August 22, Captain Palfrey reports:

At daylight fire was opened on the fort four 9-inch Dahlgrens, eight 30-pounder Parrotts, four light 12s, two 3-inch Rodmans, twelve 10-inch siege mortars, and four 8-inch siege mortars. The monitors Manhattan, Chickasaw, and Winnebago, and the captured Tennessee (eight 7-inch rifles) fired at the fort at short range, and the large rifle guns of the rest of the fleet at long range. The fire was very accurate, and the effect of the heavy shells from the navy guns, both ashore and afloat, apparently very great. After they had once got the range the fire of the mortars was admirable. The rate of fire at first was once in fifteen minutes, which slackened toward noon, and was resumed toward sundown. All our work stood well. The 9-inch guns blew out the throats of their embrasures, which were repaired without stopping their fire. * * * No artillery was fired from the fort. Two volleys of musketry were fired from the southeast salient of covered way, but this fire was silenced by our sharpshooters and a few rounds of artillery in the afternoon. Two 30-pounder Parrotts from first parallel were moved up to replace the two light 12s the two 3-inch Rodmans put in battery on their right. The men worked by daylight on the fort side of these batteries without annoyance from the fort. Orders was started from left extremity of a second parallel under direction of Lieutenant Allen, but not finished to any distance on account of the wet character of the ground. About 9 p. m. a fire broke out in the fort, and continued steadily and slowly all night. After it broke out our artillery opened upon it briskly.

August 23, Captain Palfrey reports that-

A white flag was brought out of the fort about 7 a. m. and the surrender was agreed upon to take place about 2 p. m. * * * The fire proved to be the barracks in the parade, which continued to burn all day. The damage done to the scarp by the shells of the navy was great, and the parapet was frequently torn up badly by them. No casemate arches were broken and no magazines injured. Our 3-inch rifles had broken the carriages of a 10-inch and 8-inch columbiad in front of them. The principal obstacle to overcome was the transportation from the wharf at Pilot Town, which the sand made very laborious for teams and the sand spits precarious for boats. This labor made the working parties in the trenches necessarily small. they averaged 200 men night and day, in twelve hour tours; in one instance 300.

I made a thorough examination of the fort between the 27th and 31st of August, before anything had been disturbed subsequent to the surrender. The inclosed tracing (marked B*), copied from a captured rebel drawing, indicates the tow principal changes made by the rebels, I presume, from the original arrangements as laid down upon the drawings furnished by the Engineer Department, viz, the masking of the casemates of curtains 4 and 5, and the exterior water battery added. I found the armament somewhat different from that indicated on the tracing-not very materially, however. It is seen that sixteen guns (counting those on the retired flank at light- house) bear on the land approaches. There were no guns in embrasures and no parados, the width of terre-plein not permitting the latter. The guns were pretty well protected by traverses against fire from the water but not from the land. The non- destruction of the barracks in parade, as a preparation for siege, indicates that if a land attack was expected at al, it was not expected to involve vertical fire. The garrison did very little work after the opening of our trenches, and although the work was in a feeble condition to resist a land attack, it is my opinion that the defense was not conducted up to its capacity, such as it was. It is, I think, legitimate to suppose that the garrison was somewhat demoralized by the successful passage in of the fleet and the rapid fall of the other two forts, Powell and Gaines. Twelve of the barbette guns were disabled, some had trunnions knocked off and carriages broken by our 30-pounder Parrotts; some their carriages picked to pieces by our 3-inch rifles; the others had carriages smashed by mortar shells and by the navy (Dahl-

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*Not found.

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