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

[160] States, composed of disgust and indignation — disgust, because the Government had attempted to do secretly and deceptively what it should have done openly and honorably, with a strong arm; and indignation, because traitors in arms had dishonored the old flag, and boasted of their crime. How that indignation, as a sentiment, speedily ripened into positive action, we shall observe hereafter.

Two days after the attack on the Star of the West, Governor Pickens sent his Secretary of State, Magrath, and Secretary of War, Jamison, as commissioners, to make a formal demand on Major Anderson for the immediate surrender of Fort Sumter to the authorities of South Carolina. They tried every art to persuade and alarm him, but in vain. He assured them that, sooner than suffer such humiliation, he would fire the magazine, and blow fort and garrison in the air. They returned fully impressed with the conviction that only by starvation or assault could the fortress be secured for South Carolina; and, to prevent re-enforcements or supplies coming into the harbor, four old hulks filled with stones were towed into the shipchannel that afternoon and sunk. From that time, the insurgents worked diligently in preparations to attack the fort, and the garrison worked as diligently in preparations for its defense.

Here, besieged in Fort Sumter, we will leave Major Anderson and his little band, while we observe the progress of revolutionary movements in the six Gulf States.

Tail-piece — ruins in Charleston.