lency knows that I have recently sent a messenger to CHAP. VIII. Washington, and that it will be impossible for me to receive an answer to my dispatches, forwarded by him, at an earlier date than next Monday. What the character of my instructions may be I cannot foresee. Anderson to Pickens, Jan. 11,1861, Victor, "History of the Southern Should your Excellency deem fit, prior to a resort to arms, to refer this matter to Washington, it would afford me the sincerest pleasure to depute one of my officers to Rebellion," accompany any messenger you may deem proper to be the bearer of your demand. This suggestion of Major Anderson was practically the tender of an armistice for the period of about two days, the time necessary to travel to Washington, with contingent results impossible to calculate. Having already, two days previously, decided against retaliation, it involved him in no additional restraint, but it placed the Government at Washington in the awkward predicament of being compelled to give virtual notice of future relief expeditions during its continuance. Whether or not this point of advantage was perceived by the insurgents, it gave them such manifest opportunities for delay that Major Anderson's truce was eagerly accepted by Governor Pickens; and Attorney-General Hayne, on the part of South Carolina, and Lieutenant Hall, on behalf of the garrison, were forthwith dispatched to Washington almost on the heels of the former messenger from the fort. Vol. I., p. 253. VOL. III.-8 CHAPTER IX THE MILITARY SITUATION AT CHARLESTON CHAP. IX. Ut P to Christmas, squad drill and the manufacture of scaling-ladders had constituted the principal military preparation of the Charlestonians. They had provided by intrigue for the "delivery" of the arsenal, which would supply them with muskets and cartridges; of Sumter and Pinckney, where they would find an abundance of heavy guns. They did not think it possible that these intrigues could be thwarted, or these supplies diverted from their possession and use. When, therefore, Anderson's transfer to Sumter came upon them so unexpectedly, they were for the moment helpless and defenseless. Hence their haste to secure the muskets in the arsenal and the remaining guns in Pinckney and Moultrie; but even possessed of these, their occupancy was only possible through Anderson's forbearance, and the harbor was open to the entrance of any ship. It was, therefore, with consternation that they received notice on December 31 of the change of régime and policy at Washington, of the commissioners' blunder and failure, of Holt's accession to the War Department, of his coercive purposes, and the alarming information, "We believe reënforce CHAP. IX. 1860. ments are on the way." It is scarcely to be supposed that Governor Pickens at Charleston, though leader of an insurrection now five days old, and a military dictator, as no other authority had up to this time ratified his acts, received the news with complacency. He was, as has already been said, a revolutionist of the true type-an unhesitating, unyielding, radical leader. Inaugurated on the 17th of December, he had signalized almost every day of his incumbency by some act of revolutionary hardihood. With the ink of his official oath as Governor of South Carolina and a citizen of the United States scarcely dry, he had, on the 17th, written his letter demanding Fort Sumter of President Buchanan; on the 18th, ordered and equipped the harbor guard-boat; on the 20th, officially told Caleb Cushing there was no hope for the Union; on the 27th, occupied Moultrie and Pinckney; and on the 30th, taken pp. 31, 32. possession of the arsenal. Gov. Pick ens, Message, Nov. 5, 1861. "South Carolina House Journal," "Journal of the Convention of lina," p. 5. The other leaders of the insurrection were equally profuse of words, but much more cautious and tardy in acts. The chairman, calling the convention to order, had indeed said, "In the outset of this movement I can offer you no better motto than Danton's at the commencement of the French revolution, 'To south Caro dare! and again to dare! and without end to dare!"","1860But with such dramatic quotations on their lips, they were not in headlong haste to thrust their necks into the halter. They coolly tabled a number of belligerent resolutions, including even the Governor's letter notifying them that he had occupied the abandoned forts, perhaps justifying themselves in this latter instance by his reassuring phrase, CHAP. IX. "I hope there is no immediate danger of further Pickens to aggression for the present." The Legislature, in still greater apparent confidence, had taken a holiday adjournment. Jamison, Dec. 28, 1860. W. R. Vol. I., p. 252. The threatening news came to the Governor by telegraph late at night December 31, 1860. They relied so confidently upon intrigue, upon the "negotiation" which the commissioners had gone to Washington to conduct, and especially upon the President's doctrine of non-coercion and policy of non-action, that this new turn of affairs took them as much by surprise as Anderson's movement a few days previous. There was an instantaneous flutter in the military dove-cote. The Governor was ignorant of war, but equally a stranger to fear. At midnight of the expiring year he was busy giving orders about troops, supplies, batteries, bridges, guns. Pinckney and Moultrie were to be defended, merlons raised to protect five heavy guns bearing on Maffitt's channel, temporary bridges constructed to secure a retreat, if necessary, from Sullivan's Island. A battery was as soon as possible to be raised on Sullivan's Island beyond Fort Moultrie, out of the range of the guns of Sumter; and another battery on Morris Island, also beyond the guns of Sumter, was to be erected immediately by Major Stevens of the Citadel Academy, with a Simons to detachment of forty cadets. Fort Johnson was to be occupied, and all communication with SumJournal," ter, except mails, to be cut off. Major-General 174-77. Com- Schnierle was directed to carry out these details, Pp. 198, 222, and to call into requisition and counsel the valuable aid and coöperation of Brigadier-General Simons. Pickens, "South Carolina House 1861, pp. pare, also, and 250 in explana tion of certain errors of date. Proceed Charleston Convention ings. "Courier," In the excitement and panic which followed CHAP. IX. next day, even the convention was made to realize the necessity for prompt action. That body spent New Year's Day, from 10 A. M. to 4 P. M., in secret debate. The principal result of this long session Jan. 3, 1861. was to confirm the dictatorship the Governor had now for five days been exercising without law. The ambitious republic, which professed itself so jealous of State and individual rights that it could not endure the grinding Federal despotism, was only eleven days old; and yet it was already driven to this melancholy makeshift: Resolved, That whenever in the course of the struggle into which the State now seems likely to be drawn, hostilities may be waged or threatened against the city of Charleston or its neighborhood, and the Governor (upon consultation with the Executive Council) may deem the measure necessary, the Governor is hereby authorized to declare and enforce martial law, in whole or in part, in and over Charleston, its harbor, and neighboring villages; all the adjacent islands, including Morris Island, and all other places within five miles of the court-house; to remove thence all persons whose presence he shall consider detrimental to the public service; to prevent the ingress of such persons; to regulate, at discretion, all travel to and forth, and otherwise to govern as in a camp: Provided, that such authority shall be at all times subject to of the Conbe limited, controlled, or revoked by this convention, or by the General Assembly. Brigadier-General James Simons, upon whom a share of the responsibility of the military defense was thrust in so unlooked for and sudden a manner, was a man of candor and courage. Nothing short of these qualities could have induced him, in that hour of shams and atmosphere of bravado, bluntly to tell the Governor unpalatable truths, "Journal vention," p. 154. |