Major Robert Anderson to Governor Francis W. Pickens, January 9, 1861

Headquarters, Fort Sumter, S. C,

January 9, 1861.

To His Excellency F. W. Pickens,

Governor of the State of South Carolina.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of to-day, and to say that, under the circumstances, I have deemed it proper to refer the whole matter to my Government and that I intend deferring the course indicated in my note of this morning, until the arrival from Washington of the instructions I may receive. I have the honor, also, to express a hope that no obstructions will be placed in the way of, and that you will do me the favor to afford every facility to, the departure and return of the bearer, Lieutenant T. Talbot, United States Army, who has been directed to make the journey.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

Robert Anderson,

Major U. S. A., commanding."

SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 190-1