The crew were inspected, and every man seen to be properly armed and equipped for action.

We fully expected an attack that night, and remembered the threats and loud pretensions of not respecting any neutrality which prevented them from destroying the Sumter, as made by the commander of the Niagara, and the redoubtable Porter of the Powhattan,--this latter gentleman having actually followed us as far as Maranham, only to find the people Sumter-mad on his arrival.

Very few on board the Sumter that night felt any inclination for slumber; the men were sitting about in groups, commenting in low tones on the contest which now seemed to be imminent; while those officers who were at leisure were gathered on the quarter-deck, engaged in the same interesting discussion.
At 2 A.M.the word was passed by the look-outs forward that the Yankee was bearing down close upon us; and the order passed, almost in a whisper, "to go to quarters." I never saw men obey an order with more alacrity.

In a few minutes the boarders, pikemen, and small-arm men were ranged in three lines close to our low rail, to await his attack, all preserving a perfect silence that seemed death-like.

When about twenty feet distant from us, we heard the deep tones of her bell in the engine-room, as it rang the order to back; but not before we had discovered her men at quarters, and, in fact, presenting every appearance of a ship intending to board an enemy.