respective ports, as above directed, unless some unforeseen circumstance should prevent.

I am, respectfully, your obedient servant,

GIDEON WELLES,

Secretary of the Navy.

Numbers 94.] FORT SUMTER, S. C., April 5, 1861.

(Received A. G. O., April 8.)

Colonel L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. Army:

COLONEL: I have the honor to report everything still and quiet, and to send herewith the report of Lieutenant Snyder, who I sent yesterday with a short note and a verbal message to the governor of South Carolina. No reply has been received to my note.

I cannot but think that Mr. Crawford has misunderstood what he has heard in Washington, as I cannot think that the Government would abandon, without instructions and without advice, a command which has tried to do all its duty to our country.

I cannot but think that if the Government decides to do nothing which can be construed into a recognition of the fact of the dissolution of the Union, that it will, at all events, say to me that I must do the best I can, and not compel me to do an act which will leave my motives and actions liable to misconception.

I am sure that I shall not be left without instructions, even though they may be confidential. After thirty odd years of service I do not wish it to be said that I have treasonably abandoned a post and turned over to unauthorized persons public property intrusted to my charge. I am entitled to this act of justice at the hands of my Government, and I feel confident that I shall not be disappointed. What to do with the public property, and where to take my command, are questions to which answers will, I hope, be at once returned. Unless we receive supplies I shall be compelled to stay here without food, or to abandon this post very early next week.

Confidently hoping that I shall receive ample instructions in time, I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,

Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

[Inclosure.]

FORT SUMTER, S. C., April 4, 1861.

Major ROBERT ANDERSON,

First Artillery, U. S. Army, Commanding Fort Sumter:

MAJOR: In compliance with your directions, I went, under a flag of truce, to the city of Charleston, in company with Captain Talbot, and had an interview with Governor Pickens and General Beauregard. In the interview with the governor, Captain Talbot only being present, I stated all the circumstances connected with the visits of Captain Seymour and myself to Cummings Point and the schooner Rhoda H. Shannon, which had been fired into by the batteries on Morris Island, on the 3rd instant. I called his attention to the fact that he had not complied with his own proposition, to warn all vessels bearing the United States flag not to enter the harbor. The governor replied that he and General Beauregard, with their staff officers, were standing on the piazza of the Moultrie House, on Sullivan's Island, and saw the whole affair, and

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