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158 Series I Volume I- Serial 1 - Charleston

Page 158 OPERATIONS IN CHARLESTON HARBOR, S.C. Chapter I.

to be held subject to your check, and that &10,000 in addition will be remitted to him, for the same purpose, to-day, in fulfillment of two other requisitions heretofore issued in your favor for $5,000 each, as already advised.

You will please return to Lieutenant Gillmore, out of these funds, the $1,500 placed by him to your credit with the assistant treasurer at New York, on the 10th instant, and he will be instructed to forward to you a proper receipt for the same.

This communication, and all subsequent letters, will be inclosed in an envelope, sealed with red wax, impressed with the Department seal, and it is desirable that all your future communications may be also sealed with wax, instead of the ordinary way.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOS. G. TOTTEN,

Brevet Brigadier-General, and Colonel of Engineers.

FORT SUMTER, S. C., January 29, 1861. [Received A. G. O., February 1.]

Colonel S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General U. S. Army:

COLONEL: The South Carolinians are at work in large force on Cummingsf Point, apparently framing heavy timbers, for what purpose I am unable yet to state. They succeeded this morning, favored by a very high tide, in getting the Columbia off. I send herewith two slips cut from yesterday's Mercury, which show unmistakably the animus of these people. They are determined to bring on a collision with the General Government. Everything around us shows this to be their determination and their aim. I had a contract made yesterday for the transportation of the women attached to this command. The number is much greater than the legal allowance, but under the present excited state of feeling toward our command it would not do to send to the city or to Sullivan's Island any of the relatives of our soldiers' wives who have been living with them. The number who will be sent [twenty] embraces those attached to the companies and the wives of the members of the band, and also the wives of the non-commissioned staff. Inclosed you will also receive the muster and pay rolls of this command, which have been signed by the husbands of the women. I will thank you to have them sent by the Pay Department to the paymaster in New York, with instructions to hand the pay to the women. I will thank you also to have the necessary instructions sent to New York for the rations, &c., for these women and children.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,

Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

[Inclosure No. 1.]

OBITUARY.-Died, on Saturday night, at the Marine Hospital, Thaddeus S. Strawinski, aged 18 years and 7 days, from an accidental wound from a revolver. This promising young man was on duty in the Columbia Artillery at Fort Moultrie when the sad accident occurred. He was a noble fellow, and, just a week after entering the freshman class of the South Carolina College, with his spirited father joined the ranks at the call of the State. While on the litter being carried to the hospital he said to those who were conveying him: "Friends, O, how sorry I am you are to attack Fort Sumter without me!" During his sufferings he mourned that he could not be at the


Page 158 OPERATIONS IN CHARLESTON HARBOR, S.C. Chapter I.