WASHINGTON, January 29,
1861.
To JAMES GLYNN, commanding the Macedonian; Capt. W. S.
WALKER, commanding the Brooklyn, and other naval officers in command; and
Lieut. ADAM J. SLEMMER, First Regiment Artillery, U. S. Army, commanding Fort
Pickens, Pensacola, Fla.:
In consequence of the assurances received from Mr. Mallory
in a telegram of yesterday to Messrs. Slidell, Hunter, and Bigler, with a
request it should be laid before the President, that Fort Pickens would not be
assaulted, and an offer of such an assurance to the same effect from Colonel Chase,
for the purpose of avoiding a hostile collision, upon receiving satisfactory
assurances from Mr. Mallory and Colonel Chase that Fort Pickens will not be
attacked, you are instructed not to land the company on board the Brooklyn
unless said fort shall be attacked or preparations shall be made for its
attack. The provisions necessary for the supply of the fort you will land. The
Brooklyn and other vessels of war on the station will remain, and you will
exercise the utmost vigilance and be prepared at a moment's warning to land the
company at Fort Pickens, and you and they will instantly repel an attack on the
fort. The President yesterday sent a special message to Congress commending the
Virginia resolutions of compromise. The commissioners of different States are
to meet here on Monday, the 4th February, and it is important that during their
session a collision of arms should be avoided, unless an attack should be made
or there should be preparation for such an attack. In either event the Brooklyn
and the other vessels will act promptly.
Your right, and that of the other officers in command at
Pensacola, freely to communicate with the Government by special messenger, and
its right in the same manner to communicate with yourself and them, will remain
intact as the basis on which the present instruction is given.
J. HOLT,
Secretary of War.
ISAAC TOUCEY,
Secretary of the
Navy.
SOURCES: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
1 (Serial No. 1), p. 355-6; Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the
Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861, p. 401-2
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