[Memorandum.]

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
Washington, December 28, 1860.

Lieutenant-General Scott, who has had a bad night, and can scarcely hold up his head this morning, begs to expres the hope to the Secretary of War-

1. The orders may not be given for the evacuation of Fort Sumter:

2. That one hundred and fifty recruits may instantly be sent from Governor's Island to re-enforce that garrison, with ample supplies of ammunition, subsistence, including fresh vegetables, as potatoes, onions, turnips; and

3. That one or two armed vessels be sent to support the said fort.

Lieutenant-General Scott avails himself of this opportunity also to express the hope that recommendations heretofore made by him to the Secretary of War respecting Forts Jackson, Saint Philip, Morgan and Pulaski and particularly in respect to Forts Pickens and McRee and the Pensacola navy-yard in connection with the last two named works, may be reconsidered by the Secretary.

Lieutenant-General Scott will further ask the attention of the Secretary to Forts Jefferson and Taylor, which are wholly national, being of far greater value even to the most distant points of the Atlantic coast and to the people on the upper waters on the Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio Rivers than to the State of Florida. There is only a feeble company at Key West for the defense of Fort Taylor, and not a soldier in Fort Jefferson to resist a handful of filibusters or a rowboat of pirates; and the Gulf, soon after the beginning of secession or revolutionary troubles in the adjacent States will swarm with such nuisances.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War.

Numbers 13.] FORT SUMTER, S. C., December 28, 1860.

(Received A. G. O., January 1, 1861.)

Colonel S. COOPER, Adjutant-General:

COLONEL: I have the honor to send herewith a copy of a memorandum received to-day from the governor of South Carolina, in reply to a message from me, which shows that for the present we are treated as enemies. I sent my post adjutant this morning with a message to the commanding officer of Fort Moultrie asking by what authority he held possession of that work, and desiring to know whether he would make any opposition to my sending for some property, public and private, left there. He replied to my first question that he held that post by authority of the sovereign State of South Carolina, and in obedience to the orders of the governor. To the second, that his orders were not to permit public property of any kind to be removed on any pretext whatever; that he was directed to take an inventory of the same, and to send it to the governor; that he would with pleasure assist in recovering and restoring all private property that was left. This decision about the public property shows that South Carolina is acting in this matter also toward us as if we were her enemy. The amount of public property thus left is not great, as I merely retained enough to prevent my movement from being suspected Lieutenant Hall to say that at a general meeting of the officers, the military move I made was unanimously pronounced to have been one of consummate wisdom; that it was the best one that could have been made, and that if I had