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Maj.
Anderson sent many reports to Washington while in command in
Charleston. This one details his experiences with the South
Carolina goverment on the issue of provisions for Anderson's
command. Anderson was not interested in being fed by South
Carolina, but in having an existing contract for fresh beef
enforced. However, it remains commonly believed, in some quarters,
that Anderson was being supplied by South Carolina, so the provisions
emergency, which first became known in early March, and which led to
the relief effort which prompted the Confederates to fire on the fort,
was in fact something "made up" as part of a scheme to "trick" the
Confederates into firing the first shots of the war. One of the
goals of this project was to demonstrate ample documentation of
declining food stores in Fort Sumter, and the absence of meaningful
supplies being provided by the State of South Carolina.
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FORT SUMTER,
S.C., January 21, 1861. Hon. J. HOLT, Secretary of War: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
letters, dated the 10th and 19th [16th] instants, and to assure you that I am
highly gratified at the unqualified approbation they contain of the course I
felt it my duty (under Divine guidance, I trust) to pursue in the unexpectedly
perplexing circumstances by which we were surrounded. I shall inclose herewith
copies of my correspondence with the officials of this State, and also a copy
of the Mercury*, which contains an article in reference to supplies for my
command. You will understand at once the reasons for my course, which
I hope will meet your approval. So many acts of harshness and of incivility
have occurred since my removal from Fort Moultrie, which I have not deemed
proper to notice or report, that I cannot accept of any civility which may be
considered as a favor or an act of charity. I hope that the Department will
approve of my sending (if the governor will permit it) our women and children
to New York. They will be in the way here if we should, unfortunately, be
engaged in hostilities, and they would embarrass me should I deem it proper to
make any sudden move. We are trying daily to strengthen our position. We have
now fifty-one guns in position, viz: In barbette, four 42-pounders, three
32-pounders, six 24's, six 8-inch columbiads, and five 8-inch sea-coast
howitzers (24); in casemate, twenty-two 32-pounders and two 42-pounders, (24);
and to guard the gateway, which has been nearly closed by a heavy stone wall,
three 8-inch sea-coast howitzers; and we are now preparing platforms in the
parade for the three 10-inch columbiads, which we are unable to raise to their
proper positions. I shall have some of the lower embrasures, in which guns are
mounted, closed. This will make our little command more secure. From the
perfect isolation of our position here it is impossible for us to ascertain,
with any degree of certainty, the character or extent of the preparations which
are being made around us. Everything, however, shows that they are exerting all
their energies to prevent the entrance of re-enforcements, and to prepare for
attacking this work. Saturday night and yesterday (Sunday) they were very
actively engaged at work on a battery (commenced Saturday morning) a few
hundred yards south of a battery of three guns constructed within the last
three weeks in front of Fort Johnson barracks. On Cummings Point, Morris
Island, quite an extensive battery or batteries have been constructed within
the last week. We think that there may be both mortars and heavy guns at this
point. We see them moving heavy timbers, which may be intended for the
construction of a bomb-proof. Judging from the great quantity of material which
has been landed in that neighborhood, I think it probable that they may have
strengthened the battery which fired on the Star of the West. The channel she
came in has been closed, pretty effectually I imagine, by four sunken vessels.
