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Nina, and affecting no concealment.
A full moon was shining in a clear sky. When all that could be had been removed, the remaining guncarriages, etc., were burnt, so as to prevent their use in any future attack upon Sumter.
No resistance was offered; perhaps none of a serious nature could have been; for Maj. Anderson's act was evidently unanticipated in Charleston; but it was gravely complained of as a breach of faith-President Buchanan, it was implied, rather than distinctly alleged,1 having promised that the military status should not be changed, without due notice.
The news of Anderson's movement sent a thrill through the hearts of many, who felt that we were silently drifting toward a sea of fraternal blood.
Almost simultaneously with this transfer, a popular excitement was aroused in Pittsburgh, Pa., by information that an order had been received from the War Department for an extensive transfer of arms, especially of heavy ordnance, from the Alleghany Arsenal near that place to the South and South-West.2 That such transfers had been quietly going on for months, did not reconcile the stanch Republicans of our American Birmingham to further operations of the kind, now palpably in the interest of Southern treason.
A public meeting was called; dispatches sent to Washington; and an order obtained suspending the meditated transfer.
The citizens' meeting was held on the evening of the 27th; and its resolves, while they deprecated any lawless resistance to official orders, called urgently on the President to purge his Cabinet of every one known to be in complicity with treason or rebellion against the Federal Government and Union.
John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, resigned his post on the 29th, alleging the course of the President, in refusing to order Major Anderson back to
1 The Charleston Courier of the 29th said:
Major Robert Anderson, United States Army, has achieved the unenviable distinction of opening civil war between American citizens by an act of gross breach of faith. He has, under counsels of a panic, deserted his post at Fort Moultrie, and, under false pretexts, has transferred his garrison and military stores and supplies to Fort Sumter.And The Charleston Mercury said:
Major Anderson alleges that the movement was made without orders, and upon his own responsibility, and that he was not aware of such an understanding. He is a gentleman, and we will not impugn his word or his motives. But it is due to South Carolina and to good faith that the act of this officer should be repudiated by the Government, and that the troops be removed forthwith from Fort Sumter.
2 The order was as follows:
“Send immediately to Ship Island, near Balize, (mouth of Mississippi), 46 cannon, and to Galveston 78 cannon,” naming the kinds.The schedule was as follows:
21 | ten-inch Columbiads, | 15,200lbs.= | 319,200lbs. |
21 | eight-inch ditto | 9,240lbs.= | 194,040lbs. |
4 | 32-pounders (iron), | 7,250lbs.= | 29,000lbs. |
46 | to Ship Island. | ||
Total weight of metal, | 542,240lbs. | ||
23 | ten-inch Columbiads, | 15,200lbs.= | 349,600lbs. |
48 | eight-inch ditto | 9,240lbs.= | 443,520lbs. |
7 | 32-pounders (iron), | 7,250lbs.= | 50,750lbs. |
78 | to Galveston. | ||
Total weight of metal, | 843,870lbs. |
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