d by armed secession troops, and regarding
his position at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, untenable if
attacked from the land side, as a matter of precaution, without
order from his superiors, but possessing complete authority within
the limits of his command, removed his small force, consisting of
only sixty-five soldiers, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, where,
at high noon of the next day, after a solemn prayer by his chaplain,
the Stars and Stripes were run up on a flagstaff, to float in
triumph only for a short time, then to be insulted and shot down,
not to again be unfurled over the same fort until four years of
war had intervened.

An ineffectual effort was made by Governor Pickens of South Carolina
to induce Major Anderson by his demands and threats to return to
his defenceless position at Fort Moultrie. President Buchanan, at
the instigation of his Secretary of War, Floyd, was on the point
of ordering him to do so, but when the matter was considered in a
Cabinet meeting, other counsels prevailed, and Floyd made this his
excuse for leaving the Cabinet.( 1) Fortunately, his place was
filled by Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, a Union man of force,
energy, will power, and true courage, who, later, became Judge-
Advocate-General U.S.A., serving as such until after the close of
the war.

To the end of Buchanan's administration, Sumter was held by Major
Anderson with his small force, and around it centered the greatest
anxiety. It was the policy of the South to seize and occupy all
forts, arsenals, dock-yards, public property, and all strongholds
belonging to the United States located within the limits of seceded
States, and to take possession of arms and material of war as though
of right belonging to them. The right and title to United States
property thus located were not regarded. Louisiana seized the
United States Mint at New Orleans, and turned over of its contents
$536,000 in coin to the Confederate States treasury, for which she
received a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress.( 2) All
the forts of the United States within or on the coast of the then
seceded States, save Forts Sumter and Pickens, were soon, with
their armament and military supplies, in possession of and manned
by Southern soldiers. At first seizures were made by State authority
alone, but on the organization, at Montgomery, of the Confederacy
(February 8, 1861) it assumed charge of all questions between the
seceded Sta