These forts were armed during the attack made upon them on April 7, 1863, with the following guns that could bear upon the ships: Ten ten-inch smooth-bores, three nine-inch smooth-bores, two eight-inch rifles, nineteen eight-inch smooth-bores, eight thirty-two-pounder rifles, eighteen thirty-two-pounder smooth-bores, and ten ten-inch mortars. No detailed account is given of the landward bearing guns of these forts, but it may be said that the forts on Morris Island and James Island were well fitted to repel troops, while the harbor forts Moultrie and Sumter had nothing of account bearing toward the inner part of the harbor. [Illustration: In the Charleston Batteries: 300-pounder Parrott Rifle after Bursting of Nozzle. _From a photograph by Haas & Peale._] In addition to the forts, there were a lot of torpedoes, beginning in the channel off Fort Wagner and continuing around to a line of logs and chains stretched from Fort Sumter across the channel to Sullivan’s Island. It makes the gray-haired men of Charleston smile, in these days, when these channel obstructions are mentioned; for, as Bishop John Johnson--he who wrote “The Defence of Charleston Harbor,” a work that is entirely fair and most interesting--said to the writer: “The _moral_ effect of these obstructions was excellent--excellent.” And so it was. The first thing of importance done in Charleston harbor after establishing the blockade was in the line of strengthening the blockade, and not an attempt to reduce the city. This was the sinking of the “Stone Fleet.” On December 20, 1861, twenty old hulks of ships, well loaded with stone, were sunk in the channels. The importance of this work is found only in the fact that it brought out conspicuously the exact attitude of the British government toward that of the United States. Let the reader observe, first of all, that the hulks were “so disposed as to obstruct navigation without impeding the flow of water.” They were “intended to establish at Charleston a combination of artificial interruptions resembling on a small scale those of Hell Gate or Holmes Hole, and producing, like them, eddies, whirlpools and counter currents, such as to render the navigation of an otherwise difficult channel hazardous and uncertain.” The last quotation is from a letter from Lord Lyons at Washington to the British Prime Minister.