arleston roughs, but
not to resist any organized force.

On the 11th of December we had the good fortune to get our provisions
from town without exciting observation. They had been lying there
several days. It was afterward stated in the papers that the captain of
the schooner was threatened severely for having brought them. On the
same day the enemy began to build batteries at Mount Pleasant, and at
the upper end of Sullivan's Island, guns having already been sent there.
We also heard that ladders had been provided for parties to escalade our
walls. Indeed, the proposed attack was no longer a secret. Gentlemen
from the city said to us, "We appreciate your position. It is a point of
honor with you to hold the fort, but a political necessity obliges us
to take it."

My wife, becoming indignant at these preparations, and the utter apathy
of the Government in regard to our affairs, wrote a stirring letter to
my brother, in New York, stating some of the facts I have mentioned. By
some means it found its way into the columns of the _Evening Post_, and
did much to call attention to the subject, and awaken the Northern
people to a true sense of the situation. She was quite distressed to
find her hasty expressions in print, and freely commented on both by
friends and enemies. I may say, in passing, that the distinguished
editor of that paper, William Cullen Bryant, proved to be one of the
best friends we had at the North. George W. Curtis, who aided us freely
with his pen and influence, was another. They exerted themselves to
benefit us in every way, and were among the first to invoke the
patriotism of the nation to extricate us from our difficulties, and save
the union of the States. When we returned to New York, they and their
friends gave us a cordial and heartfelt welcome.

To resume the thread of my narrative. The fort by this time had been
considerably strengthened. The crevices were filled up, and the walls
were made sixteen feet high, by digging down to the foundations and
throwing up the surplus earth as a glacis. Each of the officers had a
certain portion given him to defend. I caused a sloping picket fence,
technically called _a fraise_, to be projected over the parapet on my
side of the work, as an obstacle against an escalading party. I
understood that this puzzled the military men and newspapers in
Charleston exceedingly. They could not imagine what object I could have
in view. One of the editors said, in refer