Under Fire: A Tale of the Shenandoah Valley — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LOVE’S YOUNG DREAM. 7 in the mansion that evening, all were more or le&s on the guz vive for the expected climax. Indeed, it seemed to be generally understood that unless Major Anderson, who had within the last two weeks taken possession of Fort Sumter, down the bay, surrendeted the garrison to General Beauregard, the fort would be bombarded before daylight. Preparations looking toward such a contingency had been going on for days. Batteries had been hastily thrown up on Sullivan’s Island, and at Morris Point, and a floating battery constructed and anchored within favorable range of the uncompleted battlements of Sumter. The guns of Fort Moultrie, lately vacated by An- derson, and those of Fort Johnson, nearer the city, were already trained upon the object of attack. Altogether, the arrangements made by General Beauregard were both formidable and menacing. Only a spark was needed to set the inflammable material in motion and encircle the grand old fortress with a blaze of shot and shell. ‘The inhabitants of Charleston and vicinity were aroused to the highest pitch of excitement, and at the hour our story opens. the wharves and every available point of vantage commanding the harbor were crowded with expectant spectators waiting for the curtain to rise on the lurid drama. The McVane mansion was so situated as to over- look the waters of Charleston harbor. The male guests of the evening divided their atten- tiofi between “the fair women present, the wine-room in the annex, and the grounds and veranda looking seaward. A strange sense of excitement and exhilaration throbbed in every one’s veins. Even the ladies crowded the windows and parts of the veranda between the dances, eagerly discussing the situation with their admirers, ©€O - -Eomicbooks