Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/419



HE "state of war" which had practically existed at least from the date of the approval by the United States of Anderson's destruction of property in Fort Moultrie and his tragic concentration in Fort Sumter, was now advanced to, and assumed the condition of, actual hostilities. The quasi truce suggested through the mediation of Justices Campbell and Nelson which had been faithfully kept by South Carolina and the Confederate government, was broken by the Federal administration, through preparations continuously made to invade the harbor of Charleston. Precisely when active hostilities between the States began has not been clearly determined, but war was flagrant even before the arrival of the Federal ships to reinforce Fort Sumter, and was especially manifested by the venture of the Star of the West to land troops with arms and ammunition. The old custom of nations to issue formal "declarations of war" had gone into disuse. (Scott's Mil. Dict., 1861, title "War.") Public war is now manifested by the hostile acts and declarations of one Government against another. South Carolina was a government de facto if not de jure on the 20th of December, 1860. The act of Maj. Anderson in destroying the armament of Moultrie and concentrating at Sumter was avowedly a