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THE EFFECTS OF SECESSION.

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existing between this State and the other States of North America, dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world as a free, sovereign, independent State, with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do; and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance for protection on Divine Providence, we mutually pledge each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

The Effects of Secession.

Major Anderson was, at this time, in command of the fortifications in Charleston harbor, and occupied Fort Moultrie. Previous to the passage of the ordinance of secession, the sentiment at the North was that the federal troops at this port should be reinforced; as, in the event of South Carolina seceding, it might be deemed advisable to use compulsory measures for the purpose of collecting the revenue or enforcing the laws. It was well known that there was not that unanimity of feeling in the Cabinet, or inflexibility of purpose in the President, which should characterize the Chief Magistrate of the Republic; but, until the resignation of Howell Cobb, of Georgia, from his position as Secretary of the Treasury, which took place on the 11th of December, and the immediately subsequent discovery of the bankruptcy of the Treasury, it was not really felt to what condition we had been reduced. Philip F. Thomas, of the Patent Office, was appointed to the vacancy in the Treasury Department on the 12th, and on the same day, General Scott arrived in Washington, having been telegraphed for from New York. On the 14th, Hon. Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned his seat in the Cabinet, and the complexion of affairs at Washington gave no hope to the country that the crisis thus precipitating would be firmly met. So utterly despairing indeed was the President, that on the 15th, he appointed the 4th of January, 1861, to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer for the salvation of the Union.

The situation of Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie now became imminently critical, and the press and people at the North urged upon the President his reinforcement, while the people at Charleston, with equal pertinacity, insisted that the post should not only not be reinforced, but evacuated. Thus between Washington and Charleston was public attention divided; the people of the North and South, alternately, hoping and despairing, as the vacillation of the Administration became more apparent.

On the 23d of December, a heavy defalcation was discovered in the Department of the Interior-$870,000 in Indian bonds, having been abstracted from that bureau. On the 24th, the people of Pittsburg became intensely excited at the attempt to remove seventy-eight large pieces of ordnance from the arsenal at that place, to Newport, near Galveston Island, Texas, and forty-six more to Ship Island, near Belize, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, the apparent object being to strip the Alleghany Arsenal, and place the guns where the secessionists could get them. The excitement was soon allayed, but the circumstance only tended to call attention to the movements which had taken place for some time in the removal of

arms from Northern arsenals to Southern points. In fact, this movement was not unusual, as it subsequently appeared; the arms being distributed in accordance with orders which had been issued from the War Department during the summer. However, the public mind was ready to feed upon any thing exciting no matter how trivial or unreasonable.

Major Anderson's Coup de Etat.

On the night of the 25th of December, the most successful coup de état of Major Anderson was accomplished. An act was performed which caused intense excitement in every portion of the country, and, for a time, placed the name of that officer in every mouth. Major Anderson had dined in the city of Charleston on Christmas Day, and on returning to Fort Moultrie, waited until midnight, and then mustering his force of about seventy men, quietly and successfully removed to Fort Sumter, spiked the guns of Fort Moultrie, and set the gun carriages on fire. This movement was received in two entire different lights by the two sections. The people at the North were disposed to commend Major Anderson in the highest terms, while the people of Charleston determined to resent it.. Major Anderson felt his position to be insecure at Moultrie, and therefore occupied Sumter, which is a stronger position, as will be seen from the following sketch:

FORT SUMTER.

This Fort is built upon an artificial island at the gate of the harbor, three and a half miles south-east of Charleston. It has been for ten years in course of construction; the cost of the work has been over $500,000. The fortress is in the form of a demi-octagon; the truncated side being at the south, and the exterior faces presented toward all points of the main ship channel, and overlooking Charleston and Fort Moultrie. The walls are of solid brick masonry, ten feet in thickness, and in height sixty feet from the water line to the parapet.

They are pierced for three tiers of guns, numbering in all a hundred and forty pieces, of all sizes. The upper tier, which is designed for mortars and twenty-four pounders, is unsheltered, but at such a height as to be beyond the reach of danger from balls of a naval attack. The others are beneath bomb-proof casements, the lowest tier consisting of heavy Paixhans, carrying forty-two pound shot, and the intermediate of ten-inch Columbiads. It is stated in the Charleston papers, that of seventy-five heavy guns now in the fort, only eleven of the Paixhans are fully mounted, nine of them being directed towards Fort Moultrie, and one towards Castle Pinckney. None of the Columbiads are in position. Four of the twenty-four pounders on the summit of the wall are mounted upon pivots, so as to sweep the horizon.

