The Guns of Bull Run

the commander in the fort, steadily refused all demands for surrender. It was said freely that the Northern States did not intend to let their Southern sisters go in peace. The Mercury,

burned, but a fever that made his pulse leap faster, and his heart long for the thrill of

ns loose?" Langdon said one day, as he looked at the cannon.

e the first hostile movement, Happy?" aske

we're bound to win, Harry! We can't help it. If there's any war, I expect inside of a year to sleep with my boots on in the President's bed in the

ost terrific chatterer I ever heard. Before you've don

St. Clair. "Why, there's nobody in all Charleston who's

siasm swelled yet further, when they heard that the Confederate envoys at Washington, treating for a peacef

n, with satisfaction, "and I may make my

at had passed since he put the Tacitus in his desk at Pendleton Academy, the boy had grown a year in mind and thought

had been a graduate of West Point and for years an officer, was of the greatest service to him. In the little army of the United States before the Civil War, the officers constituted a family. Everybody kne

mportant officers and the civil authorities of Charle

mter should be ours, and if Lincoln succeeds in revictualling the fort it will be a g

r, gentlemen. No fleet that Lincoln may send can reach Sumter. Our batteries

lf before the fleet comes,"

d smiled

consists of the warship Baltic, three sloops of war and two tenders. The Baltic, with Fox, the assistant secretary of the Nort

end to Sumter another and a fi

whole front of the harbor lined with people. Even at the distance it looked like a holiday crowd. He saw hundreds of women and girls in white and pink dresses, and there were roses of the same colors in hats and bonne

white flag. Harry watched him closely. He saw a face worn, but set hard and firm, and a figure

nt, gentlemen?"

surrender," replied the chief Southern offi

hrugged hi

t from New York is

ble to force a pass

gentlemen, I tell you that the flag will

ugh his supply of ammunition was low, and t

ly worth while for

he Southerners turned back to their boat. Harry wa

see your fath

wish me to be," rep

come to no harm," said A

antly, and he returned the wish. Then he followed the ot

to feel one gigantic throb of passion, and perhaps of relief also, that the issue was made after so man

old their news freely, and then the crowd dispersed almost in silence. It was the first time that Harry had seen Charleston, gay and light of heart, in the sha

Langdon cheerfully. "Sumter

ee, Happy,"

it-and-See, I will

olunteer privates. The wives and daughters of many of them were at the Charleston Hotel or the Mills House, or at such inns as that kept by Madame Delaunay. Governor Pickens and his w

re no longer allowed to gratify curiosity. Women and girls in their white or pink dresses were not permitted to come near and smile at their husbands or

joyfully to his comrades. "I'm hoping tha

red back, "I'm thinking the fleet will come

e over city and harbor. But Harry, from the battery, could still see the

s waiting. The night deepened. Harry could yet see the flash of waters and the dim bulk of Sumter, but the

ere the smoke of the relieving fleet might appear. Colonel Leonidas Talbot and Major Hector St. Hilaire passed together on a tour of inspection. They gave approving looks t

to nod and he was forced to bring himself back to earth with a jerk. Then he stretched a little and peered over the earthwork. It was b

e ships have heard that you and St. Clair and I

e saw a sudden flash of fire from another point further up. It was followed by a heavy crash that echoed and re-echoed over the still

it?" they

Harry, "but I don't see any ship.

angdon, "there

ould see nothing on the sea. It swayed gently like a vast mass of molten silver in the starshine, and lapped softly against the shore. The report of a third heavy gun came, and then the reports of sever

they did not think of trying it. They wished to know the meaning of those cannon shots and t

ignal to all our people to be ready. The attack on Sumter will begin in the morning. Now you three boys must go to s

sp and cold, and, wrapped in his blanket, he lay with his back against an inner wall of the earthwork. The blood, the result of

first shoot of dawn by

nk of coffee, and make yourselves as neat as possible

pale dawn. Gray clouds drifted along the sea's far rim, and a sharp wind came out of the Northw

onel Leonidas Talbot murmur. "No ships on such a

s black and threatening again, an

battery. Harry noticed among the civilians an old man, seventy-five at least, with long

hispered to St. Clai

a Virginian, but he has come to join us, and he's heart an

g's Point-glanced toward the city

his friends, "all C

of South Carolina,

ere black with them. Forty or fifty thousand, men, women and children, were looking on, but nothing more than a murmur ra

man with the long white hair and the keen, eager face, stepping forward, begged General Beauregard to allow

uld hear the blood pounding in his ears. In a sudden flash of insight he saw a long and terrible road that they must tread. But neither he nor any other present realized to the full what had

in the town. A puff of smoke rose from Sumter and the fort sent its answering shot,

to speak to his comrades, but he could not hear his own voice. He thought he was about to be deafened for his whole life, but Langdon handed him pieces of cotton which he quickly stuffed in his ears. Langdon and St. Clair had

arry and St. Clair. "Hark to the thudding of the

em, heart and soul. He did his part at the guns, and, although his excitement grew, he said nothing. He saw that

Colonel Talbot say during a momentary

the fort replied, still using the light guns. Once Harry heard the whistle of a shell over his head, and he ducked automatically, while the others laugh

and distinct, in the pale sunlight. The great crowd of people was still there, all watching and waiting, T

, reckless of all discipline, as he

sing, and defining itself clea

ne of the officers, as he p

having on board the energetic Fox himself, and two hundred soldiers. But chance and the elements seemed to have conspired against the secretary. One of his strongest ships had gone to the relief of another f

hree, and they knew then that the number of the U

or and reach Sumter?" he asked of Colo

ly. They would be sunk in short order, as they come right into the teeth of ou

and they knew whence they came and for what purpose. But they had reached the end of their journey, and had fallen short with the object of it

on Sumter was renewed with increased volume. It lasted all through the day and the vast crowd of spectators did not dimi

ing fiercely, set on fire by the bursting shells. The iron cisterns, too, although he did not know it until later, were smas

of Sumter, from which came an occasional shot in return. Harry had now grown used to this incessant, rolling crash. He could hear his comrades speak, their voices coming in an under note, and now an

ny kinds from which to choose. Charleston poured forth its plenty for its hero

pose that for safety in the night they've had to go further out to sea. I'm glad I'm not on one of them, rolling and tumbling in those high waves. Well, everything is for the be

d Harry so naturally t

his nerves keyed to a great pitch, and to maintain the heat of his blood. Yet, after a while, he lay down, when his turn at the guns

lag still floated over it. St. Clair and Langdon were awakened a few minutes later, and they also stood

y," he said. "You look as if yo

auties alongside of you. If I didn't have the honor of your acquaintance, I wouldn'

sleep with the cannon firing, and I wake up with them still

who heard them. "Now, you boys eat your breakfas

d drank. Then they went to their guns, but, when a few more shots were fired, a trumpet blew a signal, and it was echoed from bat

as about