Never before had there been such a demonstration of the power of heavy artillery.  Huge cannon were pounded into fragments, hills of sand ripped open, deep crevasses blown in the ground by exploding shells, wooden buildings reduced to kindling-wood, etc.  The ground was literally paved with fragments of shot and shell, which, now red with rust from the corroding salt air, made the interior of the fort resemble what one of our party likened it to “an old brickyard.”

Whichever way we looked along the shores we saw abundant evidence of the greatness of the business which gave the place its importance.  In all directions, as far as the eye could reach, the beach was dotted with the bleaching skeletons of blockade-runners—­some run ashore by their mistaking the channel, more beached to escape the hot pursuit of our blockaders.

Directly in front of the sea face of the fort, and not four hundred yards from the savage mouths of the huge guns, the blackened timbers of a burned blockade-runner showed above the water at low tide.  Coming in from Nassau with a cargo of priceless value to the gasping Confederacy, she was observed and chased by one of our vessels, a swifter sailer, even, than herself.  The war ship closed rapidly upon her.  She sought the protection of the guns of Fort Fisher, which opened venomously on the chaser.  They did not stop her, though they were less than half a mile away.  In another minute she would have sent the Rebel vessel to the bottom of the sea, by a broadside from her heavy guns, but the Captain of the latter turned her suddenly, and ran her high up on the beach, wrecking his vessel, but saving the much more valuable cargo.  Our vessel then hauled off, and as night fell, quiet was restored.  At midnight two boat-loads of determined men, rowing with muffled oars moved silently out from the blockader towards the beached vessel.  In their boats they had some cans of turpentine, and several large shells.  When they reached the blockade-runner they found all her crew gone ashore, save one watchman, whom they overpowered before he could give the alarm.  They cautiously felt their way around, with the aid of a dark lantern, secured the ship’s chronometer, her papers and some other desired objects.  They then saturated with the turpentine piles of combustible material, placed about the vessel to the best advantage, and finished by depositing the shells where their explosion would ruin the machinery.  All this was done so near to the fort that the sentinels on the parapets could be heard with the greatest distinctness as they repeated their half-hourly cry of “All’s well.”  Their preparations completed, the daring fellows touched matches to the doomed vessel in a dozen places at once, and sprang into their boats.  The flames instantly enveloped the ship, and showed the gunners the incendiaries rowing rapidly away.  A hail of shot beat the water into a foam around the boats, but their good fortune still attended them, and they got back without losing a man.