Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/423

Rh "that the failure to evacuate Fort Sumter was not the result of bad faith, but was attributable to causes consistent with the intention to fulfill the engagement.&quot; On the same day, Captain Fox arrived at Charleston, and calling on Governor Pickens obtained from him a passport to Sumter, expressly upon the pledge of &quot; pacific purposes, &quot;and going at once, arrived at the fort late at night. Here he held a confidential interview with Maj. Anderson, and on the 226. left for Washington. Mr. Ward H. Lamon came two days afterward and by the same courtesy and confidence which had been extended to Captain Fox was escorted to Fort Sumter by Colonel Duryea, a member of the staff of Governor Pickens, and after delivering special dispatches from President Lincoln, and having an interview with Anderson, returned to Charleston. General Beauregard having heard a rumor that he would require of Maj. Anderson a formal surrender, hastened on the 26th, as he states in a communication to him, to say that ** having been in formed that Mr. Lamon, the authorized agent of the President of the United States, advised Governor Pickens, after his interview with you at Fort Sumter that your command would be transferred to another post in a few days, and understanding that you are under the impression I intended under all circumstances to require of you a formal surrender or capitulation, I hasten to disabuse you, and to inform you that our countries not being at war and wishing so far as lies in my power to avoid the latter calamity, no such condition will be exacted of you, unless brought about as the natural result of hostilities. &quot; During this chronological tracing of events that concerned the peaceful evacuation of Fort Sumter, the reports of Maj. Anderson and Captain Foster show a state of inactivity on the part of the Confederates. Such expressions as, &quot; Their works seem to be at a stand still,&quot; and "All operations looking to an attack on this fort have ceased,&quot; &quot; There seems to be a general lack of