This morning I received an intimation that the Government
had resolved on taking decisive steps which would lead to a development of
events in the South and test the sincerity of Secession. The Confederate
general at Charleston, Beauregard, has sent to the Federal officer in command
at Sumter, Major Anderson, to say, that all communication between his garrison
and the city must cease; and, at the same time, or probably before it, the
Government at Washington informed the Confederate authorities that they
intended to forward supplies to Major Anderson, peaceably if permitted, but at
all hazards to send them. The Charleston people are manning the batteries they
have erected against Sumter, have fired on a vessel under the United States
flag, endeavoring to communicate with the fort, and have called out and
organized a large force in the islands opposite the place and in the city of
Charleston.
I resolved, therefore, to start for the Southern States
to-day, proceeding by Baltimore to Norfolk instead of going by Richmond, which
was cut off by the floods. Before leaving, I visited Lord Lyons, Mr. Seward,
the French and Russian Ministers; left cards on the President, Mrs. Lincoln,
General Scott, Mr. Douglas, Mr. Sumner, and others. There was no appearance of
any excitement in Washington, but Lord Lyons mentioned, as an unusual
circumstance, that he had received no telegraphic communication from Mr. Bunch,
the British Consul at Charleston. Some ladies said to me that when I came back
I would find some nice people at Washington, and that the rail-splitter, his
wife, the Sewards, and all the rest of them, would be driven to the place where
they ought to be: “Varina Davis is a lady, at all events, not like the other. We
can't put up with such people as these!” A naval officer whom I met, told me, “if
the Government are really going to try force at Charleston, you'll see they'll
be beaten, and we'll have a war between the gentlemen and the Yankee rowdies;
if they attempt violence, you know how that will end.” The Government are so
uneasy that they have put soldiers into the Capitol, and are preparing it for
defence.
At 6 P. M. I drove to the Baltimore station in a storm of
rain, accompanied by Mr. Warre, of the British Legation. In the train there was
a crowd of people, many of them disappointed place-hunters, and much discussion
took place respecting the propriety of giving supplies to Sumter by force, the
weight of opinion being against the propriety of such a step. The tone in which
the President and his cabinet were spoken of was very disrespectful. One big
man, in a fur coat, who was sitting near me, said, “Well, darn me if I wouldn't
draw a bead on Old Abe, Seward — aye, or General Scott himself, though I've got
a perty good thing out of them, if they due try to use their soldiers and
sailors to beat down States' Rights. If they want to go they've a right to go.”
To which many said, “That's so! That's true!”
When we arrived at Baltimore, at 8 P.M., the streets were
deep in water. A coachman, seeing I was a stranger, asked me two dollars, or 8s.
4d., to drive to the Eutaw House, a quarter of a mile distance; but I
was not surprised, as I had paid three-and-a-half and four dollars to go to
dinner and return to the hotel in Washington. On my arrival, the landlord, no
less a person than a major or colonel, took me aside, and asked me if I had
heard the news. “No, what is it?” “The President of the Telegraph Company tells
me he has received a message from his clerk at Charleston that the batteries
have opened fire on Sumter because the Government has sent down a fleet to
force in supplies.” The news had, however, spread. The hall and bar of the
hotel were full, and I was asked by many people whom I had never seen in my
life, what my opinions were as to the authenticity of the rumor. There was
nothing surprising in the fact that the Charleston people had resented any
attempt to reinforce the forts, as I was aware, from the language of the
Southern Commissioners, that they would resist any such attempt to the last,
and make it a casus and causa belli.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, p. 76-7
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