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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[368] other descriptions of iron-clads were exemplified in the Keokuk and Iron sides, the latter being an armour-plated frigate, with an armament of eighteen 10, 11, and 15-inch guns. It was to be a trial between new forces of tremendous power. The defences at Charleston had been materially strengthened by Gen. Beauregard, who had been assigned to the coast service; and it was thought scarcely possible that any floating thing could breast unharmed the concentrated storm of heavy metal from the guns of Sumter, Moultrie, and Battery Bee, the three principal works in the throat of the harbour. A test was at last to be obtained of a long-mooted question, and iron-clads, which were claimed to be the most impenetrable vessels ever constructed, were to come within point-blank range of the most numerous and powerful batteries that had ever been used in a single engagement.

In the afternoon of the 7th April, the line of iron-clads, comprising seven Monitors, the Ironsides, and Keokuk, entered the channel, and passed Battery Bee, and along the front of Morris Island. No sound came from the batteries; not a man was seen on the decks of the iron-clads; the sea was smooth as glass, and thus calmly and majestically the whole line of vessels passed the outer batteries. At ten minutes after three, the fleet, having come within range, Fort Sumter opened its batteries, and, almost simultaneously, the white smoke could be seen puffing from the low sandhills of Morris and Sullivan's Islands indicating that the batteries there had become engaged. Five of the iron-clads forming in line of battle in front of Fort Sumter, maintained a very rapid return fire, occasionally hurling their fifteen-inch shot and shell against Fort Moultrie and minor batteries, but all directing their chief efforts against the east face of Fort Sumter. The firing became terrific. The Ironsides, from her position, engaged Fort Moultrie; Battery Bee mingled the hoarse thunder of its guns in the universal din, and the whole expanse of the harbour entrance, from Sullivan's Island to Cummings' Point, became enveloped in the smoke and constant flashes of the conflict. The iron-clads kept constantly shifting their position; but, whichever way they went, their ports always turned towards the battlements of Sumter, pouring forth their terrible projectiles against the walls of that famous stronghold.

Presently the Keokuk pushed ahead of her companions, placed herself within less than nine hundred yards of the fort, and seemed to challenge it to combat. A circle of angry flashes radiated towards her from all sides; she had made herself the target of the most powerful guns the Confederates could command. In a few moments, she was disabled, and crept slowly out of fire. The remainder of the fleet, more or less severely injured, withdrew, and in thirty minutes from the time when the first gun opened, the action was over, and a victory obtained, which went far to impeach the once dreaded power of the iron-clads of the enemy. Admiral