—General Beauregard issued an order, and sent a special messenger to Major Anderson, to give him an official notification that no further intercourse between Fort Sumter and the city would be permitted. — Times, April 9.
—The steam transport Atlantic sailed under sealed orders from New York, laden with troops and provisions. Among the troops is Captain Barry’s celebrated company of United States Flying Artillery. — Commercial Advertiser, April 8.
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April 6th.—To-day I paid a second visit to General Scott, who received me very kindly, and made many inquiries respecting the events in the Crimea and the Indian mutiny and rebellion. He professed to have no apprehension for the safety of the capital; but in reality there are only some 700 or 800 regulars to protect it and the Navy Yard, and two field-batteries, commanded by an officer of very doubtful attachment to the Union. The head of the Navy Yard is openly accused of treasonable sympathies.
Mr. Seward has definitively refused to hold any intercourse whatever with the Southern Commissioners, and they will retire almost immediately from the capital. As matters look very threatening, I must go South and see with my own eyes how affairs stand there, before the two sections come to open rupture. Mr. Seward, the other day, in talking of the South, described them as being in every respect behind the age, with fashions, habits, level of thought, and modes of life, belonging to the worst part of the last century. But still he never has been there himself! The Southern men come up to the Northern cities and springs, but the Northerner rarely travels southwards. Indeed, I am informed, that if he were a well-known Abolitionist, it would not be safe for him to appear in a Southern city. I quite agree with my thoughtful and earnest friend, Olmsted, that the United States can never be considered as a free country till a man can speak as freely in Charleston as he can in New York or Boston.
I dined with Mr. Riggs, the banker, who had an agreeable party to meet me. Mr. Corcoran, his former partner, who was present, erected at his own cost, and presented to the city, a fine building, to be used as an art gallery and museum; but as yet the arts which are to be found in Washington are political and feminine only. Mr. Corcoran has a private gallery of pictures, and a collection, in which is the much-praised Greek Slave of Hiram Powers. The gentry of Columbia are thoroughly Virginian in sentiment, and look rather south than north of the Potomac for political results. The President, I hear this evening, is alarmed lest Virginia should become hostile, and his policy, if he has any, is temporizing and timid. It is perfectly wonderful to hear people using the word “Government” at all, as applied to the President and his cabinet— a body which has no power “according to the constitution” to save the country governed or itself from destruction. In fact, from the circumstances under which the constitution was framed, it was natural that the principle point kept in view should be the exhibition of a strong front to foreign powers, combined with the least possible amount of constriction on the internal relations of the different States.
In the hotel the roar of office-seekers is unabated. Train after train adds to their numbers. They cumber the passages. The hall is crowded to such a degree that suffocation might describe the degree to which the pressure reaches, were it not that tobacco-smoke invigorates and sustains the constitution. As to the condition of the floor it is beyond description.
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WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, April 6, 1861.
Capt. THEO. TALBOT, Assistant Adjutant-General:
SIR: You will proceed directly to Charleston, S.C., and if on your arrival there the flag of the United States shall be flying over Fort Sumter, and the fort shall not have been attacked, you will procure an interview with Governor Pickens, and read to him as follows:
I am directed by the President of the United States to notify [you] to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in provisions, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice or in case of an attack upon the fort.
After you shall have read this to Governor Pickens, deliver to him the copy of it herein inclosed, and retain this letter yourself.
But if on your arrival at Charleston you shall ascertain that Fort Sumter shall have been already evacuated or surrendered by the United States force, you will seek no interview with Governor Pickens, but return here forthwith.
Respectfully,
SIMON CAMERON,
Secretary of War.
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CHARLESTON, April 6, 1861.
L. P. WALKER:
The following telegraph I have just received from Washington:
Positively determined not to withdraw Anderson. Supplies go immediately, supported by a naval force under Stringham if their landing is resisted.
A FRIEND.
Governor and General Beauregard visiting the posts in the harbor, and will not be here for a few hours. In their absence I telegraphed to Washington to know who was the person signing himself “A Friend.” The reply satisfies me that the person is high in the confidence of the Government at Washington. Mr. Wigfall, who is with me, concurs in the propriety of giving you notice of it without delay.
A. G. MAGRATH.
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HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
New York, April 6, 1861.
Lieut. CHARLES R. WOODS,
Ninth Infantry, Act. Supt. East. Dept., R. S., Fort Columbus, 21. N.Y.. :
SIR: The General-in-Chief desires that two hundred recruits from Fort Columbus be at once organized into two companies, and held in readiness for embarkation on Monday next, the 8th instant.
A proper proportion of non-commissioned officers will be included in the detachment, which must be fully supplied with arms, ammunition, and subsistence.
