charleston, April 11th, 1861.
. . . Your father was gone all night with Captain Hartstein,
seeing to placing light boats, with fires of pine wood, in the harbor, for the
purpose of detecting the approach of the enemy's boats. He has gone again
to-day and will not return until evening. . . . A demand for the surrender of the Fort was
made to-day, but the answer has not yet come. In case of Anderson's refusal (of
which there is little doubt), the fire of the batteries on him will open at 8
to-night. God grant the Fort may be surrendered before the arrival of the
Fleet, for although I believe General Beauregard is prepared on every side, yet
I should feel all danger were over if we had the Fort. It will be a night of
intense excitement and although I can't help feeling shivery and
nervous, yet I am not as much alarmed as I might be, and something tells me it
won't be so bad after all I am going down after a while to walk with Mrs.
Chesnut on the Battery and will add more when I hear the answer Anderson
returns.
SOURCE: Louise Wigfall Wright, A Southern Girl in
’61, p. 37-8
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