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Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative, Chapter 1: from the U. S.A. Into the C. S.A. (search)
ee how our lean, ill-equipped ranks would fight, all the harder, it seemed, as the men grew thinner and more ragged and hungry looking. Here it is in order to speak briefly of one of the incidents leading up to the attack upon Fort Sumter, the history of which is instructive. This attack is often spoken of as the first hostile act of the war. Really the first hostile act was the transfer of the garrison of Fort Moultrie into Fort Sumter, stealthily accomplished during the night of Dec. 26, 1860, the guns of Moultrie being spiked, and their ammunition destroyed. It was a military measure which utterly changed the status quo. Both the S. C. authorities and President Buchanan were earnestly anxious to maintain this status, and the War Department, in its anxiety, had sent a specially detailed officer, Maj. Don Carlos Buell (afterward Maj.-Gen.) to impress the importance of it upon Maj. Anderson in command. His instructions were to be delivered verbally, which is, surely, alway