FORT MOULTRIE, S.C.,
Friday, December 14, 1860.
Col. S. COOPER, Adjutant-General U. S. Army:
DEAR COLONEL: I inclose herewith a slip from the Charleston Mercury of 13th instant, mentioning from Washington correspondent Major Bell’s [Buell’s] mission to this place.
I told the major that it was likely they would get an inkling of it. I merely send this to show you the almost impossibility of keeping anything secret. Nothing here worthy of an “official”—a calm before the storm. Many think no attack will be made on me until after they are in position in Fort Sumter, and that they will drive me out with her guns. It is all conjecture. I shall, of course, prepare here for the worst.
All well and in fine spirits.
Yours, truly,
ROBERT ANDERSON.
[Inclosure.]
FROM WASHINGTON.
WASHINGTON, December 10.
Mr. EDITOR: A Caucus was held here a few nights since of Senators and Representatives from the cotton States. It numbered about twenty-six, and represented the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, and upon the question of the necessity of the immediate secession of South Carolina there was not a dissenting voice.
Major Bell [Buell] and several other officers of the Army have been sent to Fort Moultrie to look after the forts and keep a sharp lookout upon them. They were sent for no good to us. See that they make no change in the distribution of soldiers, so as to put them all in Fort Sumter. That would be dangerous to us.
Yours,
CHARLES.