At about this time a cannonball fired from one of the Confederate guns at Fort Moultrie splashed into the water just ahead of Wigfall’s boat. To Private Young it seemed obvious that this was meant as a warning shot to compel the boat to turn around. He said as much to Wigfall. But Wigfall huffed that Fort Moultrie had no say in whether he completed his mission. The boat proceeded. “In a few moments,” Young wrote, “we had another shot so near, it looked as if it was intended to hit us.” In this he was correct, as he discovered later from Moultrie’s commander, Colonel Ripley. When Wigfall’s boat
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