Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 4.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

Could it profit by it? We doubt it. Dahlgren resumed, it is true, on the 7th, the project agreed upon before the beginning of the operations, and announced his intention to force the passes. But he wished to attempt this operation only after having dislodged Sumter's garrison, of which he greatly feared the musketry. On the 8th he sent the Weehawken into the narrow channel that meanders amidst soundings between Cumming's Point and Fort Sumter, so that this vessel might support within easy range, with its artillery, the attack that he was meditating against the fort. But the Weehawken, driven by contrary currents, was not long in running aground, and became a target for all the batteries on Sullivan's Island. Other vessels came to its assistance, and the New Ironsides took up a position to cover, as against the fire of the enemy, the hull of the Weehawken, the broadside of which was very much exposed. Although there was no success in raising it before the next day, this fire did not cause it to experience any serious damage.

However, Gillmore and Dahlgren had both resolved to try, in the night from the 8th to the 9th, a dash to capture Fort Sumter. When they communicated their design to each other, neither of them would yield in regard to the command. It was agreed that the two expeditions should act independently of each other. They would have run the risk of taking the one or the other for the enemy if Gillmore had not prevented the departure of the one that he had organized. Dahlgren, on the other hand, had collected in Stono Inlet some twenty launches, manned with four hundred marines, under the direction of Captain Stevens and three lieutenants of the navy. The evening of the 8th being fine, the flotilla was towed up the passes to Charleston, eight hundred and sixty-six yards from Sumter; but the darkness which prevented the enemy from seeing these preparations caused a great confusion in the formation of the flotilla: several launches were even ignorant of their destination and became lost in the roadstead. Stevens had divided his forces into two columns: that on the left was to land first, on the south-west frontage of the fort, and to draw the enemy's attention to that side. Immediately thereafter Stevens was counting