...plies for Fort Sumter; but the vessel having been fired on from a battery at the entrance to the harbor, returned without having reached her destination. On the 16th January, 1861, in replying to Major Anderson 's letters of the 31st December and of 6th January, I said: Your late despatches, as well as the very intelligent statements of Lieutenant Talbot, have relieved the Government of the apprehensions pre...