General T----:

Will send the Nantucket abreast the Point, and two tugs to look out for boats. Are they enough?

D

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,

Admiral.

Admiral D

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:

Quite enough. Very much obliged.

T

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,

General.

November 16, 1863.-There is no change of importance in the number or character of the enemy's fleet this morning.

About 7.15 a.m. a monitor was discovered to be aground opposite Fort Moultrie, distant about 2,300 yards, and immediately that work, assisted by Battery Rutledge, opened on her with effect. Soon, however, three other monitors moved up to the rescue, and took position at about 1,800 or 2,000 yards from the fort, and opened with shot, shell, and grape. The action continued about three hours, when the grounded monitor got off and the vessels withdrew. Fort Moultrie fired in all about 179 shots, and Battery Rutledge 89 solid shot and 33 shells. The grounded monitor and also her consorts were struck repeatedly, but the distance was so great it is not probable they were seriously injured.

The monitors were assisted in their reply to our works by the Morris Island batteries. The former threw 50 shots, 20 of which struck Fort Moultrie, and 1 the east mortar battery. A shot struck the muzzle of the 32-pounder rifled gun, carrying away 10 inches of it, and dismounting the gun. The escarpment of the front was struck four times, the merlons five times, and the magazine once. The damage sustained, however, was so slight that it was repaired by 20 hands in one hour. Three privates wounded and 1 killed were the only casualties in Moultrie.

Last night 132 rifle and 10 mortar shells struck Fort Sumter, while 52 rifle and 2 mortar [shells] missed.

The firing to-day was as follows: Struck, 38 rifle shots, 245 mortar shells; missed, 5 rifle and 118 mortar shells. No casualties.

Fort Johnson received also an occasional shot, and replied with a few shells. No casualty occurred during the day at this post.

November 17, 1863.-During the night, Fort Sumter sustained the usual bombardment by light rifle and mortar shells from the Morris Island batteries. Of the 156 rifle and 6 mortar shells fired at the fort, 55 of the former and 1 of the latter failed to strike.

During the day, the enemy, as usual, bestowed, most of their attention on the fort, firing only an occasional shot at Battery Simkins and some of the Sullivan's Island batteries, which latter replied to a limited extent with moratur shells. Fourteen rifle and 366 mortar shells were fired to-day at Sumter. Five of the rifle and 117 of the mortar shells fell without the fort. The damage done to the work was inconsiderable, and no casualties occurred during the day. One private (Edmund Lake, Company D, Twenty-seventh South Carolina Volunteers, attached to the quartermaster's boat) was, however, killed last night by a fragment of a shell, while approaching the fort.

At 11 a.m. the enemy from Battery Gregg opened fire upon the city, and continued for two hours, during which time 20 shells fell inside, or in the immediate vicinity of, the city, as follows:

* * * * *

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*See August 21-December 31, Bombardment of Charleston, S. C., p. 682.

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