Sand hills on Morris Island afford such safe positions for batteries that I
fear we shall have to waste a great deal of ammunition before we can succeed in
dislodging them from its batteries. Several distant shots have been heard from
the direction the mouth of Stono Creek. I presume they have closed that by a
heavy battery. It is reported that there is a battery guarding the entrance of
the Maffitt Channel, and also that there is a battery of heavy guns on
Sullivan's Island (masked from our view by the houses) about three hundred
yards to the west of the fort. Fort Moultrie has been greatly
strengthened during the last two weeks. Traverses have been erected along the
sea front, and merlons, formed of sand bags and earth, constructed between the
guns. These merlons, apparently well built, will afford very good protection
for the carriages and men, and defilade the parade and greater portion of the
quarters from our direct fire. It seems that they have repaired these
carriages, and that all the guns are now in position on the sea front. I am, of
course, unable to state with any accuracy the character of the armament of their
batteries or the number of men they have under arms; we hear that the garrison
on Sullivan's Island, at Fort Johnson, Castle Pinckney (the parapet of which is
strengthened by sand bags), and on Morris Island amount to about two thousand
men. In reference to my communications with the Department, you must bear it in
mind that that matter is entirely under the control of the governor of this
State, who may, whenever he deems fit, entirely prohibit my forwarding any
letters, or prevent my sending any messenger, to my Government. I shall,
however, as long as I can do so, send daily a brief note to the Department, the
reception of which will show that the channel is still open, and the failure
will indicate that our communication has been cut off. Trusting in God that He will be pleased to save us from the
horrors of a civil war, I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, ROBERT
ANDERSON, Major, First
Artillery, Commanding. ----------
[Inclosure No. 1.] EXECUTIVE OFFICE,
DEPARTMENT OF WAR, Maj. ROBERT ANDERSON: SIR: I am instructed by his excellency the governor to
inform you that he has directed an officer of the State to procure and carry
over with your mails each day to Fort Sumter such supplies of fresh meat and
vegetables as you may indicate. I am, sir, respectfully yours, D. F. JAMISON.
[Inclosure No. 2.] FORT SUMTER, S.C.,
January 19, 1861. Hon. D. F. JAMISON, Executive Office, Department of
War: SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your
communication of this date, stating that you are authorized by his excellency
the governor to inform me that he has directed an officer of the State to
procure and carry over with my mails each day to Fort Sumter such supplies of
fresh meat and vegetables as I may indicate. I confess that I am at a loss to
understand the latter part of this message, as I have not represented in any
quarter that we were in need of such supplies. As commandant of a military
post, I can only have my troops furnished with fresh beef in the manner
prescribed by law, and I am compelled, therefore, with due thanks to his
excellency, respectfully to decline his offer. If his suggestion is based upon a
right, then I must procure the meat as we have been in the habit of doing
for years, under an unexpired contract with Mr. McSweeney, a Charleston
butcher, who would, I presume, if permitted, deliver the meat, &c., at this
fort or at Fort Johnson, at the usual periods for such delivery, four times in
ten days. If the
permission is founded on courtesy and civility, I am compelled respectfully to
decline accepting it, with a reiteration of my thanks for having made it. In
connection with this subject, I deem it not improper respectfully to suggest
that his excellency may do an act of humanity and great kindness if he will
permit one of the New York steamers to stop with a lighter and take the women
and children of this garrison to that city. The confinement within the walls of
this work, and the impossibility of my having it in my power to have them
furnished with the proper and usual articles of food, will, I fear, soon
produce sickness among them. The compliance with this request will confer a
favor upon a class of persons to whom similar indulgences are always granted,
even during a siege in time of actual war, and will be duly appreciated by me. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient
servant, ROBERT
ANDERSON, Major, First
Artillery, Commanding Fort Sumter. P. S.--I hope that the course I have deemed it my duty to
take in reference to the supplies will have a tendency to allay an excitement
which, judging from the tenor of the paragraphs in to-day's paper, I fear they
are trying to get up in the city. [Inclosure No. 3.] HEADQUARTERS
QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT, Major ANDERSON: DEAR SIR: Inclosed please find copy of letter from Secretary
of War. Not waiting your request, I shall send by the mail-boat in the morning
two hundred pounds of beef and a lot of vegetables. I requested Lieutenant
Talbot to ask you to let me know this evening what supplies you would wish sent
daily. Very respectfully, L. M. HATCH,
Quartermaster-General,
South Carolina Militia. [Inclosure No. 4.] HEADQUARTERS
QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT, Colonel HATCH, You are ordered to procure and send down with the mails for
Fort Sumter to-morrow a sufficient quantity of fresh meat and vegetables to
last the garrison of Fort Sumter for forty-eight hours, and inform Major
Anderson that you will purchase and take down every day such provisions from
the city market as he may indicate. D. F. JAMISON.
[Inclosure No. 5.] FORT SUMTER, S. C.,
January 20, 1861. Col. L. M. HATCH, DEAR SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your note of the 19th instant, and also to state that as no arrangements have
been made by me with your government in reference to supplies for this post, I feel compelled to decline
the reception of those supplies. I wrote to the honorable Secretary of War
yesterday in reference to this matter. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. ANDERSON, Major, First U.S. Artillery, Commanding.
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