CONFEDERATE STATES. 



133 



MOSTGOIKBY, April 11, 1861. 

 To General JBeauregard : 



Do not desire needlessly to bombard Fort Sumter. 

 If Major Anderson will state the time at which, as in- 

 dicated by himself, he will evacuate, and agree that, in 

 the mean time, he will not use his guns against us un- 

 less ours should be employed against iort Sumter, 

 you are authorized thus to avoid the effusion of blood. 

 If this or its equivalent be refused, reduce the fort, as 

 your judgment decides to be the most practicable. 



To Ron. L. P. Walker : 



CHARLESTON, April 12, 1861. 



To Hon. L. P. Walker : 

 We opened fire at 4.30. 



CHARLESTON, April 12, 1S61. 



G. T. BEAUREGARD. 



The fire opened at 4.30 A. M. oh the 12th of 

 April on Fort Sumter, resulted in compelling 

 the commander of the fort to surrender. (See 

 SUMTER.) On the evening of the same day, 

 when the people of Montgomery, Alabama, 

 were rejoicing in the prospect that Fort Sum- 

 ter would fall, the following telegraphic de- 

 spatch was sent forth from that city to all parts 

 of the United States : 



"MONTGOMERY, FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1861. An 

 immense crowd serenaded President Davis and 

 Secretary Walker, at the Exchange Hotel, to- 

 night. 



" The former is not well, and did not ap- 

 pear. Secretary Walker appeared and declined 

 to make a speech, but in a few words of elec- 

 trical eloquence told the news from Fort Sum- 

 ter, declaring, in conclusion, that before many 

 hours the flag of the Confederacy would float 

 over that fortress. 



" No man, he said, could tell where the war 

 this day commenced would end, but he would 

 prophesy that the flag which now flaunts the 

 breeze here would float over the dome of the 

 old Capitol at Washington before the first of 

 May. Let them try Southern chivalry and test 

 the extent of Southern resources, and it might 

 float eventually over Faneuil Hall itself." 



On the 15th of April, immediately after the 

 surrender of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln 

 issued his message, calling forth the militia of 

 the several States of the Union to the aggregate 

 number of seventy-five thousand. This was 

 immediately after an act of hostility had been 

 committed under the authority of the Confed- 

 erate Government, and forty days after an act 

 had passed the Confederate Congress author- 

 izing a force of one hundred thousand men to 

 be raised. 



Who commenced hostilities, is a question 

 which must be considered as decided. " The 

 war this day commenced," says the Secretary 

 of War of the Confederate States. "We opened 

 fire at 4.30 A. M.," says General Beauregard, in 

 his despatch to the Secretary of War of the 

 Confederate States, dated April 12th. Hostili- 

 ties were commenced by order of the Govern- 

 ment of the Confederate States. For this act 



President Davis felt it to be necessary to pre- 

 sent to the world some grounds of justification. 

 This he attempted to do in his message to the 

 Confederate Congress, dated April 29th. In 

 that document he states that commissioners 

 from the Confederate States arrived in Wash- 

 ington on the 15th of March, authorized in a 

 peaceful manner to adjust all questions between 

 the two Governments. He states their com- 

 munication addressed to Secretary Seward on 

 the 12th of March, and proceeds thus: 



"To this communication no formal reply 

 was received until the 8th of April. During 

 the interval, the commissioners had consented 

 to waive all questions of form, with the firm 

 resolve to avoid war if possible. They went 

 so far even as to hold, during that long period, 

 unofficial intercourse through an intermediary, 

 whose high position and character inspired the 

 hope of success, and through whom constant 

 assurances were received from the Government 

 of the United States of its peaceful intentions 

 of its determination to evacuate Fort Sumter, 

 and further, that no measure would be intro- 

 duced changing the existing status prejudicial 

 to the Confederate States ; that in the event of 

 any change in regard to Fort Pickens, notice 

 would be given to the commissioners. 



" The crooked paths of diplomacy can scarce- 

 ly furnish an example so wanting in courtesy, 

 in candor, in directness, as was the course of 

 the United States Government towards our 

 commissioners in Washington. For proof of 

 this I refer to the annexed documents, taken 

 in connection with further facts, which I now 

 proceed to relate : 



" Early in April the attention of the whole 

 country was attracted to extraordinary prepa- 

 rations for an extensive military and naval ex- 

 pedition in New York and other Northern 

 ports. These preparations commenced in 

 secrecy, for an expedition whose destination 

 was concealed, and only became known when 

 nearly completed ; and on the 5th, 6th, and Yth 

 of April, transports and vessels of war with 

 troops, munitions, and military supplies, sailed 

 from northern ports, bound southward. 



"Alarmed by so extraordinary a demonstra- 

 tion, the commissioners requested the delivery of 

 an answer to their official communication of the 

 12th of March, and the reply dated on the 15th 

 of the previous month, from which it appears 

 that during the whole interval, whilst the com- 

 missioners were receiving assurances calculated 

 to inspire hope of the success of their mission, 

 the Secretary of State and the President of the 

 United States had already determined to hold 

 no intercourse with them whatever to refuse 

 even to listen to any proposals they had to 

 make, and had profited by the delay created by 

 their own assurances, in order to prepare 

 secretly the means for effective hostile op- 

 erations. 



" That these assurances were given has been 

 virtually confessed by the Government of the 

 United States, by its act of sending a messenger 



