Fort Sumter, S. C,
March 6, 1861.
General: I
have the honor to report that during the day, and especially towards night,
unusual activity was observed among the South Carolinians around us; several
steamer loads of men were landed on Cummings Point. The number was greater than
the arrangements for shelter, apparently, for I observe quite a large number
grouped about their bivouac fires this morning. Their suffering must have been
considerable during the night, for the weather suddenly changed from the warm
temperature of the preceding days to a high degree of cold, for this climate,
the wind blowing fresh from the north.
I learn that portable hot shot furnaces have been furnished
to several, and probably all, of the batteries. The mortar battery on James
Island, south of Fort Johnson, is armed, but the number of mortars is not
ascertained. The magazine in the flank of this battery is also finished. The
mortar battery on Sullivan's Island, west of Fort Moultrie, is also armed. All
the batteries on Morris Island are armed. The guns range from 32pounders down,
with the exception of the iron bomb-proof, which is (I think, from all reports
and observations) armed with 8-inch Columbiads — three of them.
The raft does not meet expectations. It is being covered
with railroad strap iron instead of the T rail. This has a crosssection of
about three-fourths or one inch by two inches or two and a half inches.
They are now ironing the top portion, the front not being
yet commenced. Two 8-inch Columbiads are lying on the wharf ready to be put on
board. I do not think this floating battery will prove very formidable.
We have not yet received the inaugural address of President Lincoln,
although it is reported from town that it is coercive in its character, and that
much excitement prevails.
Very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
J. G. Foster,
Captain Engineers.
General Jos. G. Totten,
Chief Engineer U. S. Army, Washington, D. C.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 280-1
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