oldest churches in America, and is supposed to have been built a
hundred and fifty years ago. The Charlestonians are very proud of it,
and I saw several monuments of the time of the British dominion.

This morning I made the acquaintance of a Mr Sennec, an officer in the
Confederate States navy, who, with his wife and daughter, were about to
face the terrors and dangers of running the blockade, Mr Sennec having
got an appointment in Europe. The ladies told me they had already made
one start, but after reaching the bar, the night was not considered
propitious, so they had returned. Mr Sennec is thinking of going to
Wilmington, and running from thence, as it is more secure than
Charleston.

I dined at Mr Robertson's this evening, and met a very agreeable party
there--viz., two young ladies, who were extremely pretty, General
Beauregard, Captain Tucker of the Chicora, and Major Norris, the chief
of the secret intelligence bureau at Richmond.

I had a long conversation with General Beauregard, who said he
considered the question of ironclads _versus_ forts as settled,
especially when the fire from the latter is plunging. If the other
Monitors had approached as close as the Keokuk, they would probably have
shared her fate. He thought that both flat-headed rifled 7-inch bolts
and solid 10-inch balls penetrated the ironclads when within 1200 yards.
He agreed with General Ripley that the 15-inch gun is rather a failure;
it is so unwieldy that it can only be fired very slowly, and the
velocity of the ball is so small that it is very difficult to strike a
moving object. He told me that Fort Sumter was to be covered by degrees
with the long green moss which in this country hangs down from the
trees: he thinks that when this is pressed it will deaden the effect of
the shot without being inflammable; and he also said that, even if the
walls of Fort Sumter were battered down, the barbette battery would
still remain, supported on the piers.

The Federal frigate Ironsides took up her position, during the attack,
over 3000 lb. of powder, which was prevented from exploding owing to
some misfortune connected with the communicating wire. General
Beauregard and Captain Tucker both seemed to expect great things from a
newly-invented and extra-diabolical torpedo-ram.

After dinner, Major Norris showed us a copy of a New York illustrated
newspaper of the same character as our 'Punch.' In it the President
Davis and General Beauregard were