ll, even for a time of peace and for mere
police purposes. It consisted of sixty-one enlisted men and seven
officers, together with thirteen musicians of the regimental band;
whereas the work called for a war garrison of three hundred men.

The first indication of actual danger came from Richmond, Virginia, in
the shape of urgent inquiries as to the strength of our defenses, and
the number of available troops in the harbor. These questions were put
by a resident of that city named Edmund Ruffin; an old man, whose later
years had been devoted to the formation of disunion lodges, and who
became subsequently noted for firing the first gun at Fort Sumter. His
love of slavery amounted to fanaticism. When the cause of the Rebellion
became hopeless, he refused to survive it, and committed suicide.

In the beginning of July, Robert Barnwell Rhett, and other ultra men in
Charleston, made violent speeches to the mob, urging them to drive every
United States official out of the State; but as many influential
Secessionists were enjoying the sweets of Federal patronage under
Buchanan, we did not anticipate any immediate disturbance. To influence
his hearers still more, Rhett did not hesitate to state that Hamlin was
a mulatto, and he asked if they intended to submit to a negro
vice-president.[1]

It is an interesting question to know how far at this period the
Secretary of War himself was loyal. Mr. Dawson, the able editor of the
_Historical Magazine_, is of opinion, after a careful investigation of
the facts, that Floyd at this time was true to the Union, and that he
remained so until December 24th, when it was discovered that he had been
advancing large sums of money from the Treasury to contractors, to pay
for work which had never been commenced. To make the loss good, nearly a
million of dollars was taken from the Indian Trust Fund.

Finding he would be dismissed from the Cabinet for his complicity in
these transactions, and would also be indicted by the Grand Jury of the
District of Columbia, he made a furious Secession speech, sent in his
resignation, and suddenly left for the South.[2] Mr. Dawson founds his
opinion in this case upon the statement of Fitz John Porter, who was a
major on duty in the War Department at the time, and therefore
apparently well qualified to judge. Floyd's actions toward us, however,
were not those of a true man, and I am of opinion that his loyalty was
merely assumed for the occasion. He sent sev