_Secretary of War_.


The answer was as follows:--


CHARLESTON, December 27, 1860.

HON. J.B. FLOYD, _Secretary of War:_--

The telegram is correct. I abandoned Fort Moultrie because I was certain
that, if attacked, my men must have been sacrificed, and the command of
the harbor lost. I spiked the guns, and destroyed the carriages, to keep
the guns from being used against us.

If attacked, the garrison would never have surrendered without a fight.

ROBERT ANDERSON,
_Major First Artillery_.


The event reached the President's ears; he was perplexed, and postponed
the promised interview with the Commissioners one day. He met them on
the 28th. He states, in his _Defence_, published in 1866, that he
informed them at once that he "could recognize them only as private
gentlemen, and not as commissioners from a sovereign State; that it was
to Congress, and to Congress alone, they must appeal." Nevertheless, he
expressed his willingness to communicate to that body, as the only
competent tribunal, any proposition they might have to offer; as if he
did not realize that this proposal was a quasi-recognition of South