[Memorandum.]

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, December 28, 1860.

Lieutenant-General Scott, who has had a bad night, and can scarcely hold up his head this morning, begs to express the hope to the Secretary of War—

1. That orders may not be given for the evacuation of Fort Sumter;

2. That one hundred and fifty recruits may instantly be sent from Governor's Island to re-enforce that garrison, with ample supplies of ammunition, subsistence, including fresh vegetables, as potatoes, onions, turnips; and

3. That one or two armed vessels be sent to support the said fort. Lieutenant-General Scott avails himself of this opportunity also to express the hope that the recommendations heretofore made by him to the Secretary of War respecting Forts Jackson, Saint Philip, Morgan, and Pulaski, and particularly in respect to Forts Pickens and McRee and the Pensacola navy-yard in connection with the last two named works, may be reconsidered by the Secretary.

Lieutenant-General Scott will further ask the attention of the Secretary to Forts Jefferson and Taylor, which are wholly national, being of far greater value even to the most distant points of the Atlantic coast and to the people on the upper waters of the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers than to the State of Florida. There is only a feeble company at Key West for the defense of Fort Taylor, and not a soldier in Fort Jefferson to resist a handful of filibusters or a rowboat of pirates; and the Gulf, soon after the beginning of secession or revolutionary troubles in the adjacent States, will swarm with such nuisances.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.