Saturday, November 5, 2016

Brigadier-General Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard to Leroy Pope Walker, April 1, 1861

Charleston, S. C., April 1, 1861.
The Hon. L. P. Walker, Montgomery, Ala.

The following telegram, just received from Commissioner Crawford: “I am authorized to say that this Government will not undertake to supply Sumter without notice to you. My opinion is that the President has not the courage to execute the order agreed upon in Cabinet for the evacuation of the fort, but that he intends to shift the responsibility upon Major Anderson by suffering him to be starved out. Would it not be well to aid in this by cutting off all supplies?”

“crawford.”

Batteries here ready to open Wednesday or Thursday. What instructions?

G. P. Beauregard.

SOURCES: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 391

No comments: