Showing posts with label Fort Pickens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Pickens. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 11, 2023

John Tyler to Wyndham Robertson, January 26, 1861

BROWN'S HOTEL, WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 1861.

MY DEAR SIR: Your letter was duly received, and I thank you for the enclosure. We will talk it over at another time. I have not found it necessary to call in the aid of New Jersey. I resolved to await the results of my first interview with the President before I did so, and that satisfied me that it could all be arranged without the intervention of a third party, and after a manner the most acceptable to me, as it implied a high compliment to the Legislature. He will on Monday send in a special message, communicating to Congress the resolutions, making them the basis of an emphatic recommendation for abstaining from the passage of any measure of a hostile character by that body. The inference, of course, is plain, that what he recommends Congress to do he will do himself. His policy obviously is to throw all responsibility off of his shoulders.

I shall consider myself at full liberty to return home after the message goes in, unless dispatches from the Judge, or something transpiring here, shall require a prolongation of my stay. If the weather is mild I may reach Richmond by the Monday night train.

The sailing of the Brooklyn startled me much, but the President assures me that the orders for her sailing were dispatched before I reached here,—that she is not destined for Charleston, but goes on an errand of mercy and relief. She certainly has troops on board, and I doubt not is designed for Pensacola, the troops for Fort Pickens. Mr. Clay, of Alabama, thinks that there will be no collision until after the 10th February, when the cotton States meet in convention at Montgomery.

I write in haste, but am always most truly your friend,

JOHN TYLER.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p. 590-1

Monday, April 10, 2023

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 17, 1861

Mr. Reuter sends me a telegram from Queenstown of the American news. 1. The conference invited by Virginia met on the 4th, and re-assembled with closed doors on the 5th at Washington. 2. Slidell and Benjamin have withdrawn. 3. A truce between Lieutenant Slemmer and State forces at Pensacola Navy-Yard, followed by surrender to latter. 4. North Carolina resolves unanimously to go with the other slave States if adjustment fail. 5. United States revenue cutter Lewis Cass treacherously surrendered to Alabama. 6. Fifty thousand people starving in Kansas. 7. Secession of Texas definitive. 8. The President has refused to surrender Fort Sumter on Colonel Hayne's demand; an attack expected. 9. Attempt on Fort Pickens abandoned. No blood yet spilt.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 436

Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Adjutant-General George Deas to Brigadier-General Braxton Bragg, March 7, 1861

WAR DEPARTMENT, Montgomery, March 7, 1861. 
Brig. Gen. BRAXTON BRAGG,
    Provisional Army, C. S. A., Comdg. Troops near Pensacola, Fla.:

SIR: By the inclosed order you will perceive that you have been signed to the command of the troops at and near Pensacola, Fla. It is of the greatest importance that the Government here should be accurately informed of the state of affairs in that quarter. The Secretary of War, therefore, desires that you will as soon as possible forward to this office a comprehensive report of whatever may come under your observation, especially in regard to affairs immediately connected with Fort Pickens. You will also be pleased to make reports to this Department as often as it may be convenient for you to do so. Very little information in respect to the nature of the service and its requirements at the station to which you have been assigned to command has reached this Government. The Department is anxious to know accurately the condition of things there and the necessities of the service, so that it can act with full intelligence, which is so much wanting at present. A return of your command is required.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

GEO. DEAS,    
Acting Adjutant-General. 

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. 448; Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy, p. 3

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Resolution in Relation to the Occupation of Forts Sumter and Pickens, February 15, 1861

Resolved by the Confederate States of America in Congress assembled, That it is the sense of this Congress that immediate steps should be taken to obtain possession of Forts Sumter and Pickens, by the authority of this Government, either by negotiations or force, as early as practicable, and that the President is hereby authorized to make all necessary military preparations for carrying this resolution into effect.*

Passed February 15, 1861.
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* Communicated to Governor of South Carolina under date of February 22, but letter of transmittal not found.  See Governor Pickens’ Letter of February 27, 1861, p. 258

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. 258; Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy, p. 29

Resolution of the Confederate Congress, February 22, 1861

CONGRESS, February 22, 1861.

Mr. Bartow, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported the following resolution, which was adopted, viz:

Resolved, That the President of the Confederate States be requested to communicate, in such manner as he may deem expedient, to the governors of South Carolina and Florida the resolution of Congress concerning Forts Sumter and Pickens.

