“I inclose herewith a correspondence between the South Carolina officials and myself in reference to some points to which attention was called some time since.”
FORT SUMTER, S.C., March 26, 1861.
(Received A. G. O., March 29.)
Col. L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army:
COLONEL: I have the honor to report that quite a large party is busy this morning on what is probably a bomb-proof in rear of the large work near Fort Johnson. They have extended and heightened several of the works on Morris Island, particularly No. 1 of Captain Seymour’s sketches.
We are constructing splinter-proofs on the parade, and closing the opening in the gorge wall. I have the honor to mention that Mr. Lamon, from Washington City, visited me yesterday.
I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.
P. S.–I inclose herewith a correspondence between the South Carolina officials and myself in reference to some points to which attention was called some time since. Expecting a reply to my last communication, I have delayed sending these letters off, but now do so, as no rejoinder will probably be made.
Respectfully,
R. A.
[Inclosure No. 1.]
FORT SUMTER, S.C., March 13, 1861.
His Excellency Gov. F. W. PICKENS:
SIR: I have the honor herewith respectfully to inclose, for the consideration of your excellency, a note received yesterday by the clerk of Captain Foster from the beef contractor, which appears to show an interference with your excellency’s orders.
I am confident in the event of your excellency having made any change in your instructions in reference to my supplies I would have been promptly notified thereof. A similar interference may have prevented my receiving some boxes of solidified milk, which have been several days in the city to my address and which cannot have been detained on account of freight, as it was prepaid. This certainly would not, in the eyes of the transportation agent, come under the head of contraband of war or prohibited articles. It may be as well for me to mention here a few points which have not received that attention to which I think they are entitled.
About six weeks ago I sent, under cover to Col. L. M. Hatch, quartermaster-general, a note from Sergeant Renehan, of this command, to his brother-in-law, asking him to send from Fort Moultrie his private property, which was already packed up, and I respectfully asked Colonel Hatch if he would be pleased to give it his attention. No reply has been received to my communication, nor have the articles been sent.
About a month since instructions were given by the honorable Secretary of War that Captain Foster’s private property on Sullivan’s Island, as well as some public papers in the office in Charleston, should be sent down. Neither the property nor the papers have yet been received here.
Early in January I sent some officers to Fort Moultrie for certain private property left there. They were received in so different a manner from the civility and courtesy that characterized the manner of Colonel De Saussure that I have not ventured to make another attempt to obtain possession of it, and I am thus cut off from regimental books (not public property) and office papers, valuable to us, and merely interesting to others.
Some of the officers of this command have been put to considerable inconvenience and discomfort by the detention in the city of their hired servant, who left the post with a permit from the honorable Secretary of War. His detention after the discovery that the correspondence, at first characterized as a “very improper one,” proved to be “nothing more than what might have been expected between any silly persons in their situations,” is unwarranted. I attached no importance to this matter from the first, and so remarked to a gentleman who came down to see me in reference to it. No one, not even an owner of a slave, would have a right, under such circumstances, to prevent his return, and it was undoubtedly called for in this case by common civility and courtesy as the officers have no opportunity of replacing him.
In regard to packages arriving from time to time, through the express or otherwise, if it is necessary to trouble your excellency for special permits whenever articles of such mirror importance as condiments, &c., are to be sent down to us, it is questionable with me whether it would not be better for us to do without them altogether, and to send instructions to the various express companies not to receive any packages destined for my command.
With sentiments of high consideration and regard,
I am, very respectfully, your excellency’s obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, U. S. Army, Commanding.
[Inclosure No. 2.]
EXECUTIVE OFFICE, DEPARTMENT OF WAR,
Charleston, S. C., March 15, 1861.
Maj. ROBERT ANDERSON:
SIR: I am instructed by his excellency the governor to inform you that he is unwilling to modify his original permission that you should receive from the markets in this city such supplies of fresh meat and vegetables as you might indicate. A proper investigation will be instituted to inquire what obstacle has been interposed to the execution of the orders given on the subject.
I will inquire why Lieutenant-Colonel Hatch has not sent the private property of Sergeant Renehan which was left at Fort Moultrie.
