Miscellaneous document sources

[COPY.]

Columbia, December 7, 1860.

[STRICTLY  CONFIDENTIAL.]

My Dear Sir: With a sincere desire to prevent a collision of force, I have thought proper to address you directly and truthfully on points of deep and immediate interest.

I am authentically informed that the forts in Charleston harbor are now being thoroughly prepared to turn, with effect, their guns upon the interior and the city. Jurisdiction was ceded by this State expressly for the purpose of external defence from foreign invasion, and not with any view that they should be turned upon the State.

In an ordinary case of mob rebellion, perhaps it might be proper to prepare them for sudden outbreak. But when the people of the State, in sovereign convention assembled, determine to resume their original powers of separate and independent sovereignty, the whole question is changed, and it is no longer an act of rebellion. I, therefore, most respectfully urge that all work on the forts be put a stop to for the present, and that no more force may be ordered there.

The regular Convention of the people of the State of South Carolina, legally and properly called, under our Constitution, is now in session, deliberating upon the gravest and most momentous questions, and the excitement of the great masses of the people is great, under a sense of deep wrongs, and a profound necessity of doing something to preserve the peace and safety of the State.

To spare the effusion of blood, which no human power may be able to prevent, I earnestly beg your immediate consideration of all the points I call your attention to. It is not improbable that, under orders from the Commandant, or perhaps from the Commander-in-Chief of the army, the alteration and defences of those posts are progressing without the knowledge of yourself or the Secretary of War.

The Arsenal, in the city of Charleston, with the public arms, I am informed, was turned over, very properly, to the keeping and defence of a State force, at the urgent request of the Governor of South Carolina. I would most respectfully, and from a sincere devotion to tie public peace, request that you would allow me to send a small force, not exceeding twenty-five men and an officer, to take possession of Fort Sumter immediately, in order to give a feeling of safety to the community. There are no United States troops in that fort whatever, or perhaps only four or five, at present, besides some additional workmen or laborers, lately employed to put the guns in order. If Fort Sumter could be given to me, as Governor, under a permission similar to that by which the Governor was permitted to keep the Arsenal, with the United States arms, in the city of Charleston, then I think the public mind would be quieted, under a feeling of safety; and as the Convention is now in full authority, it strikes me that could be done with perfect propriety. I need not go into particulars, for urgent reasons will force themselves readily upon your consideration.

If something of the kind be not done, I cannot answer for the consequences.

I send this by a private and confidential gentleman, who is authorized to confer with Mr. Trescott fully, and to receive through him any answer you may think proper to give to this.

I have the honor to be, most respectfully,

Yours, truly,

(Signed) F. W. PICKENS.

To the President of the United States.

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Reports and Resolutions of South Carolina to the General Assembly; published 1861

At one o’clock yesterday, Messrs. E. LAFITTE & CO. Erected a handsome flagstaff, twenty-five feet high on the roof of their office, Savannah Packet wharf, and unfurled a banner at its summit which has been universally admired. The flag has a plain white ground – something like the Hayne and Meeting streets banner – with a green palmetto in the centre and the lone star in the upper inner corner. It was saluted by prolonged cheers from the many friends whom the Messrs. LAFITTE had invited to be present on the occasion, and also by a volley of cannon, fired by the redoubtable SMITH, of shark-killing notoriety, and who proved himself as equally efficient a gunner as a knight of the hook and line. Five guns were fired off – one for South Carolina, for Georgia, for Florida, for Alabama and for Mississippi, and between the intervals of the firing the enthusiastic spectators renewed the cheering.

Messrs. LAFITTE & CO. Then invited their friends…. where they were received most cordially by Capt. PECK, and where a bounteous collation, with the auxiliaries of wine, &c., awaited them. As the guests got on board the Cecile, Capt. PECK hoisted a blood-red banner with a yellow palmetto, which was received with additional marks of enthusiasm.

Indeed, poles, of late, are multiplying almost as fast as banners. We notice that Messrs. CHAFEE & KNAUFF, at No. 135 East Bay, have erected from the second story of their store, a staff, thirty feet in height, and displaying a handsome flag from the summit. The flag is a red ground, with a yellow palmetto; in the centre the lone star and a crescent.

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Mike Goad — A major part of my approach to the war is to present observations made in letters, journals, and diaries by people living the war and its impacts. My hope is that this will often result in our being able to “see” the progress of events from a variety of perspectives.

In most instances, I will be including all of what was included in the published versions of their writings, no matter how mundane.  Some will have entries for almost every day while, with others, there will be long lapses without writing.

I have a large number of posts already scheduled for future publication in “Daily Observations from The Civil War,” including material from the following writers:

Dora Richards Miller, "War Diary of a Union Woman in the South"

Mary Boykin Chesnut, "A Diary From Dixie"

Lincoln Administration Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells, "Diary of Gideon Welles"

Susan Bradford Eppes, "Through Some Eventful Years"

Horatio King, Postmaster General at the end of the Buchanan administration

Catherine Cowles Richards, "Village Life in America 1852 - 1872"

The Woolseys of New York, "Letters of a Family During the War for the Union"

DNC Chairman August Belmont, "A Few Letters and Speeches of the Late Civil War"

John Beuchamp Jones, "A Rebel War Clerk's Diaray at the Confederate States Capital." (Image is from 1845 political cartoon)

Executive Office, Columbia, S. C,
November 29, 1860.

