Executive Department,
28th December, 1860.
To the Hon. D. F. Jamison,
President of the Convention.
Sir: As the Convention sent for me yesterday to be
informed upon important matters, I take occasion to say that under my order
Castle Pinckney was taken last evening, and the United States flag hauled down,
and the Palmetto banner run up in its place; and I also ordered a detachment
from an artillery regiment to occupy Sullivan's Island, and, if it could be
done without any immediate danger from mines, or too great loss of life, to
take Fort Moultrie and run up the Palmetto flag, and to put the guns in immediate
preparation for defense. I have now full possession of these two forts. I
considered the evacuation of Fort Moultrie, under all the circumstances, a
direct violation of the distinct understanding between the authorities of the
Government at Washington, and those who were authorized to act on the part of
this State, and bringing on a state of war.
I therefore thought it due to the safety of the State that I
should take the steps I have. I hope there is no immediate danger of further
aggression for the present.
Respectfully,
(Signed)
F. W. Pickens.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 125
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