6G6 



SUMTEB. 



not use your guns against us, unless ours shall be em- 

 ployed against Fort Sumter, we will abstain from open- 

 ing' fire upon you. Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee 

 are authorized by me to enter into such an agreement 

 with you. You are therefore requested to commu- 

 nicate to them an open answer. 



I remain, Major, very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



G. T. BEAUREGARD, 

 Brigadier-General Commanding. 

 Major ROBERT ANDERSON, Commanding at Fort Sum- 

 ter, Charleston Harbor, S. C. 



HEAD-QUARTERS, FORT SUMTEB, 8. C., ) 

 2.30 A. M., April 12, 1861. f 



GENERAL : I have the honor to acknowledge the re- 

 ceipt of your second communication of the llth inst., 

 by Col. Chesnut, and to state, in reply, that cordially 

 uniting with you in the desire to avoid the useless 

 effusion of blood, I will, if provided with the proper 

 and necessary means of transportation, evacuate Fort 

 Sumter by noon on the 15th instant, should I not re- 

 ceive, prior to that time, controlling instructions from 

 my Government, or additional supplies ; and that I 

 will not, in the mean time, open my fire upon your 

 forces, unless compelled to do so by some hostile act 

 against this fort, or the flag of my Government, by the 

 forces under your command, or by some portion of 

 them, or by the perpetration of some act showing a 

 hostile intention on your part against this fort, or the 

 flag it bears. 



I have the honor to be, General, 



Your obedient servant, 



ROBERT ANDERSON, 

 Major U. S. Army Commanding. 

 To Brig.-Gen. G. T. fiEAUBEGARD, Commanding Pro- 

 visional Army C. S. A. 



FORT SUMTER, S. C., I 

 April 12, 18613.20 A. M. f 



SIR : By authority of Brigadier-General Beauregard, 

 commanding the provisional forces of the Confederate 

 States, we have the honor to notify you that he will 

 open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one 

 hour from this time. 



We have the honor to be, very respectfully, 

 Your obedient servants, 



JAMES CHESNUT, JR., Aide-de-Camp. 



STEPH. T>. LEE, Capt. S. C. A., and Aide-de-Camp. 

 Major ROBERT ANDERSON, TJ. S. Army, Commanding 



Port Suuiter. 



[See PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, Message at First Session 

 Thirty-seventh Congress.] 



At thirty minutes past 4 o'clock on the morn- 

 ing of Friday, April 12, the first gun of civil 

 war was fired, discharging a shell from the 

 howitzer battery on James 1 Island. The send- 

 ing of this deadly messenger to Major Anderson 

 was followed by a deafening explosion, caused 

 by the blowing up of a building that stood in 

 front of the battery. 



While the white smoke was melting away into 

 tlie air another shell pursued its swift way 

 towards the silent fortification. The missive 

 described its beautiful curve through the balmy 

 air, and falling within the hostile fortress, scat- 

 tered its deadly contents in all directions. 



Fort Moultrie then took up the assault, and 

 in a moment the guns from the Gun Battery on 

 Oummings' Point, from Captain McOready's 

 Battery, from Captain James Hamilton's Float- 

 ing Battery, the Enfilade Battery, and other for- 

 tifications, sent forth their wrath at the grim 

 fortress rising so defiantly out of the sea. 



Major Anderson received the shot and shell 

 in silence. But the deepening twilight revealed 

 the stars and stripes floating proudly in the 

 breeze. The batteries continued at regular in- 

 tervals to belch forth iron shells, and still no 

 answer was returned by the besieged. About 

 an hour after the firing began, two balls rushed 

 hissing through the air and glanced harmless 

 from the stuccoed bricks of Fort Moultrie. The 

 embrasures of the besieged fortress gave forth 

 no sound again till between six and seven 

 o'clock, when, as if wrathful from enforced de- 

 lay, from casemate and parapet there poured a 

 storm of iron hail upon Fort Moultrie, Stevens' 

 Iron Battery, and the Floating Battery. The 

 broadside was returned with spirit by the gun- 

 ners at those posts. 



The firing now began in good earnest. The 

 curling white smoke hung above the angry 

 pieces of hostile brothers, and the jarring boom 

 rolled at regular intervals on the anxious ear. 

 The atmosphere was charged with the smell of 

 foul saltpetre, and, as if in sympathy with the 

 melancholy scene, the sky was covered with 

 heavy clouds, and every thing wore a sombre 

 aspect.* 



A brisk fire was kept np by all the batteries 

 until about Y o'clock in the evening, after which 

 hour the guns fired at regular intervals. 



The effect during the night was grand and 

 terrific. The firing reached its climax at about 

 ten o'clock. The heavens were obscured by 

 rain-clouds, and the horizon was as dark as 

 Erebus. The guns were worked with vigor, 

 and their booming was heard with astonishing 

 distinctness, because the wind was "blowing 

 in-shore. At each discharge a lurid sheet of 

 flame was belched forth, and then another and 

 another was seen before the report reached the 

 ears. Sometimes a shell would burst in mid- 

 air, directly over the doomed fortress, and at all 

 times the missiles of this character could be 

 distinguished in their course by the trail of fire 

 left momentarily behind them. 



The fire from all the forts, Sumter included, 

 and from the batteries of the Confederate States, 

 was kept np with vigor till early dawn. Then 

 the rapidity of the discharges gradually di- 

 minished. 



Such was the appearance of the contest dur- 

 ing the first day and night. 



The batteries firing upon Sumter were, as 

 nearly as could be ascertained, armed as fol- 

 lows: 



On Morri$ Island. Breaching battery No. 1, 2 

 42-pounders ; 1 12-pounder, Blakely rifled gun. 



Mortar battery, (next to No. 1,) 4 10-inch mortars. 



Breaching battery No. 2, (iron-clad battery,) 3 8-inch 

 columbiads. 



Mortar battery, (next to No. 2,) 3 10-inch mortars. 



On James' Island. Buttery at Fort Johnson, 3 24- 

 pounders, (only one of them bearing on Fort Sumter.) 



Mortar battery, south of Fort Johnson, 4 10-inch 

 mortars. 



Sullivan's Island. Iron-clad (floating) battery, 4 

 42-pounders. 



Columbiad battery No. 1, 1 9-inch Dahlgren gun. 



Columbiad battery No. 2, 4 8-inch columbiads. 



