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command, are questions to which answers will, I hope, be at once returned.
Unless we receive supplies, I shall be compelled to stay here without food or to abandon this fort very early next week.”
1 Again, on the 6th, he wrote, “The truth is, that the sooner we are out of this harbor, the better.
Our flag runs an hourly risk of being insulted, and my hands are tied by my orders; and even if that were not the case, I have not the power to protect it. God grant that neither I nor any other officer of our Army may be again placed in a position of such humiliation and mortification.”
Whilst.
Anderson was thus chafing in
Fort Sumter, the
Government at
Washington, as we have observed, was very much perplexed, for it was evident that a crisis was at hand.
Lieutenant Talbot was on his way to the seat of government, with an earnest plea from
Anderson for instructions, when a note from
Beauregard informed the
Major that orders had been received from
Montgomery, that “on account of delays and apparent vacillation of the United States' Government, in relation to the evacuation of
Fort Sumter,” no further communication between that
fort and
Charleston, for mails or for the purpose of procuring supplies, would be permitted.
Once before there had been a like restriction, and when a removal of it was offered, in the form of a courtesy, and he was proffered
“fresh meat and vegetables, under the direction of an officer of the
State of South Carolina,”
Major Anderson declined receiving any supplies by “permission.”
He had not, he said, represented that he was in need of supplies.
“If the permission is founded on courtesy and civility, I am compelled respectfully to decline accepting it.”
2 No objections were made for a time thereafter to his free use of the
Charleston markets for fresh meat and vegetables.
The crisis came.
The message of
President Lincoln to
Governor Pickens, concerning the sending of supplies to
Fort Sumter, was made known on the morning of the 8th.
It produced the most intense excitement.
Beauregard immediately sent the electrograph to
Montgomery, already noticed, and the reply came back on the 10th, conditionally authorizing him to demand the surrender of
Fort Sumter.
3 “The demand will be made to-morrow at twelve o'clock,” replied
Beauregard.
The news of this determination spread instantly over the city, and to the various camps and batteries of the insurgents.
The Floating Battery, finished, armed, and manned, was taken out and anchored near the west end — of
Sullivan's Island; and fire-ships — vessels filled with wood and rosin, to be set on fire and run among the relief squadron, to burn it, if it should enter the harbor — were towed out at the same time.