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SEE: Resolution in Relation to the Occupation of Forts Sumter and Pickens, February 15, 1861

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. 258; Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy, p. 29

Jefferson Davis to Governor Madison S. Perry, February 22, 1861

EXECUTIVE OFFICE,    
Montgomery, Ala., February 22, 1861.
His Excellency Governor PERRY
:

SIR: The subjoined resolution was passed by Congress, in secret session, and the injunction of secrecy, you will perceive, has been removed only so far as to authorize me to communicate in the manner deemed expedient, and I must, therefore, ask that you consider it as confidentially done.* The resolution suggests two methods by which possession of the forts may be had. It was not intended, however, that the progress of the one should retard or affect the preparations for the other; while, therefore, steps are being taken for negotiation, earnest efforts have been made to procure men of military science and experience, and to seek for munitions and machinery suitable to remedy the supposed or known deficiencies in the existing supplies. Congress, probably, did not design to interfere with the progress of Constructions which had been commenced by State authority, the instruction of troops or other preparation, which will be useful in further operations, and I hope you will continue thus to prepare for whatever exigency may arise. As soon as a skillful engineer is available he will be sent to make an examination of the fort within your State and to aid in the works needful to the execution of the resolution of Congress, should force be the means to which we must resort.



Very respectfully and truly, yours,
JEFF'N DAVIS.
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* See resolution approved February 22, 1861, in Fort Sumter correspondence, p. 258.

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. 447; Don Carlos Seitz, Braxton Bragg, General of the Confederacy, p. 29-30

Sunday, October 25, 2020

Jonathan Worth to the People of Randolph County, North Carolina, May 1861

 RALEigh, May, 1861.

You know how earnestly I have labored to preserve the Union. I still regard it as the “paladium of our liberty.” I have no hope that so good a government will be built upon its ruins. I advised you last February to vote against a Convention, regarding it as a contrivance to overthrow the Government. There was then a majority in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas in favor of preserving the Union. I felt sure if a reconsideration could not be effected, war must ensue—and if war was commenced by either party, it would engender hatred between the sections and greatly widen the breach. I have always believed and still believe that the doctrine of secession, as a peaceful and constitutional mode of withdrawing a State from the Union, an absurdity; and that it was the right and the duty of the Federal Government, to execute the laws and protect the public property by military force in such seceding States; but after seven States had been allowed without molestation, to assert this doctrine of secession and set up and put in operation a new government—after all the Federal officers within their limits had resigned and they had possessed themselves without resistance of all the forts, excepting Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens, on the mainland in seven States, I deemed it highly inexpedient for the Government to attempt coercion by military force: because,

First—it would result in a bloody civil war—and could not end in a restoration of friendly union.

Secondly—because I thought Congress had indicated, by refusing to pass a force bill, that it was inexpedient at that time, to use military power to retain or regain the public property, through the agency of a Sectional President, which indication I supposed the President, as the power appointed to execute the Legislative will, would observe.

Thirdly—I supposed that President, though he had obtained power by the advocacy of Sectional doctrines, tending to dissolve the Union, still desired to preserve the Union; and any man of ordinary common sense knew that any attempt on the part of a president elected by one section, to compel by force of arms, the other section which had been allowed quietly to accomplish revolution and establish a government, would be resisted—and all the men in the same States, still adhering to the Union, would be rendered impotent to resist the current of Revolution.

The President must have known that all of us in the Slave States, who in spite of the unfriendly action of the North, had barely become able to stand up for the Union would be crushed by the first gun he fired against the South. I believed he still desired to protect our rights and preserve the Union, and that he had some sympathy with those of us who had breasted the current of Disunion, and that he would not voluntarily drive us out of the Union—though the President had been elected as a partisan, upon one Sectional idea, I hoped and believed, when he and his party had attained control of the government, that he was enough of a statesman and a patriot to exert his powers to protect our rights and preserve the Union. Clay and Jackson and all the statesmen of the land, when South Carolina first asserted the Doctrine of Nullification and Secession, held that extraordinary Legislation was necessary to enable the executive to suppress the rebellion. The last Congress had refused the extraordinary legislation—the legislative will was therefore clearly expressed, that there should be no attempt at military coercion, and for some weeks after the inauguration of Lincoln, his administration allowed it to be understood that they intended to act in conformity to the will of Congress and evacuate Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens—and thus allowing excited passions to subside, leave to the next Congress to determine what was to be done. But suddenly and without explanation, a fleet is fitted by the President and notice given to the Southern Confederacy that Fort Sumter would be provided for peaceably or forcibly. Men of war were sent to Charleston Harbor—then Fort Sumter was attacked and taken. The first guns were fired by the Southern army, but this was after they had notice from the President that he intended to retain possession of the Fort by force.

[The remainder is missing, but the substance of it was an appeal to the people to unite in defense of the South.]

SOURCE: J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Editor, The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth, Volume 1, p. 135-7