d retained one
colored man to wait on us. He was a spruce-looking mulatto from
Charleston, very active and efficient on ordinary occasions, but now
completely demoralized by the thunder of the guns and crashing of the
shot around us. He leaned back against the wall, almost white with fear,
his eyes closed, and his whole expression one of perfect despair.[18]
Our meal was not very sumptuous. It consisted of pork and water, but Dr.
Crawford triumphantly brought forth a little farina, which he had found
in a corner of the hospital.

When this frugal repast was over, my company was told off in three
details for firing purposes, to be relieved afterward by Seymour's
company. As I was the ranking officer, I took the first detachment, and
marched them to the casemates, which looked out upon the powerful
iron-clad battery of Cummings Point.

In aiming the first gun fired against the rebellion I had no feeling of
self-reproach, for I fully believed that the contest was inevitable, and
was not of our seeking. The United States was called upon not only to
defend its sovereignty, but its right to exist as a nation. The only
alternative was to submit to a powerful oligarchy who were determined to
make freedom forever subordinate to slavery. To me it was simply a
contest, politically speaking, as to whether virtue or vice should rule.

My first shot bounded off from the sloping roof of the battery opposite
without producing any apparent effect. It seemed useless to attempt to
silence the guns there; for our metal was not heavy enough to batter the
work down, and every ball glanced harmlessly off, except one, which
appeared to enter an embrasure and twist the iron shutter, so as to stop
the firing of that particular gun.

I observed that a group of the enemy had ventured out from their
intrenchments to watch the effect of their fire, but I sent them flying
back to their shelter by the aid of a forty-two-pounder ball, which
appeared to strike right in among them.

Assistant-surgeon Crawford, having no sick in hospital, volunteered to
take command of one of the detachments. He and Lieutenant Davis were
detailed at the same time with me; and I soon heard their guns on the
opposite side of the fort, echoing my own. They attacked Fort Moultrie
with great vigor.

Our firing now became regular, and was answered from the rebel guns
which encircled us on the four sides of the pentagon upon which the fort
was built. The other side faced