highest
branch of the military service, and as its officers are really very able
men, I can not conceive what induced them to build Fort Sumter without
any flanking defenses whatever, and without fire-proof quarters for the
officers. The first defect I endeavored to remedy by projecting
iron-plated, bullet-proof galleries over the angles of the parapet. I
left small trap-doors in the bottom of these, for the purpose of
throwing down shells on the heads of any party below attempting to force
an entrance through the embrasures. The other defect--the presence of so
much combustible matter in the quarters--it was impossible to remedy,
and it ultimately cost the loss of the fort. The excuse that it never
could have been anticipated that the fort would be attacked from the
land side is hardly a valid one, for a foreign fleet might possibly
have effected a landing on Morris Island; or they might have set fire to
the quarters from the decks of the vessels by means of incendiary
shells.

As may well be supposed, there was a great deal of excitement in New
York in relation to us; and, in view of the small number of men
available for service in the regular army, three of the principal
citizens, James A. Hamilton, Moses H. Grinnell, and I.E. Williams,
offered, at their own expense, about the last of December, to send us
four hundred picked artillerists from the citizen soldiery of the city;
but General Scott refused to entertain the proposition.

On the 1st of January, 1861, we took an account of our resources, and
found we had but one month's supply of fuel for cooking purposes, but
few candles, and no soap. There was, however, a small light-house inside
the fort, and we found a little oil stored there.

It seemed to me that the time had now come when forbearance ceased to be
a virtue. Even our opponents were willing to acknowledge that we
represented a legitimate government, and that both duty and propriety
called upon us to resist the numerous war measures which the governor of
South Carolina had inaugurated. He had taken forcible possession of two
United States forts, of the money in the custom-house, of the
custom-house itself, and of other national property in Charleston. He
had closed the harbor, by destroying the costly prismatic lenses in the
light-houses, and by withdrawing the warning light-ship from Rattlesnake
Shoal. He had cut off all communication between us and the city, and had
seized the United States mails. H