Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[194] same order, so as to fire the other broadside at Fort Walker, and load in time to open on Fort Beauregard on getting within range. This manoeuvre doubtless disturbed the aim of the artillerists in the forts; they fired wildly and with but little effect. The dense masses of smoke which the wind drove clear of the ships, and packed against the land batteries, obstructed their aim, and afforded only occasional views of the enemy through the lifting cloud. After sustaining a bombardment of about four hours, the forts surrendered. The condition of Fort Walker, at this time, according to the official report of Gen. Drayton, was “all but three of the guns on the water front disabled, and only five hundred pounds of powder in the magazine.” The garrisons and the men outside the forts retreated across the plain separating them from the woods. The Federal loss in the engagement was eight killed and twenty-three wounded. The Confederates lost about one hundred in killed and wounded, all their cannon, a number of small arms, and all the stores collected in and around the forts.

The capture of Port Royal was an important Federal success. It gave to the enemy a point for his squadrons to find shelter, and a convenient naval depot. It gave him also a foothold in the region of the Sea-Islands cotton, and afforded him a remarkable theatre for his anti-slavery experiments. The Beaufort district, commanded now by the enemy's position, was one of the richest and most thickly settled of the State. It contained about fifteen hundred square miles, and produced, annually, fifty millions of pounds of rice, and fourteen thousand bales of cotton, and held a population of nearly forty thousand, of whom more than thirty thousand were slaves.

In the month of November, 1861, there was to occur a naval exploit of the enemy, of little prowess, but of such importance that it was to draw off public attention from the largest operations of the war, and fix it unanimously upon the issues of a single incident.

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The “Trent” affair.

On the 8th of November, Capt. Wilkes, of the United States steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto, overhauled the English mail steamer Trent in the Bahama Channel, and demanded the surrender of the Confederate emissaries, Messrs. Mason and Slidell, who were passengers on board that vessel, and were proceeding with their secretaries on a mission representing the interests of the Confederacy at the courts of England and France. The San Jacinto had fired a shot across the bows of the mail steamer to bring her to, and as she did not stop for that, had fired a shell which burst close by her. The unarmed vessel was boarded by a party of marines under command of Lieut. Fairfax, who demanded the persons of the commissioners