Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 1.
Frank Moore, Ed.

[9] vise; while, in others, the uncompleted works gave evidences of the utmost confusion. On all hands the process of removing goods, furniture, and munitions was yet going on. The heavy guns upon the ramparts of the fort were thrown down from their carriages and spiked. Every ounce of powder and every cartridge had been removed from the magazines; and, in fact, every thing like small arms, clothing, provisions, accoutrements, and other munitions of war had been removed off and deposited — nothing but heavy balls and useless cannon remained.

The entire place was, to all appearances, littered up with the odds, ends, and fragments of war's desolation. Confusion could not have been more complete had the late occupants retired in the face of a besieging foe. Fragments of gun carriages, &c., broken to pieces, bestrewed the ramparts. Sand bags, and barrels filled with earth, crowned the walls, and were firmly imbedded in their bomb-proof proof surface, as an additional safeguard — and notwithstanding the heterogeneous scattering of materials and implements, the walls of the fort evinced a vague degree of energy in preparing for an attack. A ditch some fifteen feet wide and about the same in depth surrounds the entire wall on three sides. On the south side, or front, a glacis has been commenced menced and prosecuted nearly to completion, with a rampart of sand bags, barrels, &c.

On one side of the fort a palisade of Palmetto logs is extended around the ramparts as a complete defence against an escalading party. New embrasures have been cut in the walls so as to command the faces of the bastion and ditch. These new defences fences are all incomplete, and are evidence of the haste with which they were erected. Considering the inferior force, in point of numbers, under his command, Major Anderson had paid particular attention to strengthening only a small part of the fort.

A greater portion of the labor expended was spent upon the citadel or centre of the west point of the position. This he had caused to be strengthened in every way; loop-holes were cut and every thing was so arranged that in case a well-concerted attack was made, he would have retired from the outer bastions to the citadel, and afterwards blow up the other portions of the fort. For this purpose mines had already been sprung, and trains had been laid ready for the application of the match. The barrack rooms and every other part of the fort that was indefensible would have gone at a touch.

On the ramparts of the fort fronting Fort Sumter, were nine eight-inch columbiads, mounted on wooden carriages. As soon as the evacuation of the fort was complete, the carriages of these guns were fired, and at the time of visiting the fort yesterday, were nearly consumed, and the guns thereby dismounted. These guns, as well as those constituting the entire armament of the fortress, were spiked before it was abandoned. This is the only damage done the fortification, further than cutting down the flagstaff, and the breaking up of ammunition nition wagons to form ramparts on the walls of the fort.