fort Sumter, S. C., April 4, 1861.
(Received A. G. O.,
April 6.)
Col. L. Thomas,
Adjutant-General U. S. Army:
Colonel: I have the honor to send herewith a report
of the circumstances attending a firing yesterday afternoon by the batteries on
Morris Island at a schooner bearing our flag, bound from Boston to Savannah,
which, erroneously mistaking the lighthouse off this harbor for that of Tybee,
and having failed to get a pilot, was entering the harbor.
The remarks made to me by Colonel Lamon, taken in connection
with the tenor of newspaper articles, have induced me, as stated in previous
communications, to believe that orders would soon be issued for my abandoning
this work. When the firing commenced some of my heaviest guns were concealed
from their view by planking, and by the time the battery was ready the firing
had ceased. I then, acting in strict accordance with the spirit and wording of
the orders of the War Department, as communicated to me in the letter from the
Secretary of War dated February 23, 1861, determined not to commence firing
until I had sent to the vessel and investigated the circumstances.
The accompanying report presents them. Invested by a force
so superior that a collision would, in all probability, terminate in the
destruction of our force before relief could reach us, with only a few days’
provisions on hand, and with a scanty supply of ammunition, as will be seen by
a reference to my letter of February 27, in hourly expectation of receiving
definite instructions from the War Department, and with orders so explicit and
peremptory as those I am acting under, I deeply regret that I did not feel
myself at liberty to resent the insult thus offered to the flag of my beloved
country.
I think that proper notification should be given to our
merchant vessels of the rigid instructions under which the commanders of these
batteries are acting; that they should be notified that they must, as soon as a
shot is fired ahead of them, at once round to and communicate with the
batteries.
The authorities here are certainly blamable for not having
constantly vessels off to communicate instructions to those seeking entrance
into this harbor.
Captain Talbot is relieved, of course, by order No. 7, from
duty at this post. I avail myself of this opportunity of stating that he has
been zealous, intelligent, and active in the discharge of all his duties here,
so far as his health permitted him to attempt their performance. I send him on
with these despatches, to give the Department an opportunity, if deemed proper,
to modify, in consequence of this unfortunate affair, any order they may have
sent to me. I will delay obedience thereto until I have time to receive a
telegram after Captain Talbot's having reported to the War Department.
I am Colonel, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
Robert Anderson,
Major, First
Artillery, Commanding.
_______________
[Inclosure.]
SOURCES: Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 378-9
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