Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in 1860-'61

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CHAPTER I.

FORT MOULTRIE IN 1860.

The Garrison of Fort Moultrie.--Early Indications of
Secession.--Situation of the Fort.--Edmund Ruffin and Robert
Barnwell Rhett.--The Secretary of War.--Arms sent to the
South.--Colonel Gardner.--Captain Foster ordered to Charleston
Harbor.--The Officers at Fort Moultrie.--Communications with
Northern Men by Cipher.--Proscription of Antislavery Men in
Charleston.--Position of Charleston Merchants.--The Secession
Leaders only prepared to resist Coercion.--The Mob proves
unmanageable.--General Scott's Letter to the President, October
29.--The Situation in November.--No Instructions from
Washington.--Colonel Gardner's Report to General Wool.


The summer of 1860 found me stationed at the head-quarters of the First
United States Artillery at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. I was captain
of Company E, and second in command to Brevet Colonel John L. Gardner,
who was lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. The regimental band and
Captain Truman Seymour's company (H) also formed part of the garrison.
The other forts were unoccupied, except by the ordnance-sergeants in
charge.