Fort Sumter, S. C, March 31, 1861.
General Jos. G. Totten,
Chief Engineer United States Army, Washington, D. C.:
General: Yesterday
the members of the State Convention visited the batteries on Morris Island and
Fort Moultrie, and from both places extensive firing took place in honor of the
event. This gave me an opportunity of observing what batteries have been
increased in strength since my last report on this subject.
The following is
the present armament, very nearly, viz.:
Battery No. 1. — Four
guns. Embrasures closed by sandbags. Not fired yesterday.
Mortar battery
between Nos. 1 and 2. — Three mortars. Fired yesterday. These have practiced
much lately, to obtain the range and length of fuse for this fort.
Battery No. 2,
iron-clad. — Three heavy guns. Two of them fired yesterday.
Battery No. 3. — Three
guns. Embrasures closed with sandbags. Did not fire.
Mortar battery
between Nos. 3 and 4. — Two mortars. Fired yesterday.
Battery No. 4. — Three
guns. Two fired.
Battery No. 5. — Four
heavy guns, one Columbiad or 8-inch seacoast howitzer. Two fired yesterday. I
think there are six guns in this battery, although only four have been seen to
fire.
Star of the West battery. — Four heavy guns, one of them an 8-inch Columbiad or 8-inch
seacoast howitzer. All fired yesterday.
Battery No. 7. — These
guns are not all in the same battery, but are distributed along the beach
apparently in three batteries. Eleven guns fired yesterday. All were very heavy
guns except two, which I think were field-pieces in a sort of second tier.
Above these
batteries, on the sand-hills, is a line of intrenchments surrounding a house,
and also several tents. The fieldpieces are apparently capable of being used to
defend the flanks of this intrenchment, and to fire on the channel. Their rear
is covered, each with a traverse.
It was evident in
this firing that not all the guns in position were fired.
At Fort Moultrie
the firing exhibited the same complete armament as last reported.
The provisions that
I laid in for my force having become exhausted, and the supplies of the command
being too limited to spare me any more, I am obliged to discharge nearly all my
men to-day. I retain only enough to man a boat.
I have the honor to
be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. G. Foster,
Captain Engineers.
SOURCE: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 302-4
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