The daily Evansville journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1862-1863, 1862-10-29
{ Communicated to the Editors for Pub
ticdtiOn.)
SOUTHERN FoRTs-A SUMMARY,

October 80, | emphatically called the
attention of the President to the necessi-
ty of strong garrisons in all the forts be-
low the principal commercial cities of
the Southern States, including, by name,
the forts in Pensacola harbor. October
81, l suggested to the Secretary of War
that circular should be sent at once
to such of those forts as had garrisons to
be on the alert against surprises and sud-
den assaults.-( See my F." Views," since
printed
After long confinement to my bed in
New York, came to this city wash
ington) December IL Next day per-
sonslly urged upon the Secretary of War
the same views, viz: strong garrisons in
the Southern forts-those of Charleston
and Pensacola harbors, at once; those
on Mobile Bay and the Mississippi, be-
low New Orleans, next, &c, &c l again
pointed out the organized companies and
the recruits at the principal depots avail
able for the purpose. The Secretary did
not concur in any of my views, when |
begged him to procure for me an early
interview with the President, that might
make one effort more to save the forts
and the Union.
By appointment the Secretary accom-
panied me to the President, December
Is, when the same topics, secessionism,
&C., were again pretty fully discussed.
There being at the moment in the opin-
ion of the PRESIDENT no danger of an
early secession, beyond South Carolina,
the President, in reply to my arguments
for Immediately reinforcing Fort Moul-
trie and sending a garrison to Fort Sum-
ter, said:
"The time has not arrived for doing
so; that he should wait the action of the
Convention of South Carolina, in the ex-
pectation that commission would be
appointed and sent to negotiate with him
and Congress respecting the secession of
the State and the property of the United
States held within its limits; and that if
Congress should decide against the Sc
cession, then he would send reinforce
meut and telegraph the commanding
officer major Anderson) of Fort Moul-
trie to hold the forts (Moultrie and Sum-
teri against attack"
And the Secretary, with animation,
added:
ave have vessel of war (the Brook
lyn) held in readiness at Norfolk, and he
would then send three hundred men in
her from Fort Monroe to Charleston"
To which replied, first, that so many
men could not be withdrawn from that
garrison, but could be taken from New
York Next, that it would then be too
late, as the South Carolina Commission
ers would have the game in their hands,
by first using and then cutting the wires /;
that as there was not soldier in Fort
Sumter, any handful of armed seces-
sionists might seize and occupy it, &c.
Here the remark may be permitted,
that ifthe Secretary's three hundred men
had then, or some time later, been sent
to Forts Moultrie and Sumter, both
would now have been in the possession
of the United States, and not a battery be-
low them could have been erected by
the secessionists; consequently the ac-
cess to those forts from the sea would
now (the end of March, be unobstructed
and free.*
" a" The plan invented by Gen. Scott TO Stop Sc
cession was, like all campaigns devised by him,
very able in its details, and nearly certain Of gen
eral sucsess. The southern States fall Of
arsenals and forts, commanding their rivers and
stragetic points. General Scott desired to transfer