Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/24

12 act of coercion are &quot;too plainly a duty,&quot; said Governor Pickens, &quot;to allow it to be discussed.&quot;

To the governor s letter Major Anderson replied, that he would refer the whole matter to the government at Washington, and defer his purpose to fire upon vessels in the harbor until he could receive his instructions in reply. Thus a truce was secured, and meanwhile active preparations for war were made daily by Major Anderson in Fort Sumter and by Governor Pickens on the islands surrounding it. War seemed inevitable, and the whole State, as one man, was firmly resolved to meet it.

The legislature had passed a bill on December 17th providing for the organization of ten regiments for the defense of the State, and the convention had ordered the formation of a regiment for six months service, to be embodied at once, the governor to appoint the field officers. This last was &quot;Gregg’s First regiment,&quot; which was organized in January, 1861, and on duty on Sullivan’s and Morris islands by the 1st of February following. The governor appointed Maxcy Gregg, of Columbia, colonel; Col. A. H. Gladden, who had been an officer of the Palmetto regiment in the Mexican war, lieutenant-colonel; and D. H. Hamilton, the late marshal of the United States court in South Carolina, major. On March 6, 1861, the adjutant-general of the State reported to Gen. M. L. Bonham, whom the governor had commissioned major-general, to command the division formed under the act of December 17, 1860, that he had received into the service of the State 104 companies, under the said act of the legislature, aggregating an effective force of 8,836 men and officers; that these companies had been formed into ten regiments and the regiments into four brigades. These regiments were mustered for twelve months service, were numbered respectively from 1 to 10, inclusive, and commanded by Cols. Johnson Hagood, J. B. Kershaw, J. H. Williams, J. B. E. Sloan, M. Jenkins,