.
CHARLESTON, S.C.,
December 30, 1860.
SIR: This arsenal has to-day been taken by force of arms. What disposition am I to make of my command?
F. C. HUMPHREYS.
Capt. MAYNADIER,
In charge of Ordnance Bureau.
War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies
WASHINGTON, December 30, 1860.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
Lieutenant-General Scott begs the President of the United States to pardon the irregularity of this communication.
It is Sunday; the weather is bad, and General Scott is not well enough to go to church. But matters of the highest national importance seem to forbid a moment’s delay, and if misled by zeal, he hopes for the President’s forgiveness.
Will the President permit General Scott, without reference to the War Department and otherwise, as secretly as possible, to send two hundred and fifty recruits from New York Harbor to re-enforce Fort Sumter, together with some extra muskets or rifles, ammunition, and subsistence stores?
It is hoped that a sloop of war and cutter may be ordered for the same purpose as early as to-morrow.
General Scott will wait upon the President at any moment he may be called for.
The President’s most obedient servant,
WINFIELD SCOTT.
WASHINGTON, December 29, 1860.
LARZ ANDERSON, Esq., Cincinnati:
SIR: General Scott has been hoping for two or three days to find himself well enough to answer your letter, but is too much prostrated by diarrhea. He has done everything in his power to support your brother in his command, repeating, with what effect remains to be seen, within the last twenty-four hours, an urgent recommendation, long since made, to the President to re-enforce the major.
The War Department has kept secret from the General the instructions sent to the major, but the General, in common with the whole Army, has admired and vindicated as a defensive measure the masterly transfer of the garrison from Fort Moultrie to the position of Fort Sumter.
G. W. LAY.
.
CHARLESTON ARSENAL, S. C.,
December 29, 1860.
Capt. WM. MAYNADIER,
In charge of Ordnance Bureau, Washington, D.C.:
SIR: I reported by telegraph on the 28th instant that this arsenal was surrounded by a body of South Carolina militia, and that myself and the command are not allowed to pass in or out without a countersign. Those in authority disclaim any intention of occupying the post, nor do they molest the flag. I asked for instructions, but have received none.
I protest (the disclaimer notwithstanding) that this post is to all intents and purposes in the possession of the South Carolina troops, and also against the indignity offered me as an officer of the United States Army, to say nothing of the annoyance the entire command is subjected to by this measure.
I shall, therefore, unless otherwise instructed from the War Department, make a formal protest against the posting of sentinels around this arsenal, and request that they be removed, which, if denied, I shall consider an occupancy of it by the State, and shall haul down my flag and surrender.
I respectfully submit that such a course is proper, and due to myself and the position I occupy as commanding officer.
Very respectfully, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,
F. C. HUMPHREYS,
Military Storekeeper Ordnance, Commanding.
[Indorsement.]
ORDNANCE OFFICE,
January 17, 1861.
Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.
WM. MAYNADIER,
Captain of Ordnance.
[Inclosure.]
Abstract from muster-roll of F. C. Humphreys, military storekeeper of ordnance, dated to include the 30th day of December, 1860.Present: Brevet Col. Benjamin Huger, who assumed command November 20, by order of the Secretary of War, and who was absent under orders from the Adjutant-General’s Office, dated December 1, 1860, and assumed his former duty at Pikesville, Arsenal, by instructions of the Secretary of War, dated December 15, 1860.
F. C. Humphreys, military storekeeper, who resumed command of post December 7, 1860. Fourteen enlisted men.
F. C. HUMPHREYS,
Military Storekeeper, U. S. Army.
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, December 28, 1860.
Hon. D. L. YULEE, Senate:
SIR: In answer to your letter of the 21st instant I have the honor to inclose to you a statement showing the names, rank, and pay, and emoluments of the officers of the United States Army appointed from Florida.* The contingent allowances for fuel and quarters and similar items are not included.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
JOHN B. FLOYD.
*List not deemed of sufficient importance for publication (in Official Records).
WASHINGTON, December 28, 1860.
The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
SIR: We have the honor to transmit to you a copy of the full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina, under which we are “authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt and a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington.”
In the execution of this trust it is our duty to furnish you; as we now do, with an official copy of the ordinance of secession, by which the State of South Carolina has resumed the powers she delegated to the Government of the United States, and has declared her perfect sovereignty and independence.
