f conviction. The gunners in Moultrie and on Morris
Island would leap to the ramparts and watch the effect of their shots,
and jump back to their guns with a cheer. There was all the pomp and
sound, but few of the terrors of war. On the morning of the second day
the quarters in the fort caught fire and the whole place was wrapped in
flames and smoke, but Major Anderson's men won the admiration of their
enemies by standing by their guns and returning the fire at regular
intervals. The battle lasted thirty-two hours; more than fifty tons of
cannon-balls and eight tons of powder were expended from weapons the
most destructive then known to warfare; not a life was lost on either
side. Sumter and Moultrie were both badly damaged. Major Anderson
surrendered on Saturday, April 13.

The London _Times_ treated this remarkable event in humorous style. The
proceedings at Charleston were likened to a cricket match or a regatta
in England. The ladies turned out to view the contest. A good shot from
Fort Sumter was as much applauded as a good shot from Fort Moultrie.
When the American flag was shot away, General Beauregard sent Major
Anderson another to fight under. When the fort was found to be on fire,
the polite enemy, who had with such intense energy labored to excite the
conflagration, offered equally energetic assistance to put it out. The
only indignation felt throughout the affair was at the conduct of the
Northern flotilla, which kept outside and took no part in the fray. The
Southerners resented this as an act of treachery toward their favorite
enemy, Major Anderson. "Altogether," says the _Times_, "nothing can be
more free from the furious hatreds, which are distinctive of civil
warfare, than this bloodless conflict has been." Another London paper
remarked "No one was hurt. And so ended the first, and, we trust, the
last engagement of the American Civil War."

Mr. Toombs' prediction, that the attack upon Fort Sumter would "open a
hornet's nest" in the North, was sustained. The effect of the assault at
that time and the lowering of the national flag to the forces of the
Confederacy acted, as Mr. Blaine has stated, "as an inspiration,
consolidating public sentiment, dissipating all differences." In fact it
brought matters to a crisis all around, and prepared the two sections
for the great drama of the War.

An important part of the work of Secretary Toombs was the selection of a
commission to proceed to Europe and present