Mr. Wm. Henry Trescot.

Dear Sir: Although South Carolina is determined to secede from the Federal Union very soon after her Convention meets, yet the desire of her constituted authorities is, not to do anything that will bring on a collision before the ordinance of secession has been passed and notice has been given to the President of the fact; and not then, unless compelled to do so by the refusal of the President to recognize our right to secede, by attempting to interfere with our exports or imports, or by refusal to surrender the forts and arsenals in our limits. I have found great difficulty in restraining the people of Charleston from seizing the forts, and have only been able to restrain them by the assurance that no additional troops would be sent to the forts, or any munitions of war. Everything is now quiet, and will remain so until the ordinance is passed, if no more soldiers or munitions of war are sent on. That is to say, I will use my utmost efforts to effect that object, and believe I will succeed; but the Legislature and myself would be powerless to prevent a collision if a single soldier or another gun or ammunition is sent on to be placed in the forts. If President Buchanan takes a course different from the one indicated and sends on a reinforcement, the responsibility will rest on him of lighting the torch of discord, which will only be quenched in blood. I am under a pledge to sanction resistance, and to use all the military power of the State to prevent any increase of troops in these garrisons, and had to make the pledge to restrain the people, who are restive, and hope no necessity will arise to compel me to redeem the pledge. I write to you knowing that, while you will be faithful to the Government of the United States as long as you hold office under it, yet you are also a South Carolinian, and would desire, by all means, to avoid the needless shedding of blood. If you think there is no impropriety in showing this letter to the President you are at liberty to do so, for I do not wish him to be mistaken and act in such a way as to bring upon the country a bloody war, without the most imperious necessity.

Very truly yours,

Wm. H. Gist.

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The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861; Samuel Wylie Crawford; C. L. Webster & Company, 1887; p. 31.

New York Tribune, November 19, 1860.—

Now we believe and maintain that the Union is to be preserved only so long as it is beneficial and satisfactory to all parties concerned. We do not believe that any man, any neighborhood, town, county or even State may break up the Union in any transient gust of passion; we fully comprehend that secession is an extreme, an ultimate resort—not a constitutional but a revolutionary remedy. But we insist that this Union shall not be held together by force whenever it shall have ceased to cohere by the mutual attraction of its parts; and whenever the slave States or the cotton States only shall unitedly and coolly say to the rest, ”We want to get out of the Union,” we shall urge that their request be acceded to.

This paragraph, from Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune, is cited in a number of 19th century books on the war.

Of course it was but one part of a longer article, which was titled, “Bullying The Free States.”

Click on the clipping to view the whole article image (1.62 mbytes)

Richmond Daily Dispatch, November 9, 1860

—A dispatch from Springfield, Ill, speaking of Lincoln’s visit to the polls to vote on Tuesday, says:

‘Mr. Lincoln advanced as rapidly as possible to the voting table, and handed in his ticket, upon which, it is hardly necessary to say, all the names were Republicans. The only alteration he made was the cutting off of his own name at the top, where it had been printed.–As he emerged, after voting, from the temporary enclosure, the manifestations of enthusiasm were frequent, and Mr. Lincoln, removing his hat, bowed in acknowledgment.’

No. 16
General Orders

Headquarters,
Department of Texas,
San Antonio,
October 30th, 1860

The Colonel commanding takes pleasure in publishing to the Department a statement of the combats of the troops in Texas, which have not been previously noticed in orders, either from General or Department Head Quarters.

Many scouts and expeditions in which high soldierly qualities were evinced are not mentioned, it being the purpose to notice only those in which actual conflicts took place.

First.  On the 29th of September, 1859, Lieut. Wm. B. Hazen, 8th Infantry, with two non-commissioned officers and eight men of Company F, 8th Infantry, left Fort Inge in pursuit of a party of Indians that had carried away two negro boys, and driven off a large number of horses belonging to Mr. H. Ragsdale on the Frio.  The pursuit was commenced at tattoo on the evening of the 29th September, and, notwithstanding a heavy rainand chilling norther, was prosecuted with so much vigor that the Indians were overtaken at the head of the Nueces river, and immediately charged.  The Indians attempted to escape, but were brought to bay after a rapid chase, — one of their number killed and one wounded, — when they again took flight over a broken country, and eluded pursuit by dashing down the precipitous bank of a ravine and into a dense cedar brake.  Had not the Indians been mounted on fleet American horses, the attack would have resulted more disastrously to them.  One of the negro boys (the other had been killed by the Indians), and one hundred and thirty horses were recovered.

Excerpt from “Colonel Lee’s Report on Indian Combats in Texas,” as published in  Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Volume 39, July 1935, pages 22 to 31.

For the rest of the report visit Colonel Lee’s Report on Indian Combats in Texas at the Texas State Historical Association web site.

Washington, October 24, 1860.

Hon. John B. Floyd,

Secretary of War:

Sir : Being about to furnish the President with some statistics in reference to the unprecedented drought which has afflicted Kansas Territory for more than fourteen months, I have to request that you will favor me with replies to the following queries, viz:

1st. What amount of rain has fallen in that Territory during the last fourteen months?

2d. What has been the state of the atmosphere ?

Together with such comments as you may deem proper to submit as to the causes of the existing famine in said Territory.

I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully,

THADDEUS HYATT.