." Sumter's chief power of offence lay in its barbette guns on the parapet, and in those of its upper case mates, which could pour a plunging fire upon any vessels approaching; thus giving it an advantage such as in throwing stones a man on a tower would have over an opponent on the ground below him. Only a short time ago the fort was considered strong enough to defend the entrance of the harbour, and the works on the land were considered of small importance, but they have now been enormously strengthened and increased: indeed the whole shore on each side of the bay is lined with batteries, and the defenders of Charleston believe that no fleet could enter the inner harbour without being certainly destroyed. Although it took little more than a week to knock Sumter into what is here metaphorically called a "cocked hat," yet as the walls fell and the bricks got pounded into dust, they covered the lower casemates with such a mass of debris as materially increased their strength; and in time, assisted by skilful engineering, the ruins of Sumter became stronger for internal defence than the untouched fort had ever been. The flag never ceased to float defiantly from its dilapidated walls, and the boom of its evening gun never failed at sunset to remind the Yankees that Fort Sumter would not be so easily given up to them as it had been taken from them. The Charlestonians are fully determined never to give up their city to the Yankees except in ruins, and have all provided themselves with the means of setting fire to their houses if by any mischance the place should become untenable. I am told by those who have studied the science of arson, that half-a-dozen bottles of spirit of turpentine are sufficient to set the largest house in a blaze. A good many of the houses are what are called "frame houses"-that is, built of wooden planks-and almost all have a wooden piazza all round them, up to the top, which would |