[165] without any incident of the least importance to disturb the monotonous life of the soldiers and sailors.
The government, thinking that the moment had finally arrived for another effort to carry out its projects against Charleston, confided the siege operations to an officer of undoubted ability. On the 2d of June, Hunter was superseded by General Gillmore. A better choice could not have been made. The conqueror of Pulaski combined the science of the engineer and the artillerist with the inventive genius, the audacity, and energy required for so difficult an enterprise. Admiral DuPont persisting in his incredulity regarding the efficacy of the monitors in the operations about to be undertaken, his removal was a natural consequence of Gillmore's advent and the instructions that had been given him. But before relinquishing the command he had creditably exercised for the last two years he had the satisfaction of being able to announce to his government a brilliant exploit which deprived the Confederates of a vessel upon whose success they had built the most extravagant hopes.
On the 12th of November, 1861, the English steamer Fingal, forcing the blockade, had entered Savannah River with a valuable cargo of small-arms and cannon. But since that period the vigilance of the Federal sailors had not allowed her to put to sea. This vessel, of twelve hundred tons, two hundred and four feet in length and forty-one feet in breadth, had been built at Glasgow; her hull was solid and her machinery powerful. The Confederate government, seeing that she was unable to continue trading with England, purchased her with a view of converting her into a man-of-war. The hull, which was of iron, was cut down to within two feet of the water-line, while in the centre of the new deck, constructed at the water's edge, there was erected a casemated battery having the shape of a truncated rectangular pyramid, whose four faces had an inclination of twenty-nine degrees with the horizon. The object of this extraordinary inclination was to make the projectiles of the enemy glance off. In order to secure this result without diminishing the altitude too much, and to leave a level surface on the top, the two lateral faces jutted out considerably beyond the hull: a strong piece of timber connected them under the water with the lower works, which they were
