Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1862-10-30
Communicated to the Editors FOR pub
Iicati0n.
SOUTHERN roRTs-A SUMMARY, &c.

SOUTHERN FoRTs-A SUMMARY, &c.
October 80, 1860 | emphatically called the
attention of tue President to the necessity OF
strong garrsons in all the forts below the
principal commercial cities of the southern
States, including, by name. the forts in PEN
sacoa harbor. October 81, suggested to
the Secretary of War that circular should
be sent at once to such of those forts as had
garrisons to he on the alert against surprises
and sudden assaults,-,See my "Views," since
printed.
After a long confinement to my bed in New
York, l came TO This city Washington De-
cember IL. Next day | personally urged
upon the Secretary of War the same views,
viz: strong garrsons in the southern forts -
those of Charleston and Pensacola harbors, at
once those on Mobile Bay and the Misss-
sippi, below New Orleans, next, &C., &c. /
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 tho forts and the Union.
BY appointment, the Secretary accompa-
MED me to the President. December Is, when
the same topics, secessionism, &c., were again
pretty fully discussed. There Icing at the
moment lin the opinion Of the Presi,lent) no
danger Of an early secession, beyond South
Carolina, the President in reply to my argu-
men:s for Immediately reinforcing Fort Moul-
trie and sending a garrison to Fort Sumter
said:
"The time has not arrived for doing 80
that he should await the action of the con-
vention of South Carolina, In the expectation
that q commission would be appointed and
sent to negotiate with him and Congress re-
specting the secession Of the State and the
property of the United States held within its
limits; and that if Congress should decide
against the secession, then he would send a
reinforcement, and telegraph the command
ing officer Major Anderson) of Fort Moul-
tre to hold tho forts (Moultre and Sumter)
against attack"
And the Secretary, with animation, added
We have vessel of war (the Brooklyn)
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could not be withdrawn from that garrison,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 1t would then be too late, as the South
Carolina. commissioners would have the game
in their own hands, by first using and then
cutting the wires; that as there was not
soldier in Fort Sumter, any handful Of armed
secessionists might seize and occupy it, &c.
Here the remark may be permitted, that if
the Secretarys three hundred men had then,
or some time later, been sent to Forts Moul-
trie and Sumter, both would now have been
in the possession Of the United States. and
not a battery below them could have been
erected by the secessionists; consequently the
access to those forts from the sea would now
1.-THE end of March) he unobstructed and freeo
The same day, December Is, wrote the
following note
"Lieut. Gen. Scott begs the President to
pardon him for supplying, in this note, what
he omitted to say this morning at the inter
view with which he was honored by the Pres
ijent.
"Long prior to the force biu, March 2,
1881 prior to the issue of his proclamation,
aud in part prior to the passage of the ordi-
nance Of notification, President Jackson, I'M
der the act of March 5, 1907, authorizing the
employment of the land and naval forces,
caused reinforcements to be sent to Fort
Moultrie, and sloop-of-war, 1.-THE Natchez,)