WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, April 6, 1861.

Captain THEO. TALBOT, Assistant Adjutant-General:

SIR: You will proceed directly to Charleston, S. C., and if on your arrival there the flag of the United States shall be flying over Fort Sumter, and the fort shall not have been attacked, you will procure an interview with Governor Pickens, and read to him as follows:

I am directed by the President of the United States to notify [you] to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in provisions, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice or in case of an attack upon the fort.

After you shall have read this to Governor Pickens, deliver to him the copy of it herein inclosed, and retain this letter yourself.

But if on your arrival at Charleston you shall ascertain that Fort Sumter shall have ben already evacuated or surrendered by the United States force, you will seek no interview with Governor Pickens, but return here forthwith.

Respectfully,

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

Numbers 95.] FORT SUMTER, S. C., April 6, 1861.

(Received A. G. O., April 9.)

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

COLONEL: I have the honor to report that everything is quiet around us. The schooner (she is a revenue cutter) reported as lying near our work still remains there. One of her officers boarded our mail-boat yesterday, and said that his orders were not to permit any boat to pass from Fort Sumter to the shore without bearing a white flag. I do not believe that General Beauregard has either placed her where she is or given her those orders, and I have written to him to-day in reference to it.

A mortar battery near Mount Pleasant is firing shells this morning. I have also called the general's attention to that firing, as some of the shells have burst nearer to us than is safe. The truth is that the sooner we are out of this harbor the better. Our flag runs an hourly risk of being insulted, and my hands are tied by my orders, and if that was not the case, I have not the power to protect it. God grant that neither I nor any other officer of our Army may be again placed in a position of such mortification and humiliation.

I am, colonel, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ROBERT ANDERSON,

Major, First Artillery, Commanding.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, New York, April 6, 1861.

Lieutenant CHARLES R. WOODS,
Ninth Infantry, Act. Supt. East. Dept., R. S., Fort Columbus, N. Y.:

SIR: The General-in-Chief desires that two hundred recruits from Fort Columbus be at once organized into two companies, and held in readiness for embarkation on Monday next, the 8th instant.