At 4 p.m. communication by signal having been re-established, the following dispatch was received from Colonel Elliott:

Send provisions, 100 muskets, buckshot cartridges, and 50 men; also set of telegraph instruments and 200 yards of wire.

At 10.40 a.m. the enemy again opened fire upon the city, and, as before, the fire from Simkins and some of the Sullivan's Island works caused them to cease after 4 shots had fallen in the city. Three more shells were thrown into the city at 1 p.m., the enemy ceasing as soon as our Sullivan's Island works and Battery Simkins opened.

The number of shots fired to-day by the enemy against Sumter was 220; of these, 187 struck. An occasional shell was fired toward Sullivan's Island, but no damage was done, nor were there any casualties.

The pile-driver in the Stono has driven eighty-five piles. The gunboats marblehead and Pawnee are still in front of Legareville.

The following dispatches of the enemy were intercepted:

Admiral D

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:

The general wishes to see the admiral. Can he come into the Inle?

G

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,

General.

The admiral cannot come in his steamer on account of the state of the weather.

December 12, 1863.-A heavy southeast storm prevailed during the entire day, and only an occasional shot was fired from the enemy's batteries against Fort Sumter and Sullivan's Island. No damage or casualties are reported at any of our works.

Twelve mortar shells from the Brooke gun battery, Sullivan's Island, and 15 shells from Battery Simkins, were fired during the day against Morris Island. The effect produced by our shells was not observed.

About 11 a.m. Battery Tatom and Battery Ryan (left) opened with 2 shots each upon a sail-boat passing from Long to Black Island. The only effect was to draw the fire of the enemy, who threw 4 shots into Secessionville.

At 10.40 p.m. one of the batteries upon Cumming's Point opened with three guns upon the city, and, after firing 10 shells, ceased at 11 p.m. Only two of these shells failed to explode. One, which struck in Broad street, in front of the Mansion House, exploded, and a roll of combustible matter about 3 inches in length and 1 inch in diameter burned on the pavement for about two minutes with a steady white flame. This was doubtless a specimen of the much talked of Greek fire.

General Ripley reported to-day that there is reason to hope that one of the monitors has foundered, as but three are in sight, and at low tide something like a smoke-stack appears above the water, with the enemy's boats working around it.*

December 13, 1863.-Colonel Elliott commanding Fort Sumter, reports that the steamer did not communicate last night with the fort, her commander alleging as a reason the heavy weather, which,

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*NOTE IN JOURNAL.-It was subsequently ascertained from a copy of the Free South newspaper, received by flag of truce from the enemy's lines in the Third Military District, that the monitor Weehawhen had foundered off this harbor in the recent gale of wind, and that 4 officers and 24 men had been lost.

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