week. On the 7th,
it was wholly cut off, and we noticed gangs of negroes hard at work
strengthening the defenses on Morris Island. Every thing betokened that
the conflict would soon take place. Anderson was greatly troubled at the
failure of all his plans to keep the place. The rebels knew, and perhaps
he knew, that on the 6th and 7th of April a number of naval vessels had
left New York and Norfolk under sealed orders. Their destination could
hardly be doubted. Lieutenant Talbot reached Washington on the 6th, but
was immediately sent back with a message from the President to Governor
Pickens, notifying the latter that the Government intended to provision
Fort Sumter at all hazards. This formal notice was given by the
President, probably because he considered himself bound to do so before
putting an end to the semi-pacific code which had governed Anderson's
intercourse with the forces around him ever since the departure of Hall
and Hayne for Washington.

Talbot delivered his message on the 8th. Beauregard immediately
telegraphed the information to the rebel Secretary of War, at
Montgomery, Alabama, and received orders on the 10th to open fire at
once upon Fort Sumter.

I think it was on the 9th that the official letter came, notifying
Anderson that a naval expedition had been sent to our relief, and that
he must co-operate with it to the best of his ability. He communicated
this information to us on the 10th, but desired it should be kept
secret. The preparations we were obliged to make told the men plainly
enough, however, that the fighting was about to commence. The news acted
like magic upon them. They had previously been drooping and dejected;
but they now sprung to their work with the greatest alacrity, laughing,
singing, whistling, and full of glee. They were overjoyed to learn that
their long imprisonment in the fort would soon be at an end. They had
felt themselves humiliated by the open supervision which South Carolina
exercised over us, and our tame submission to it. It was very galling to
them to see the revenue-cutter, which had been stolen from the United
States, anchored within a stone's cast of our walls, to watch our
movements and overhaul every thing coming to or going from the fort,
including our mail-boat.

On the 10th, Beauregard announced his personal staff to consist of
Colonels Wigfall, Chestnut, Means, M'Gowan, Manning, and Boyleston.

On the same day, a house directly opposite to us in Moultr