With respect to the furniture left by Captain Foster in the house occupied by him before he left Sullivan’s Island, and the papers, &c., left in his office in this city, I reply that Captain Simonton was requested to separate the furniture claimed by Captain Foster from his own, and send it to Fort Sumter through the quartermaster-general. This has been delayed, I believe, chiefly on account of some reclamations on the part of Captain Simonton for injuries done to his own furniture during the time the house was occupied by Captain Foster, and for rent. I have been informed that the matter has been attended to by Captain Simonton within the past few days, and I will take steps to have Captain Foster’s property sent to him without delay. As to the papers, Mr. Legaré, who was indicated by Captain Foster as a proper person to carry out his wishes, reported to me that he had collected and sent the papers, &c., to Captain Foster.
With respect to the property which you failed to recover from Fort Moultrie, I am informed by Lieutenant-Colonel Ripley that he sent word to you that if you would transmit an inventory of any articles of property left by you he would endeavor to collect and send them to you, but that he received no reply to his offer.
As to the servant referred to in your letter, it is proper that I should say that I am unwilling to discuss any question of right or courtesy growing out of the case beyond the unquestionable privilege of a slave owner to permit or not, at his own pleasure, the return of his slave to a hostile fort; but, as you have put a different interpretation on the language employed by me in my letters on the subject than I designed, I desire to state what I did mean: “The very improper correspondence” between the slaves to which I alluded had reference to the slaves alone, as information was given by the woman to the boy of operations in this city which were not proper to be communicated to any one in your garrison, and the reply of the boy clearly showed that his temper and principles had not been improved by a residence in Fort Sumter. The other words of mine, which you quote–“nothing more than what might have been expected between silly persons in their situation”–were meant as kind expressions on my part, to disabuse the minds of Dr. Crawford and other officers at the fort of any unfavorable impression upon me of a complicity on their part with the improper correspondence of idle negroes.
I am, sir, respectfully, yours,
D. F. JAMISON.
[Inclosure No. 3.]
FORT SUMTER, S. C., March 17, 1861.
Hon. D. F. JAMISON, Executive Office, Department of War:
SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 15th instant in reply to mine of the 13th to his excellency the governor.
I hasten to ask you to refer to my letter to his excellency, and you will see that I did not solicit any modification of his original permission about receiving supplies of fresh meat and vegetables. I am satisfied with the existing arrangement, and only called attention to a reported interference of it. I thank you for your promise in reference to the property of Captain Foster.
Lieutenant-Colonel Ripley did kindly offer to attend to collecting any “private property” left on the island by the officers, and I thanked him for having done so.
The property alluded to in my note is not, strictly speaking, private, but belongs to the regiment or post, and therefore was not, in my opinion, embraced in his offer. My object in mentioning this matter was to call attention to it, in order that such directions might be given regarding it as might be deemed proper.
I beg leave to assure you that I had no desire to discuss the question of right or of courtesy in reference to the treatment my officers received in the failure to return the hired boy, and my remarks were intended to apply to the professed owner of the boy, who, neglecting his duty as owner or master for months, had permitted the boy to hire himself out, every one supposing him to be free, and now, at a time when the exercise of his “undoubted right” puts gentlemen here to a serious inconvenience, for the first time asserts his rights of ownership.
His excellency mentions in his letter to me, received yesterday, that the boy is a slave, and, of course, that ends the matter. In justice to myself I must state that I did not intentionally place a forced construction on your words. The day your first letter was received about the boy a gentlemen came down to see me about the “improper correspondence,” which he was told had reference to the negroes joining us in the event of a collision. He remarked to his informants, as he told me, that he thought it a foolish story, advised them to say nothing about it, and said that he was certain, at all events, that I had no idea of anything of the kind, and came down to tell me of the rumor.
I regret exceedingly that your letter contains the remark it does in reference to the effect of a residence at Fort Sumter on the boy’s “temper and principles,” and I am satisfied that, upon further consideration, you will regret it.
I am, sir, respectfully, yours, &c.,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, U. S. Army, Commanding.