ed the
carriage of the 8-inch gun to-day. The officers are all present,
and the crew has been shipped, and all are impatient to be off. The
river is not yet blockaded, but expected to be to-morrow. It must
be a close blockade, and by heavy vessels, that will keep us in.
Troops are being collected in large numbers in the enemy's States,
marchings and counter-marchings are going on; and the fleet seems
to be kept very busy, scouring hither and thither, but nothing
accomplished. Whilst penning the last paragraph, news reaches us
that the Lincoln Government has crossed the Potomac and invaded
Virginia! Thus commences a bloody and a bitter war. So be it; we
but accept the gauntlet which has been flung in our faces. The
future will tell a tale worthy of the South and of her noble
cause."

But the delays were not yet over. On the 27th May, the United States
steamer Brooklyn made her appearance, and commenced the blockade of the
river. The following day brought the powerful frigates Niagara and
Minnesota to her assistance; and when on the 1st of June Captain Semmes
began at length to look hopefully seawards, the Powhattan was discovered
carefully watching the only remaining exit from the river.

One by one, however, the difficulties were fairly overcome, and the
infant navy of the Confederate States was ready to take the sea. The
Sumter's crew consisted of Captain Semmes, commanding, four lieutenants,
a paymaster, a surgeon, a lieutenant of marines, four midshipmen, four
engineers, boatswain, gunner, sail-maker, carpenter, captain's and
purser's clerks, twelve marines, and seventy-two seamen. Thus manned and
equipped, she dropped down the river on the 18th June, and anchored off
the Barracks for the purpose of receiving on board her ammunition and
other similar stores. From thence she again proceeded on the same
evening still lower down the river to Forts Philip and Jackson, where
she brought up on the following day, to await a favourable opportunity
for running the blockade.

For three days she remained at her new anchorage, this period of
enforced inactivity being diligently employed in drilling and exercising
the crew, and bringing the vessel generally into somewhat better order
than her hurried equipment had as yet permitted her to assume. On the
21st June, however, intelligence was received that the Powhattan had
left her station in chase of two vessels, and that a boat from the
Brooklyn had passed into the river, and