In addition to these weightier preparations for defence, the walls are pierced everywhere for muskets, of which there are endless numbers ready and loaded. The magazine is stocked with grape, cannister, and shell. It contains seven hundred barrels of gunpowder. In his removal from

RANGE OF COLUMBIAD SHELL GUNS.

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Moultrie, Major Anderson carried with him all his stores and small-arms. The place is amply provisioned for a siege of six months. Water is furnished by four large cisterns. With regard to the offensive abilities of the fort, its guns will sweep every point of the compass. Their range averages three miles.

FORT MOULTRIE

is an enclosed water-battery, having a front on the south, or water side, of about 300 feet, and a depth of about 240 feet. It is built with salient and re-entering angles on all sides, and is admirably adapted for defence, either from the attack of a storming party or by regular approaches. The outer and inner walls are of brick, capped with stone, and filled in with earth, making a solid wall fifteen or sixteen feet in thickness. The height of the wall, from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the parapet, is twenty feet. The ditch is from twelve to fifteen feet wide at the base, and fifteen feet deep. The nature of the soil would not seem to admit of this depth being increased, quicksand having been reached in many places. The counterscarp is substantially built of plank, and spread with turf. The glacis is also finished. It is composed of sand, and covered with layers of loam and turf, all of which is kept firmly in place by the addition of sections of plank nailed to uprights sunk in the sand, and crossing each other at right angles-making squares of about ten feet each. The purpose of the glacis, which is an inclined plane, is to expose an attacking party to the fire of the guns—which are so placed as to sweep it from the crest of the counterscarp to the edge of the beach. On the north side, all the wooden gun cases have been placed close together on the ramparts, apparently for the purpose of securing it against an escalade, but possibly as a screen for a battery of heavy guns. Both bastionettes are armed with a small carronade, and a howitzer pointed laterally so as to command the whole intervening moat by a cross-fire.

CASTLE PINCKNEY

is located on the southern extremity of a narrow slip of marsh land, which extends in a northerly direction to Hog Island Channel. To the harbor side the so called castle presents a circular front. It has never been considered of much consequence as a fortress, although its proximity to the city would give it importance, if properly armed and garrisoned. There are about fifteen guns mounted on the parapet; the majority of them are eighteen and twenty-four pounders. Some "Columbiads are, however, within the walls. There are also supplies of powder, shot and shell.

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Range of Columbiad Shell Guns.

THE furthest range of a hundred-pound shell, even at an elevation of thirty-five degrees given to the gun, is 4,828 yards, the time of flight being thirty-five seconds. The great twelve-inch Columbiad, the largest gun made, loaded with twenty-five pounds of powder, a shell of 172 pounds, and the piece at an elevation of thirty-five degrees, has made a range of only 5,409 yards, the projectile occupying thirty-two seconds in its flight. By increasing the elevation to thirty-nine degrees, only one hundred yards more were gained in the range. From the same gun, with a charge of powder twenty-eight pounds, a shell of 180 pounds, and an elevation of thirty-five degrees, a range of 5,671 yards had been attained; at an elevation of thirty-nine degrees, a range of 5,761 yards, (three and a third miles,) which is the greatest that has ever been accomplished by any gun in our service. The flight occupied thirty-six seconds. Charleston is

therefore perfectly safe from the guns of Fort Sumter. If it were even within the furthest range of those guns, the angle of elevation necessary to accomplish such a distance is so extreme, that to hit the city would be a matter of extreme uncertainty. The guns of Fort Sumter can only be raised to an elevation of thirty-three degrees on account of the asemates, and consequently could do no damage beyond about two miles and a half.

A ten-inch Columbiad, at an elevation of thirty-three degrees, will throw a shell about three miles. There are no such guns in barbette at Fort Sumter, and if there are any casemate guns of that calibre, no such elevation could be had. The upper surface of the gun would strike against the top of the embrasure at an elevation far short of thirty-three degrees.

Major Anderson was censured in some quarters for this movement, but it will be seen that he was vested with discretionary powers.