It would also have been our duty to have informed you that we were ready to negotiate with you upon all such questions as are necessarily raised by the adoption of this ordinance, and that we were prepared to enter upon this negotiation with the earnest desire to avoid all unnecessary and hostile collision, and so to inaugurate our new relations as to secure mutual respect, general advantage, and a future of good will and harmony, beneficial to all the parties concerned. But the events of the last twenty-four hours render such an assurance impossible. We came here, the representatives of an authority which could at any time within the past sixty days have taken possession of the forts in Charleston Harbor, but which, upon pledges given in a manner that we cannot doubt, determined to trust to your honor rather than to its own power. Since our arrival an officer of the United States acting, as we are assured, not only without but against your orders, has dismantled one fort and occupied another, thus altering to a most important extent the condition of affairs under which we came.
Until those circumstances are explained in a manner which relieves us of all doubt as to the spirit in which these negotiations shall be conducted, we are forced to suspend all discussion as to any arrangements by which our mutual interests might be amicably adjusted.
And, in conclusion, we would urge upon you the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the harbor of Charleston. Under present circumstances they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.
We have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
R. W. BARNWELL,
J. H. ADAMS,
JAMES L. ORR,
Commissioners.
[Inclosures. ]
THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA:
At a Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, and there, by divers adjournments, to the twentieth of December in the same year:
AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other State’s united with her under the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States of America”:
We, the People of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the general assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the “United States of America,” is hereby dissolved.
Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
D. F. JAMISON,
Delegate from Barnwell, and President of the Convention, and others.
Attest:
BENJAMIN F. ARTHUR,
Clerk of the Convention.
OFFICE OF SECRETARY OF STATE,
Charleston, S.C., December 22, 1860,
I do hereby certify that the foregoing ordinance is a true and correct copy taken from the original on file in this office.
Witness my hand and the seal of the State.
[L. S.] ISAAC H. MEANS,
Secretary of State.
The State of South Carolina, by the Convention of the People of the said State, to Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr :
Whereas the Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, did, by resolution, order “That three Commissioners, to be elected by ballot of the Convention, be directed forthwith to proceed to Washington, authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, light-houses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States, of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relations of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington”;
And whereas the said Convention did, by ballot, elect you to the said office of Commissioners to the Government at Washington:
Now, be it known that the said Convention, by these presents, doth commission you, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr, as Commissioners to the Government at Washington, to have, to hold, and to exercise the said office, with all the powers, rights, and privileges conferred upon the same by the terms of the resolution herein cited.
Given under the seal of the State, at Charleston, the twenty-second day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.
[L. S.]
D. F. JAMISON,
President
ISAAC H. MEANS,
Secretary of State.
Attest:
B. F. ARTHUR,
Clerk of the Convention.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
Charleston, December 28, 1860.
Hon. D. F. JAMISON, President of the Convention :
SIR: As the Convention sent for me yesterday, to be informed upon important business, I take the occasion to say that, under my order, Castle Pinckney was taken last evening, and the United States flag hauled down and the Palmetto banner run up in its place. And I also ordered a detachment from an artillery regiment to occupy Sullivan’s Island; and if it could be done without any immediate danger from mines, or too great loss of life, to take Fort Moultrie and to run up the Palmetto flag, and put the guns in immediate preparation for defense. I have now full possession of those two forts. I considered the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, under all the circumstances, a direct violation of the distinct understanding between the authorities of the Government at Washington and those who were authorized to act on the part of the State, and bringing on a state of war.
I therefore thought it due to the safety of the State that I should take the steps I have. I hope there is no immediate danger of further aggression for the present.
Respectfully,
F. W. PICKENS.
CHARLESTON, December 28, 1860.
Capt. WM. MAYNADIER,
Ordnance Bureau:
A body of South Carolina military now surround the arsenal outside, however of the inclosure, but denying ingress or egress without countersign. The officer in command disclaims any intention of occupancy, and the United States flag is undisturbed. I await instructions.
F. C. HUMPHREYS.
.
FORT SUMTER,
S.C., December 28, 1860.
(Received A. G. O., January 1, 1861.)
