Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg to 1st Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, March 13, 1861

HEADQUARTERS TROOPS OF CONFEDERATE STATES,     

Near Pensacola, Fla., March 13, 1861. 

Lieut. ADAM J. SLEMMER, Commanding Fort Pickens:

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge your communication ofthis date with its inclosures. In announcing to you my intention to conform strictly to the spirit of the agreement entered into by Colonel Chase, I beg to suggest to you that the erection of a battery on Santa Rosa Island bearing directly on our navy-yard is, in my view, directly in conflict with the spirit of the agreement. The erection of the works on this side bearing on the channel cannot, I conceive be taken as a menace against Fort Pickens, and the act seems to me fully justified as a means of defense, and especially so under the threats of the new administration.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

BRAXTON BRAGG,     

Brigadier-General, Commanding.

SOURCE: 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. 362