During the day of the 6th, about 100 casualties were reported by Colonel Keitt. On this day Colonel Keitt, after consulting his engineers, reported to General Ripley the situation at the fort as desperate and recommended its evacuation, and added: "If our sacrifice be of benefit, I am ready. Let it be said so, and I will storm the enemy's works at once.... Before day dawns we should assault him if we remain here. Answer positively and at once." This dispatch was sent at 3:15 p. m., and at 5 o'clock General Ripley signaled Colonel Keitt to prepare to leave the fort at night. The evacuation was successfully accomplished, the rear guard leaving Cummings point at 1:30 a. m. on the 7th. The infantry having left the fort by midnight, its command was turned over to the rear guard, under Captain Huguenin, 25 men, Company A, First South Carolina infantry (artillery), 10 men, Twenty-fifth South Carolina, under Lieuts. F. B. Brown, R. M. Taft and James A. Ross. Capt. C. C. Pinckney, ordnance officer of the First district, Lieut. Edmund Mazyck, ordnance officer of Wagner, were also present and assisting Captain Huguenin.
At 12:30 the rear guard was withdrawn from the parapet and marched out of the fort for Cummings point. Huguenin, Pinckney, Mazyck, Ross and Ordnance Sergeant Leathe alone remained to lay the slow match which had been carefully prepared. Captain Huguenin reports: "In five minutes the train was fixed." Captain Pinckney reports regarding the spiking of the guns: "The vents of most of the pieces were greatly enlarged. In most cases the spikes dropped in loosely, and we were obliged to use two or three of them. We could have remedied this by driving them in and hammering the edges over the orifice, but absolute quiet was obviously necessary." The 10-inch columbiad was prepared for bursting. Ross took the lanyard and Huguenin gave the order: "The last gun from Battery Wagner, fire!" The primer failed! Another failed! A cartridge from a Whitworth rifle was opened and the vent primed, but from some unknown cause the piece could not be fired. The fire from the parapet having ceased, and the enemy being just under the fort, Captain Huguenin lit the slow match to the magazine. The fuse burned brightly and the officers left the fort. But no explosion followed! The fort was under the fire of mortars, and doubtless a bursting shell cut, or put out the fuse; and the disabled fortress remained for the enemy's inspection.