Wagner on our left. The latter is a powerful, well-constructed
field-work, mounting nine heavy guns, and it completely cuts across
Morris Island at the end nearest to Fort Sumter. General Ripley pointed
at Fort Wagner with some pride.

We landed near the house of the colonel who commanded the troops in
Morris Island,[47] and borrowed his horses to ride to the further
extremity of the island. We passed the wreck of the Keokuk, whose turret
was just visible above the water, at a distance from the shore of about
1500 yards. On this beach I also inspected the remains of the so-called
"Yankee Devil," a curious construction, which on the day of the attack
had been pushed into the harbour by one of the Monitors. This vessel,
with her appendage, happened to be the first to receive the fire of Fort
Sumter, and after a quarter of an hour Monitor and Devil got foul of one
another, when both came to grief, and the latter floated harmlessly
ashore. It seems to have been composed of double twenty-inch beams,
forming a sort of platform or stage fifty feet long by twenty broad,
from which depended chains with grappling irons to rake up hostile
torpedoes. The machine was also provided with a gigantic torpedo of its
own, which was to blow up piles or other obstacles.

Morris Island is a miserable, low, sandy desert, and at its further
extremity there is a range of low sandhills, which form admirable
natural parapets. About ten guns and mortars were placed behind them,
and two companies of regular artillery were stationed at this point
under the command of Captain Mitchell (the "patriot's" son), to whom I
was introduced. He seemed a quiet, unassuming man, and was spoken of by
General Ripley as an excellent officer. He told me he expected to be
able to open fire in a day or two upon the Yankees in Folly Island and
Little Folly; and he expressed a hope that a few shell might drive them
out from Little Folly, which is only distant 600 yards from his guns.
The enemy's large batteries are on Folly Island, 3400 yards off, but
within range of Captain Mitchell's rifled artillery, one of which was a
twelve-pounder, Whitworth.

A blockade-runner, named the Ruby, deceived by some lights on Folly
Island, ran ashore at one o'clock this morning in the narrow inlet
between Morris Island and Little Folly. The Yankees immediately opened
fire on her, and her crew, despairing of getting her off, set her on
fire--a foolish measure, as she was right under C