Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/214

200 Woods reluctantly ordered the ship about, and made his way out of the harbor. Captain McGowan, who commanded the Star of the West, was specially mentioned by Lieutenant Woods for his efforts "to put the troops in Fort Sumter." This attempt at armed reinforcement occurred on the 9th of January, and is mentioned in connection with the strategy of Major Anderson as another event occurring thus early in the "inauguration of war." Its special significance appears in the light of the principle already agreed on between the State of South Carolina and Buchanan's administration, that reinforcement of Fort Sumter in this manner had at least a hostile bearing, equivalent, as South Carolina understood it, to an act of war.

The United States government at this date actively reinforced Forts Pickens, Taylor, Key West and Jefferson, and ordered the withdrawal of several war vessels from foreign stations for the purpose of increasing the home squadron, to be distributed along the Southern coasts.

The United States naval force available for aggression was inefficient, but such as could be employed were actively threatening the Southern ports. The activity of the Buchanan administration, notwithstanding the vacillation of the President, was sufficient to withhold from the Southern seceded States many valuable positions, among which may be named the forts on the coasts of Florida, as well as Fort Pickens and Fort Sumter. The Confederate government when formed in February, at Montgomery, found its territory occupied with hostile forces at important points on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and the future action of the States on its northern and western borders still a painful uncertainty. The conditions at that time were already warlike.

Before further relating the military events of the Confederate war, a view should be taken of the relative sit-