to be forgotten by those who witnessed them. Admiral Dupont with his
armored ships attempted to reduce Fort Sumter and capture the city.
Thousands of spectators watched the awful conflict; Mary Wallingford and
her aunt, Mrs. Hunter, among them. The combined roar of the guns exceeded
all the thunder they had ever heard. About three hundred Confederate
cannon were concentrated on the turreted monitors, and some of the
commanders said that "shot struck the vessels as fast as the ticking of a
watch." It would seem that the ships which appeared so diminutive in the
distance must be annihilated, yet Mary with her powerful glass saw them
creep nearer and nearer. It was their shots, not those of her friends,
that she watched with agonized absorption, for every tremendous bolt was
directed against the fort in which was her father.

The conflict was too unequal; the bottom of the harbor was known to be
paved with torpedoes, and in less than an hour Dupont withdrew his
squadron in order to save it from destruction.

In strong reaction from intense excitement, Mary's knees gave way, and she
sank upon them in thankfulness to God. Her aunt supported her to her room,
gave restoratives, and the daughter in deep anxiety waited for tidings
from her father. He did not come to her; he was brought, and there settled
down upon her young life a night of grief and horror which no words can
describe. While he was sighting a gun, it had been struck by a shell from
the fleet, and when the smoke of the explosion cleared away he was seen
among the debris, a mangled and unconscious form. He was tenderly taken
up, and after the conflict ended, conveyed to his home. On the way thither
he partially revived, but reason was gone. His eyes were scorched and
blinded, his hearing destroyed by the concussion, and but one lingering
thought survived in the wreck of his mind. In a plaintive and almost
childlike tone he continually uttered the words, "I was only trying to