Beschreibung:

DAVIS, JEFFERSON, President of the Confederate States of America. Autograph letter signed ("JeffersDavis") TO SOUTH CAROLINA GOVERNOR FRANCIS W. PICKENS, Montgomery, [Alabama], 23 February 1861. One page, large 8vo, integral blank, on delicately ruled stationery embossed "G. Lawrence Extra," at top corner, docketed in an unidentified hand "Letter of Presdt. Jeffn. Davis to Gov. Pickens introducing Major Whitney....," minor stains. PRELUDE TO THE FORT SUMTER BOMBARDMENT: FIVE DAYS AFTER HIS INAUGURATION, DAVIS ORDERS A SURVEY OF THE CHARLESTON HARBOR FORTS "Hon F.W. Pickens My dear sir, This will be presented by Major Whiting a military Engineer who possesses my entire confidence and who will examine the works of Charleston Harbor as heretofore agreed upon between us. "When I receive the report of Maj. Whiting you will hear further from me. In the meantime I am very respectfully & truly yours...." On 18 February, five days before the present letter, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated President of the Provisional Confederate government and authorized to purchase and order munitions and war materiel in the event of hostilities. In the seceded states, Federal forts, arsenals and port facilities were already being seized by provisional Confederate militias and state troops. Since the secession of South Carolina on 20 December 1860, it had been evident to Governor Pickens that the heavy fortifications in and around Charleston Harbor would prove a particularly challenging problem to the South. The most formidable obstacle was Fort Sumter, built on a shoal in the harbor and so placed that its artillery commanded Charleston's residential and dock areas. Several other forts on points of land which ringed the harbor had been evacuated by Federal troops in late December, since they would be difficult to defend. On the same day as the present letter President Davis provided written instructions to Whiting, ordering him to Charleston to inspect the harbor and fortifications, requesting a detailed report on offensive and defensive fortifications, and an inventory of arms and munitions, especially cannon powder, with a view toward "active operations" (that letter is printed in Original Records, Ser.1, 1:258 and in Davis, Papers , ed. Rowland, 5:57; original letter in Whiting Papers, National Archives.) On February 25, Pickens acknowledged Davis's letter, reporting that Whiting has arrived and "is now at the batteries" (Davis, Papers , 7:69fn.) On the 27th, Governor Pickens again wrote Davis, reiterating that "Fort Sumter should be in our possession at the very earliest moment." Across the South and throughout the North, Fort Sumter had already become a symbol of the nation's fatal divisions. Govenor Pickens had stationed state militia at the forts around the harbor, and ordered construction of a battery on Morris Island, a point quite close to Sumter. (This battery, manned by cadets from the Citadel, later became famous as the Star of the West battery and was the first to fire on a Federal steamship of that name sent to reinforce Sumter). On 1 March, military control of Charleston Harbor passed to the Confederate States of America and President Davis appointed General P.G.T. Beauregard to command the forces there. When negotiations for the peaceful surrender of the fort were unsucessful, Beauregard ordered the Confederate batteries to open fire on the fort in the early morning hours of 15 April 1865. General William Henry Chase Whiting (1824-1865), who carried the present letter of introduction to Governor Pickens, was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, attended Georgetown College in Washington and graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1845, first in a class of 41. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and was in charge of various river and harbor improvements and the construction of fortifications in California and North Carolina. He had attained the rank of Captain when he resigned his commission on 20 February