FORT SUMTER S.C.,
April 4, 1861.
Maj. ROBERT ANDERSON,
First Artillery, U. S. Army Commanding Fort Sumter :
MAJOR: In compliance with your directions, I went, under a
flag of truce, to the city of Charleston, in company with Captain Talbot, and
had an interview with Governor Pickens and General Beauregard. In the interview
with the governor, Captain Talbot only being present, I stated all the
circumstances connected with the visits of Captain Seymour and myself to
Cummings Point and the schooner Rhoda H. Shannon, which had been fired into by
the batteries on Morris Island, on the 3d instant. I called his attention to
the fact that he had not complied with his own proposition, to warn all vessels
bearing the United States flag not to enter the Harbor. The governor replied
that he and General Beauregard, with their staff officers, were standing on the
piazza of the Moultrie House on Sullivan's Island, and saw the whole affair,
and that my statement corroborated entirely his own personal observation,
although it differed slightly from the report of Colonel De Saussure, the
commanding officer on Morris Island. The governor said that the commander of
the vessel whose duty it was to warn vessels not to enter the harbor had left
his post, and had reported that the weather was too boisterous and the sea too
rough for him to go out to the schooner Shannon; that this commander had
already been sent for, and would be dismissed; that the commander of the cutter
would be reprimanded for not going out and examining whether the Shannon were
disabled; and that peremptory orders had been sent to Morris Island to stop
this random firing.
The governor also said that if Major Anderson deemed it his
duty to send out, under unfavorable circumstances, and examine the condition of
the schooner Shannon, it was doubly theirs, imposed by humanity, and also by
the commercial interest of their harbor.
General Beauregard was invited in, and I repeated what I had
said to Governor Pickens to him. The general replied in the same terms as the
governor, adding that the practice firing on Morris Island would take place at
particular hours.
There was an objection made to Captain Talbot leaving Fort
Sumter for Washington, but this was finally overruled and the captain allowed
to depart. The governor said that orders had been received from Montgomery not
to allow any man in the ranks, or any laborers, to leave Fort Sumter, and not
to allow Major Anderson to obtain supplies in Charleston; that Mr. Crawford, a
commissioner from the Confederate States, now in Washington, had sent a
dispatch to him stating that he was authorized to say that no attempt would be
made to re-enforce Fort Sumter with men or provisions, but that Mr. Lincoln
would not order Major Anderson to withdraw from Fort Sumter, and would leave
him to act for himself; also, advising the governor not to allow any supplies
to be sent from the city to Fort Sumter.
I called the attention of both General Beauregard and
Governor Pickens to the schooner lying near the left flank of Fort. Sumter.
They said they knew nothing of her, but would send and ascertain, and direct
her to move further from the fort. Governor Pickens remarked that as they were
now acting under the authority of the Confederate States he had consulted with
General Beauregard, who was now in command of the troops stationed here.
I am, sir, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. W. SNYDER,
First Lieut. of
Engineers, U. S.. Army.
Monday, April 8.
Sent by James E. Harvey by telegraph, last Saturday morning.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 1 (Serial No. 1), p.
241-2
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