First Lieut. Edward McK. Hudson, Fourth Artillery, First Lieut. R. O. Tyler, Third Artillery, and Second Lieut. C. W. Thomas, First Infantry, are assigned to duty with the recruits.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. L. SCOTT,
Lieutenant-Colonel and A.D.C., Act. Adjt. Gen.
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April 6th.—The plot thickens, the air is red hot with rumors; the mystery is to find out where these utterly groundless tales originate. In spite of all, Tom Huger came for us and we went on the Planter to take a look at Morris Island and its present inhabitants—Mrs. Wigfall and the Cheves girls, Maxcy Gregg and Colonel Whiting, also John Rutledge, of the Navy, Dan Hamilton, and William Haskell. John Rutledge was a figurehead to be proud of. He did not speak to us. But he stood with a Scotch shawl draped about him, as handsome and stately a creature as ever Queen Elizabeth loved to look upon.
There came up such a wind we could not land. I was not too sorry, though it blew so hard (I am never seasick). Colonel Whiting explained everything about the forts, what they lacked, etc., in the most interesting way, and Maxcy Gregg supplemented his report by stating all the deficiencies and shortcomings by land.
Beauregard is a demigod here to most of the natives, but there are always seers who see and say. They give you to understand that Whiting has all the brains now in use for our defense. He does the work and Beauregard reaps the glory. Things seem to draw near a crisis. And one must think. Colonel Whiting is clever enough for anything, so we made up our minds to-day, Maxcy Gregg and I, as judges. Mr. Gregg told me that my husband was in a minority in the Convention; so much for cool sense when the atmosphere is phosphorescent. Mrs. Wigfall says we are mismatched. She should pair with my cool, quiet, self-poised Colonel. And her stormy petrel is but a male reflection of me.
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PENSACOLA, April 6, 1861.
Hon. L. P. WALKER:
I can control the dock, but re-enforcements can be landed on the outside Santa Rosa Island in spite of me. The ships, except the Wyandotte, are beyond my range. She can be driven off or destroyed. Any attack by us now must be secretly made by escalade. My batteries are not ready for breaching, and we are entirely deficient in ammunition. No landing should be made on Santa Rosa Island with our present means. Will write.
BRAXTON BRAGG.
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WAR DEPARTMENT, C. S. A.,
Montgomery, April 6, 1861.
Brig. Gen. G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Commanding Charleston Harbor, Charleston, S.C.:
SIR: Your letter of the 4th instant has been received. In reply to your inquiry as to Major Anderson’s mails, I have to say that the policy of the Government is most decided that there shall be such a surveillance of Charleston Harbor and of Fort Sumter as shall assure this Government that the latter is, for all military purposes, entirely isolated. The courtesies which have been accorded to the commander of that fortress have been, in the opinion of this Department, taken advantage of in some cases by persons whose object in visiting Fort Sumter was chiefly to obtain information of the state of our defenses, to be communicated to the Government at Washington. Acting, then, on the leading ideas that the military isolation of Fort Sumter and the prevention of all possible espionage by the Washington Government are absolutely required, you are directed, while allowing Major Anderson to receive his mails, to exercise such instructive discretion as will secure the ends in view.
Minute instructions, covering every possible case, cannot, of course, be given you, but you are directed to exclude possibility of the admission of any one who may be sent by or be favorable to the Government at Washington, always excepting such messenger or bearer of dispatches from that Government as you may be fully assured shall be conveying orders for the surrender or evacuation of the fortress.
You are specifically instructed to permit no one of the persons now in Fort Sumter to depart therefrom; and to secure absolute compliance with this requirement you will use the utmost vigilance and apply all the means at your command. And in this connection the Department would ask your attention to a telegraphic statement generally published under date of “April 4th,” to the effect that Lieutenant Talbot, an officer of the garrison of Fort Sumter, had been allowed to depart therefrom. As this is in apparent conflict with the instructions communicated to you by telegraph, the Department presumes that there were special reasons, affecting the public interest, which, in your judgment, made the case properly exceptional, and I shall therefore be pleased to be made acquainted with the circumstances.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
L. P. WALKER.
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[APRIL 6, 1861.]
Hon. ROBERT TOOMBS, Secretary, &c., Montgomery, Ala.:
No change in the activity of the warlike armaments mentioned yesterday. The rumor that they are destined against Pickens and perhaps Sumter is getting every day stronger. We know nothing positive on the subject, but advise equal activity on your part to receive them if they come. We have not yet been notified of the movement, but the notification may come when they are ready to start.
CRAWFORD.
FORSYTH.
ROMAN.
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WAR DEPARTMENT, A. AND I. G. O.,
Montgomery, April 6, 1861.
Brig. Gen. BRAXTON BRAGG:
The Government at Washington have determined to re-enforce Fort Pickens, and troops are now leaving for that purpose.
S. COOPER,
Adjutant and Inspector General.
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