Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

Great caution and circumspection were essential to success. There were vigilant eyes upon Anderson on every side. There was wide-spread disaffection everywhere among Southern-born men. Whom can I trust? was a question wrung almost hourly from loyal men in public station. Anderson had lately been promoted to his present command, and had been so little with his officers and men, that his acquaintance with them was extremely limited. He revealed his secret intentions only to Captain (afterward Major-General) John G. Foster, his second in command, and two or three other officers.

Anderson's first care was to remove the women and children, with a supply of provisions, to Fort Sumter. To do so directly and openly would invite an immediate attack. He resolved on strategy. He would give out that they were going to Fort Johnson, on James Island. Wherefore? would be asked by the watchful Charlestonians. His reply might properly be: Because I know you are about to attack me. I cannot hold out long. I wish to have the helpless ones, with food, in safety.

This was substantially the course of events. On Wednesday, the 26th of December, the women and children in Fort Moultrie, and ample provisions, were placed in vessels and sent to Fort Johnson. The commandant there had been instructed to detain them on board until evening, under a pretext of a difficulty in finding quarters for them. The firing of three guns at Moultrie was to be the signal for them all to be conveyed immediately to Fort Sumter, and landed. The expected question was asked, and the plausible answer was given. The people of Charleston, as Anderson desired, talked about his movement as a natural and prudent measure. They now felt sure of their speedy possession of the forts. All suspicion was allayed. The stratagem was successful.

Just at the close of the evening twilight, when the almost full-orbed moon was shining brightly in the Southern sky, the greater portion of the little garrison at Fort Moultrie embarked for Fort Sumter. The three signal-guns were fired soon afterward, and the women and children were taken from before Fort Johnson to the same fortress. Captain Foster, Surgeon Crawford, and two or three other officers were left at Fort Moultrie, with a few men, with orders to spike the great guns, destroy their carriages, and cut down the flag-staff, that no “banner with a strange device” should be flung out from the peak from which the Stars and Stripes had so long fluttered. That accomplished, they were to follow the garrison to Sumter.

The movement was successful. The garrison departed. The voyage was short, but a momentous one. A guard-boat had been sent out from Charleston just as the last vessel left Sullivan's Island. At the same time a steam-tug was seen towing a vessel in from sea. She might have revealed the secret. Providentially, the moon shone full in the faces of her people when looking in the direction of the flotilla, and they could not see them. Sumter