His orders from the Secretary of War were as follows:“Memorandum of verbal instructions to Major Anderson, 1st Artillery, Commanding Fort Moultrie, South Carolina:

"You are aware of the great anxiety of the Secretary of War that a collision of the troops with the people of this State shall be avoided, and of his studied determination to pursue a course with reference to the military force and forts in this harbor which shall guard against such a collision. He has, therefore, carefully abstained from increasing the force at this point, or taking any measures which might add to the present excited state of the public mind, or which would throw any doubt on the confidence he feels that South Carolina will not attempt by violence to obtain possession of the public works, or interfere with their occupancy.

"But as the counsel and acts of rash and impulsive persons may possibly disappoint these expectations of the government, he deems it proper that you should be prepared with instructions to meet so unhappy a contingency. He has, therefore, directed me verbally to give you such instructions.

"You are carefully to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression, and for that reason you are not, without necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude; but you are to hold possession of the forts in this harbor, and if attacked, you are to defend yourself to the last extremity.

"The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on, or attempt to take possession of either of them, will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper, to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar steps, whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act. “D. P. BUTLER, "Assistant Adjutant-General."

"FORT MOULTRIE, S. C., December 11, 1860.”

This movement on the part of Major Anderson led to the almost immediate seizure of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney by the Charlestonians. They had calculated, it seems, on taking Fort Sumter without resistance; and as it commands Fort Moultrie, they would have reduced that work, and taken Major Anderson and his command prisoners whenever they chose. However, to console themselves, the people of Charleston resolved to occupy Castle Pinckney, a fort of minor importance. The Charleston Mercury gives the following account of the movement:

"On the 27th the rifle battalion, under command of Colonel J. J.

THE ATTACK ON THE STAR OF THE WEST.

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Pettigrew, assembled promptly upon the citadel green. They were substantially equipped in winter uniform, with blankets, knapsacks, and revolvers. The battalion numbered some 150 men, and consisted of detachments from the Meagher Guards, the Carolina light infantry, and the Washington light infantry. Shortly after four o'clock the word was given, and the companies advanced in double quick time, without music, toward the Cooper river. None of them, we believe, excepting the officers, were aware of their destination. They embarked on the steamer Nina, which immediately headed for Castle Pinckney, and the surmise soon became confirmed that the destination of the command was to take possession of that fortress. On nearing the fort, a number of men were observed on the wharf, one of whom, in advance of the others, was observed holding what appeared to be a paper in his hand. This was said to have been the riot act. As soon as the Nina touched the wharf, the storming party who had been detailed for that duty sprang ashore, and rushed round to the rear of the fortress, where the gate is situated. This was found

closed, and a cry for storming ladders was soon answered by a detachment bearing a dozen or more of them. These were instantly planted, and un- . der cover of the rifles of the battalion, the walls were escaladed and the gates thrown open.

"On entering the fort it was found to be tenanted only by an officer of engineers and a small party of laborers-none of whom made any resistance. The engineer officer was informed that he was at liberty to leave, and remove his personal effects, and in a few minutes he set out in a boat belonging to the fort, accompanied by four other men. From the direction in which he steered, it is supposed that he went to Fort Moultrie.

"The flag of the Nina, consisting of a white star on a red ground, was then hoisted amidst loud cheers; and when our reporter left a strong guard had been mounted, and preparations for garrisoning the fortress were well advanced."

The revenue-cutter William Aikin was also surrendered by her commander, and taken possession of by the Charlestonians.

First Lieut. Underwood, second in command of the revenue-cutter Aikin, states that Captain Coste, the commander of the cutter, was an avowed secessionist some time before South Carolina decided to go out, and agreed, when the State declared herself out of the Union, to resign, and turn the vessel over to him, Lieutenant Underwood; but instead of doing so he visited Fort Sumter before Major Anderson took possession of it, and examined it for several hours, and finally placed the cutter in such a position as to leave her at low-water high and dry on land. While she was thus situated the secessionists took possession of her, Captain Coste being still in command, and Lieutenant Underwood, being his subordinate, was of course powerless to act. Captain Coste then informed Lieutenant Underwood that his services would not be required there any longer, and he proceeded immediately to Washington, and reported the facts to Secre tary Thomas.

The Attack on the Star of the West.

While Major Anderson was in Fort Sumter, rumors were extensively circulated that he was in want of reinforcements and food. Accordingly on Saturday the 5th of January, the steamship Star of the West, Captain James McGowan, was chartered by the United States government to con

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