Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/18

6 Charleston, the metropolis and seaport, for a time absorbed the interest of the whole State, for it was every where felt that the issue of secession, so far as war with the government of the United States was concerned, must be determined in her harbor. The three forts which had been erected by the government for the defense of the harbor, Moultrie, Castle Pinckney and Sumter, were built upon land ceded by the State for that purpose, and with the arsenal and grounds in Charleston, constituted the property of the United States.

The secession of South Carolina having dissolved her connection with the government of the United States, the question of the possession of the forts in the harbor and of the military post at the arsenal became at once a question of vital interest to the State. Able commissioners, Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams and James L. Orr, were elected and sent by the convention of the State to treat with the government at Washington for an amicable settlement of this important question, and other questions growing out of the new relation which South Carolina bore to the Union. Pending the action of the commissioners in Washington, an unfortunate move was made by Maj. Robert Anderson, of the United States army, who commanded the only body of troops stationed in the harbor, which ultimately compelled the return of the commissioners and led to the most serious complications. An understanding had been established between the authorities in Washington and the members of Congress from South Carolina, that the forts would not be attacked, or seized as an act of war, until proper negotiations for their cession to the State had been made and had failed; provided that they were not reinforced, and their military status should remain as it was at the time of this understanding, viz., on December 9, 1860.

Fort Sumter, in the very mouth of the harbor, was in an unfinished state and without a garrison. On the night of the 26th of December, 1860, Maj. Robert Ander-