ramparts and shout defiance at Sumter, to be answered by the crashing of shot against the walls of their bomb-proof forts.  All day long the battle rages without intermission or material advantages to either side.  As night approached, the fire slackened in all direction, and at dark Sumter ceased to return our fire at all.  By a preconcerted arrangement, the fire from our batteries and forts kept up at fifteen-minute intervals only.  The next morning the firing began with the same vigor and determination as the day before.  Sumter, too, was not slow in showing her metal and paid particular attention to Moultrie.  Early in the forenoon the smoke began to rise from within the walls of Sumter; “the tort was on fire.”  Shots now rain upon the walls of the burning fort with greater fury than ever.  The flag was seen to waver, then slowly bend over the staff and fall.  A shout of triumph rent the air from the thousands of spectators on the islands and the mainland.  Flags and handkerchiefs waved from the hands of excited throngs in the city, as tokens of approval of eager watchers.  Soldiers mount the ramparts and shout in exultation, throwing their caps in the air.  Away to the seaward the whitened sails of the Federal fleet were seen moving up towards the bar.  Anxiety and expectation are now on tip-toe.  Will the fleet attempt the succor of their struggling comrades?  Will they dare to run the gauntlet of the heavy dahlgreen guns that line the channel sides?  From the burning fort the garrison was fighting for their existence.  Through the fiery element and hail of shot and shell they see the near approach of the long expected relief.  Will the fleet accept the gauge of battle?  No.  The ships falter and stop.  They cast anchor and remain a passive spectator to the exciting scenes going on, without offering aid to their friends or battle to their enemies.

General Beauregard, with that chivalrous spirit that characterized all true Southerners, when he saw the dense curling smoke and the flames that now began to leap and lick the topmost walls of the fort, sent three of his aids to Major Anderson, offering aid and assistance in case of distress.  But the brave commander, too proud to receive aid from a generous foe when his friends are at hand yet too cowardly to come to the rescue, politely refused the offer.  But soon thereafter the white flag was waving from the parapets of Fort Sumter.  Anderson had surrendered; the battle was over; a victory won by the gallant troops of the South, and one of the most miraculous instances of a bloodless victory, was the first battle fought and won.  Thousands of shots given and taken, and no one hurt on either side.