FORT JOHNSON. IRON-CLAD BATTERY, CUMMING'S POINT. FORT SUMTER. FORT MOULTRIE.

BURSTING OF THE SIGNAL-SHELL FROM FORT JOHNSON OVER FORT SUMTER.

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THE FIRST STEP IN THE WAR.

BY STEPHEN D. LEE, LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, C. S. A.

I N the month of December, 1860, the South itself had no more realizingsense than the North of the magnitude of events about to be entered intoso lightly. Even the Southern leaders did not realize that there could be anyobstacle to “peaceable secession.” Many at the North were willing to “letthe wayward sisters depart in peace.” Only a few on either side expectedthat blood would be shed. When, in the first Confederate Congress at Mont-gomery , one prudent debater exclaimed, “ What if we really have a war ? ”the general response was, “ There will be no war.” “But,” he persisted, “ifthere is a war, what are our resources 1 ” and when one man in reply expressedhis conviction that if the worst came, the South could put fifty thousandmen into the field, he was looked upon as an enthusiast. The expectationof “ peaceable secession ” was the delusion that precipitated matters in theSouth; and it was on this expectation, when the crisis came, that SouthCarolina seceded. Her first step was to organize troops and assert the sov-ereignty in which she believed, by the occupation of her territory.

After the evacuation of Port Moultrie, although Major Anderson was notpermitted by the South Carolina authorities to receive any large supplyof provisions, yet he received a daily mail, and fresh beef and vegetablesfrom the city of Charleston , and was unmolested at Port Sumter. He con-tinued industriously to strengthen the fort. The military authorities ofSouth Carolina , and afterward of the Confederate States, took possession ofPort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, the arsenal, and other United States propertyin the vicinity. They also remounted the guns at Port Moultrie, and con-structed batteries on Sullivan’s, Morris, and James islands, and at otherplaces, looking to the reduction of Port Sumter if it should become necessary;meantime leaving no stone unturned to secure from the authorities at Wash-ington a quiet evacuation of the fort. Several arrangements to accomplishthis purpose were almost reached, but failed. Two attempts were madeto reenforce and supply the garrison: one by the steamer Star of the West,which tried to reach the fort, January 9th, 1861, and was driven back by abattery on Morris Island, manned by South Carolina troops; the other just

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