Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 5.djvu/41



HROUGHOUT the summer of 1861, in Charleston and along the coast of South Carolina, all was activity in the work of preparation and defense. On August 2ist, Brig. -Gen. R. S. Ripley, whose promotion to that rank had been applauded by the soldiers and citizens of the State, was assigned to the * department of South Carolina and the coast defenses of that State.&quot; On assuming command, General Ripley found the governor and people fully alive to the seriousness of the situation, and everything being done which the limited resources of the State permitted, to erect fortifications and batteries on the coast, and to arm and equip troops for State and Confederate service.

Governor Pickens wrote to the secretary of war at Richmond about the time of the Federal expedition to North Carolina, and the capture of the batteries at Hatteras inlet, urgently requesting that Gregg’s First regiment might be sent him from Virginia, as he expected an attack to be made at some point on the coast. In this letter he begged that 40,000 pounds of cannon powder be forwarded from Norfolk at once. The governor had bought in December, 1860, and January, 1861, 300,000 pounds from Hazard s mills in Connecticut, for the use of the State, but he had loaned 25,000 pounds to the gov ernor of North Carolina, 5,000 pounds to the governor of