and North Carolina, and upon the question of the necessity of the immediate secession of South Carolina there was not a dissenting voice.

Major Bell [Buell] and several other officers of the Army have been sent to Fort Moultrie to look after the forts and keep a sharp lookout upon them. They were sent for no good to us. See that they made no change in the distribution of soldiers, so as to put them all in Fort Sumter. That would be dangerous to us.

Yours,

CHARLES.

COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,

December [18], 1860.

Honorable J. B. FLOYD:

SIR: You will oblige me very much by furnishing me the information asked for in the inclosed resolution. I should think myself derelict in my duty to the House and the country if I did not, in the present perilous condition of the country, obtain all the information in my power in relation to its military defenses. The House may call on me any day, as the organ of the Military Committee, for information, and I feel very anxious to be put in possession of reliable information on the subject.*

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

B. STANTON.

[Inclosure.]

Resolution adopted by the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives, December 18, 1860.

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be requested to furnish the Committed on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives with a statement of the condition of the defenses at Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckeny, and Fort Sumter, the number of men, and the quantity and description of ordnance and arms in each; also, the number and description of arms in the Charleston Arsenal, and what officer has charge of the custody and control of said arsenal, and what force he has under his control to enable him to protect and defend it; also, what number and description of arms has been distributed since the 1st day of January, A. D. 1860, and to whom, and at what price, so far as in his judgment may be compatible with the public welfare.

A true copy from the journal of the committee.

J. J. COMBS, Clerk.

Numbers 8.] FORT MOULTRIE, S. C., December 18, 1860.

(Received A. G. O., December 21.)

Colonel S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, giving answers to questions contain din my letters.

In reference to the instruction given me in reply to my question about Captain Foster's men, it would appear that I had not stated the matter with sufficient distinctness.

As I understood it, the South Carolina authorities sought to enroll as a part of their army intended to act against the force of the United States, men who are employed by and in the pay of the Government, and could not, as I conceived, be enrolled by South Carolina "under the laws of the United States and of the State of South Carolina.:

The sand hills referred to are private property, but no houses are built upon them; they are in front of or between houses. I, o course, shall not remove them until convinced that an attack will be made, nor

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*See De Russy to Floyd, December 20, 1860; Maynadier to Floyd, December 21, 1860; Holt to Stanton, January 3, 1861, post.

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