Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/25

Rh J. H. Rion, T. G. Bacon, E. B. Cash, J. D. Blanding, and A. M. Manigault.

The brigadier-generals appointed by the governor under the act above referred to, were R. G. M. Dunovant and P. H. Nelson. By an act of the legislature, January 28, 1861, the governor was authorized to raise a battalion of artillery and a regiment of infantry, both to be formed and enlisted in the service of the State as regulars, and to form the basis of the regular army of South Carolina. The governor appointed, under the act, R. S. Ripley, lieutenant-colonel in command of the artillery battalion, and Richard Anderson, colonel of the infantry regiment. The artillery battalion was afterward increased to a regiment, and the regiment of infantry converted, practically, into a regiment of artillery. Both regiments served in the forts and batteries of the harbor throughout the war, with the greatest distinction, as will afterward appear. These troops, with the Fourth brigade, South Carolina militia, were under the orders of the government and were practically investing Fort Sumter.

The States of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas, having left the Union during the month of January, and the Confederate government having been organized early in February, at Montgomery, President Davis, on the 1st of March, ordered Brigadier-General Beauregard to Charleston to report for duty to Governor Pickens. Thenceforward this distinguished soldier became the presiding genius of military operations in and around Charleston.

Repeated demands having been made upon Major Anderson, and upon the President, for the relinquishment of Fort Sumter, and these demands having been refused and the government at Washington having concluded to supply and reinforce the fort by force of arms, it was determined to summon Major Anderson to evacuate the fort, for the last time. Accordingly, on April nth, General Beauregard sent him the following communication: