Meantime the smaller squadron left within opened an enfilading fire on both the Hilton Head fort and Fort Beauregard on the north side of the channel. “This enfilading fire on so still a sea annoyed and damaged us excessively,” says General Drayton in his report. It became more annoying still as time passed, for the ebb tide began to run, and the gunboats were swept down until within 400 yards of the forts, and shots from even the howitzers began to tell with deadly effect. It was a storm that no force of men could stand. By 1.15 P.M., according to one account, and by 2 o’clock at the latest, “all but three of the guns on the water front had been disabled, and only 500 pounds of powder [remained] in the magazine” of the Hilton Head fort. The work of the fleet was done. The Confederates began to evacuate the fort on Hilton Head. Lookouts on the _Ottawa_ were the first to see the men leaving the fort, and signals were soon flying to announce the fact. In a moment the _Pembina_ was signalling the same story, while men who ran aloft on the _Wabash_ hailed the deck to confirm the news. [Illustration: Fort Walker. _Vandalia._ _Susquehanna._ _Seminole._ _Wabash._ _Bienville._ Fort Beauregard. Bombardment and Capture of Forts Walker and Beauregard, November 7, 1861. _From an engraving by Perine._] At this the order to cease firing fluttered in the air. The _Wabash_ and the _Susquehanna_ steamed close in where their huge broadsides would bear directly on the fort, and Capt. C. R. P. Rodgers was sent in a boat to make an examination. “The entire fleet, now resting on its guns, watched the whaleboat pull out from the wing of the huge frigate and make its way like a cockleshell toward the grim and silent fort. Thousands of eyes centered on the little boat with increasing interest as she drew nearer the shore. Her keel soon grated on the beach, and the officers were seen to jump out, approach the fort and enter, and for a time they were lost to view. Then Commander Rodgers was seen scrambling up the highest part of the ramparts, carrying the American colors with him; and at the first glimpse of the beautiful ensign the long suspense gave place to tremendous cheers from every craft in the fleet.” So says Maclay. Although the main attack had been made on the Hilton Head fort, the one at the north had received attention at long range from the larger squadron, and the gunboats within the harbor had enfiladed it. It had suffered so much, in fact, that the troops abandoned it as soon as they saw that Hilton Head had surrendered. Vessels that were sent to reconnoitre found the flag down, and the next morning Capt. Daniel Ammen of the _Seneca_ hoisted the American flag over the building that had been used as headquarters there. Of his experience Ammen has written as follows: