their eyes to the existing state of affairs in the country. We have been without any response, except request for small matters of detail, while all my orders and wishes of the last week have been neglected. Until the day before yesterday we had no 2,500 men here under arms. Now we shall have enough in a day or two.

The railway from Annapolis to this place, under the direction of Scott, will be open by Monday for the whole amount of business of which it is capable. We shall want very few more troops by that route, but provisions, clothing, and munitions should be hurried here by it.

I have sent an engineer to reopen the Northern Central, and have ordered an able officer of this Department to take charge of the troops that may assemble at Harrisburg, and bring them in immediate connection with Baltimore, to be concentrated where the city can be reached. We must occupy it without delay. I will never consent, if the whole power of this Department can prevent it, that a rebel force shall prevent the passage of our fellow-citizens from coming here unmolested. The authorities of Baltimore have acted with bad faith, and one of the most painful acts I have witnessed was the order for the return of our troops from Cockeysville; but that is past, and now we will amend the error.

The President has given me full power to open this communication, and I will do it. To-day the President has ordered me to raise twenty-five regiments of regulars, and also ordered the erection of a manufactory for arms at Rock Island, Ill. This shows you that there will be no lack of energy here. If the officers now in command will not act with energy, General Scott shall be authorized to find others that will.

SIMON CAMERON,

Secretary of War.

HEADQUARTERS ANNAPOLIS, April 27, 1861.

[General SCOTT:]

SIR: I had the honor to receive this morning your letter from headquarters, of April 25, detailing me to the command of this city. I am deeply sensible of the honor conferred, and will endeavor to hold it. I had taken the liberty to make dispositions for that purpose before I had the honor to receive your order. I had caused Professor Lockwood, a very competent person, fully acquainted with the locality, to make a survey of its environs. From that, aided by my own observations, I find a water battery, known as Fort Madison, without casemates, which commands the channel, and prepared to mount twenty-one guns, but none are mounted. Everything is ready for the reception of its armament, being left in that condition by the Engineer Department last season; but this in its turn is entirely commanded by a height, upon which there is an old redoubt known by the soubriquet of Fort Nonsense. This was build during the year 1812, and, so far as I can learn, has never been occupied since. This also commands the town and the Naval Academy, where we have established our depots. An enemy there with a gun or two properly used would render our position entirely untenable. I have therefore detailed one hundred men from colonel Pinckney's regiment, the New York Sixth, which was here with a force of only about five hundred, to occupy Fort Nonsense, and also a company of fifty men from the same command to occupy Fort Madison and to keep up the communication between them, the distance being a short half mile.

During the past night, as I am informed by the very accurate report of the major in command, the troops were disturbed by signal-rockets being thrown up along the line of the interior road for some miles. Im-