Col. S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:
COLONEL: I have the honor to send herewith a copy of a memorandum received to-day from the governor of South Carolina, in reply to a message from me, which shows that for the present we are treated as enemies. I sent my post-adjutant this morning with a message to the commanding officer of Fort Moultrie asking by what authority he held possession of that work, and desiring to know whether he would make any opposition to my sending for some property, public and private, left there. He replied to my first question that he held that post by authority of the sovereign State of South Carolina, and in obedience to the orders of the governor. To the second, that his orders were not to permit public property of any kind to be removed on any pretext whatever; that he was directed to take an inventory of the same, and to send it to the governor; that he would with pleasure assist in recovering and restoring all private property that was left. This decision about the public property shows that South Carolina is acting in this matter also toward us as if we were her enemy. The amount of public property thus left is not great, as I merely retained enough to prevent my movement from being suspected. He requested Lieutenant Hall to say that at a general meeting of the officers, the military move I made was unanimously pronounced to have been one of consummate wisdom; that it was the best one that could have been made, and that if I had not effected it things would have been very different. Speaking of his own position, he remarked that the guns of Fort Sumter looked into his guns, and said that he ought not to have been ordered to fire upon me, because if I returned his fire he would be compelled to retire to the sand hills. There were yesterday two regiments to guard the island. The remark about his orders looks like an intention to attack me here. I must confess that I feel highly complimented by the expression of such an opinion (from those most deeply affected by it) of the change of position I felt bound to take to save my command and to prevent the shedding of blood. In a few days I hope, God willing, that I shall be so strong here that they will hardly be foolish enough to attack me. I must confess that we have yet something to do before, with my small force, I shall feel quite independent, as this work is not impregnable, as I have heard it spoken of.
Trusting that something may occur which will lead to a peaceful solution of the questions between the General Government and South Carolina,
I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.
P. S.–I do not feel authorized to reply to the memorandum of the governor, but shall regret very deeply his persistence in the course he has taken. He knows not how entirely the city of Charleston is in my power. I can cut his communication off from the sea, and thereby prevent the reception of supplies, and close the harbor, even at night, by destroying the light-houses. These things, of course, I would never do, unless compelled to do so in self-defense.
[Inclosure.–Copy of memorandum from Governor Pickens.]
HEADQUARTERS, December 28, 1860.
In reply to Major Anderson’s request, made this morning verbally through First Lieutenant Snyder, from Fort Sumter, I hereby order and direct that free permission shall be given to him to send the ladies and camp women from Fort Sumter, with their private effects, to any portion of Sullivan’s Island, and that entire protection shall be extended to them. It is also agreed that the mails may be sent over to the officers at Fort Sumter by their boats, and that all the ladies of Captain Foster’s finally shall be allowed to pass, with their effects and the effects of any kind belonging to Captain Foster, from the Mills House to Fort Sumter, and the kindest regard shall be paid to them. Of course, Lieutenant Meade’s private effects can be taken possession of; but for the present there shall be no communications of any other kind allowed from the city to the fort, or any transportation of arms or ammunition, or any supplies, to the fort; and this is done with a view to prevent irregular collisions, and to spare the unnecessary effusion of blood.
F. W. PICKENS.
FORT SUMTER, S.C., December 27, 1860.
(Received A. G. O., December 31.)
COLONEL: I had the honor to reply this afternoon to the telegram of the honorable Secretary of War in reference to the abandonment of Fort Moultrie. In addition to the reasons given in my telegram and in my letter of last night, I will add as my opinion that many things convinced me that the authorities of the State designed to proceed to a hostile act. Under this impression I could not hesitate that it was my solemn duty to move my command from a fort which we could not probably have held longer than forty-eight or sixty hours, to this one, where my power of resistance is increased to a very great degree. The governor of this State sent down one of his aides to-day and demanded, “courteously, but peremptorily,” that I should return my command to Fort Moultrie. I replied that I could not and would not do so. He stated that when the governor came into office he found that there was an understanding between his predecessor and the President that no re-enforcements were to be sent to any of these forts, and particularly to this one, and that I had violated this agreement by having re-enforced this fort. I remarked that I had not re-enforced this command, but that I had merely transferred my garrison from one fort to another, and that, as the commander of this harbor, I had a right to move my men into any fort I deemed proper. I told him that the removal was made on my own responsibility, and that I did it because we were in a position that we could not defend, and also under the firm belief that it was the best means of preventing bloodshed. This afternoon an armed steamer, one of two which have been watching these two forts, between which they have been passing to and fro or anchored for the last ten nights, took possession by escalade of Castle Pinckney. Lieutenant Meade made no resistance. He is with us to-night. They also took possession to-night of Fort Moultrie, from which I withdrew the remainder of my men this afternoon, leaving the fort in charge of the overseer of the men employed by the Engineer Department. We have left about one month’s and a half of provisions in that fort; also some wood and coal and a small quantity of ammunition. We are engaged here to-day in mounting guns and in closing up some of the openings for the embrasures–temporarily closed by light boards, but which would offer but slight resistance to persons seeking entrance. If the workmen return to their work, which I doubt, we shall be enabled in three or four days to have a sufficient number of our guns mounted, and be ready for anything that may occur.
I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.
Col. S. COOPER,
Adjutant-General.
