9. Battery Sigel; distant 1,670 yards, mounting one fortyeight-pounder James rifle gun, and five thirty-pounder Parrott guns, on siege carriages.

10. Battery McClellan, distant 1,650 yards, mounting two eighty-four-pounder, and two sixty-four-pounder James guns. 11. Battery Totten, 1,650 yards distant, mounting four teninch mortars.

Making in all thirty-six pieces.

These batteries1 were distributed along a front of 2,550 yards, and were well protected. A moment's reflection will show how unequal the conflict between the fort and these detached batteries. On the one hand the fire was distracted by a series of works, some of them well masked, all admirably protected, extending along a line of nearly a mile and a half; while on the other hand, there was an absolute concentration against a single fortification, with perpendicular walls twenty-five feet high, its entire outlines looming up in bold relief. On the one side the resources of an immense country and of the world were at command to furnish any additional supplies of men and materials of war; on the other, there was but a small garrison, a limited supply of everything, and absolute isolation. On the one hand, there were stout sand parapets — low-lying and difficult to be struck-guns carefully embrasured, and an abundance of men and materials to repair any injuries inflicted. On the other, there was the fort, whose walls of masonry were never designed to resist the momentum and the penetration of such projectiles as were hurled that day, standing solitary and alone,

For the accompanying map showing the respective locations and lines of fire of these Federal batteries, I am indebted to the Official Report of Brig. Gen. Gillmore.

without the means of repair at command. On the Federal side there was a concentration of heavy guns and mortars far exceeding in power the batteries of the fort. Under such circumstances, and without a solitary ray of hope of relief or assistance, the fall of Fort Pulaski became a mere question of time. Its reduction was virtually accomplished when its isolation was consummated on the 22d of February.

The removal of the obstructions which had been placed by the Confederates in Wall's cut-an artificial channel connecting New and Wright rivers — afforded the gun-boats of the enemy the means of entering the Savannah river in rear of Port Pulaski, without encountering the fire of its batteries, and of covering the Federal working parties employed in the erection of investing batteries at Venus's point, and on the north end of Bird's island. Confederate batteries should have been posted for the protection of the obstructions in Wall's cut, if, after the evacuation of Tybee island any necessity existed for the further retention of Fort Pulaski. Once before in the history of Savannah, did the use by the enemy of this unguarded passage prove disastrous to the hopes of brave men contending for the possession of home, and the enjoyment of liberty.

On the evening of the 16th of September, 1779, Col. Maitland arrived at Dawfuskie island, and found the Savannah river in the possession of the French. Embarrassed, and not knowing how to effect a desired junction with Provost in Savannah (the city being at the time invested by the French forces under Count D'Estaing, and the American army under Gen. Lincoln, and a demand having been made upon the English garrison for surrender), he chanced upon some negro fishermen familiar with the creeks and

marshes, who informed him of the passage through Wall's cut. The tide and the dense fog favored the execution of his plans, and he was thus enabled, availing himself of this route, unperceived by the French, to reach the city of Savannah with his troops on the ensuing afternoon. The acquisition of this formidable reenforcement, under the leadership of such a brave. and experienced officer, greatly encouraged the dispirited garrison, and furnished the means of successful resistance to the combined attack which was gallantly made by the allied forces a few days afterwards.1

Just previous to the investment of the fort, Commodore Tattnall, with his little fleet, had, in the face of the gun-boats of the enemy, and under their fire, effected the passage of the Savannah river, and thrown into the fort a six months' supply of provisions; a characteristic episode in the life of this great and noble man, whose conspicuous valor, intrepidity, and acknowledged abilities had so long reflected honor upon the American navy, and won for it the highest consideration wherever his name and services were mentioned whose devotion to the state which gave him birth, in the hour of her extreme peril — whose self-sacrifice, whose exalted high-toned action, whose enlarged experience, whose qualities of the head and of the heart, and whose every distinguishing trait have won for him a home in the hearts of his admiring countrymen, and a record in the history of his times which neither the lapse of years nor the fortunes of the hour can desecrate or impair. Even now Epaminondas the renowned leader of the Thebans, with his single garment, is wealthier and far more illustrious than the king of the Persians with his

1 See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii, p. 255.