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The Civil War Begins! Confed. Sec. of War Issues Instructions to Beauregard Re: Fort Sumter--Amazing!
The Civil War Begins! Confed. Sec. of War Issues Instructions to Beauregard Re: Fort Sumter--Amazing!
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Fort Sumter

The Civil War Begins! Confed. Sec. of War Issues Instructions to Beauregard Regarding Fort Sumter--Amazing!

 

Leroy Pope Walker, manuscript copy of letter signed, to P. G. T. Beauregard, April 2, 1861. 3 pp., 7.625" x 10". Expected folds and some reversible pencil inscriptions, else near fine. Ex-Forbes Collection.

 

In this contemporary copy of a fascinating letter, the first Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker ordered General P. G. T. Beauregard, in command of Confederate defenses in Charleston, South Carolina, to treat the army detachment under Major Robert Anderson in Fort Sumter as an “an enemy contemplating to surprise you” and a “hostile force” with whom his soldiers might soon be “in actual conflict.” Ten days after Walker wrote this letter from the temporary Confederate capital in Montgomery, Alabama, Beauregard ordered the first shots of the American Civil War to be fired. After a thirty-four-hour bombardment of Fort Sumter, Major Anderson, one of Beauregard’s former instructors at West Point, surrendered the fort to his former student.

 

In full, with unchanged spelling and punctuation:

 

"Confederate States of America

War Department

 

Montgomery April 2d 1861

 

Brig. General G. T. Beauregard

Commanding Charleston Harbor

Charleston So. Ca.

 

Sir. This Government has at no time placed any reliance on assurances by the Government at Washington, in respect to the evacuation of Fort Sumpter, or entertained any confidence in the disposition of the latter to make any concession or yield on any point, to which it is not driven by absolute necessity, and I desire that you will govern yourself generally with strict reference to this, as they [the] key to the policy of the Government of the Confederate States.

 

You are espetially instructed to remit, in no degree, your efforts to prevent the reinforcement of Fort Sumpter and to keep yourself in a state of the amplest preparation and most perfect readiness to repel invasion. Acting in all respects—save only in commencing an assault or attack (except to repel an invading or reinforcing force)—precisely as if you were in the presence of an enemy contemplating to surprise you.

 

The delays and apparent vacillations of the Washington Government make it imperative, that the further concession of of courtesies such as have been accorded to Major Anderson and his command, in supplies from the City, must cease. And in general terms, the status which you must at once reestablish and rigidly enforce, is that of hostile forces, in the presence of each other, and who may at any moment be in actual conflict.

 

But as past conditions have allowed this Government to continue thus far, courtesies of personal convenience to Major Anderson and his Officers, it is proper now, as those courtesies are required to be determined by the necessities of your position, that you signify in respectful terms to Major Anderson that all communication with the City, from the Fort and with the Fort from the City, for any purpose of supply, is absolutely inhibited, and after having so notified that gentleman, at the very earliest moment practicable, you will make your surveillance of the harbor and the enforcement of the rule of instruction indicated in the notice to the Commander of Fort Sumpter as rigid as all the means at your command and the most watchful vigilance can secure.

 

Until the withdrawal of the Commissioners of this Government from Washington—an event which may occur at any moment—no operations beyond what is indicated in the foregoing, would be admissible. Promptly, however, on the receipt by this Government of the intelligence of such withdrawal, the Department will transmit to you specific instructions for your guidance.

 

Respectfully / Yr obt. Servt.

(signed)        L. P. Walker / Sec of War

 

Official

A True coppy / A. R. Chisolm / Lieut Col & Aid de Camp."

 

Leroy Pope Walker (1817-1884) was born in Alabama and attended universities in Alabama and Virginia. Admitted to the bar at age 20, Walker held various offices in Alabama until resigned as a circuit court judge in 1853. He actively supported secession, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Walker as Confederate Secretary of War, a position he held from February 25 to September 16, 1861. Energetic and confident, Walker had no military training, and the stresses of the position affected his health. When Davis suggested he could be a Confederate representative in Europe, Walker resigned and became a brigadier general in the Confederate army. He commanded garrisons in Alabama before resigning in March 1862. He later served as a military judge and returned to his law practice after the Civil War.

 

Pierre G. T. Beauregard (1818-1893) was born in Louisiana into a French-speaking Catholic family. While attending a “French school” in New York City, he learned to speak English and graduated from the United State Military Academy at West Point in 1838, second in his class. One of his instructors there was Robert Anderson, who later commanded the Army garrison at Fort Sumter. During the Mexican War, Beauregard served as an engineer under General Winfield Scott. From 1848 to 1860, he was in charge of army engineering work in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. From 1853 to 1860, he was also superintending engineer of the U.S. Custom House in New Orleans. Beauregard received appointment as superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy in January 1861, but the orders were revoked five days later when Louisiana seceded from the Union. He went to Louisiana, and Jefferson Davis soon placed Beauregard in command of the Confederate defenses of Charleston, South Carolina, where he arrived on March 3, 1861. He ordered the first shots of the American Civil War to be fired on April 12, 1861, and went on to lead Confederate forces at the First Battle of Bull Run, Shiloh, Corinth, Charleston, and Petersburg. After the war, he returned to Louisiana, where he advocated civil rights and suffrage for African Americans, became a railroad executive, and became wealthy by promoting the Louisiana Lottery.

 

Alexander Robert Chisolm (1834-1910) served as senior aide-de-camp and “confidential friend” to General P. G. T. Beauregard from Beauregard’s arrival in Charleston, South Carolina, on March 2, 1861, until May 6, 1865. Born in South Carolina, Chisolm and his sister were raised by an aunt and uncle in New York after the death of their parents. In the 1850s, he returned to South Carolina to an inheritance of land and slaves. In 1861, he brought some of his male slaves to Charleston to construct batteries on Morris Island to defend Charleston harbor.

 

Provenance: Ex-Forbes Collection. Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), the American owner-publisher of Forbes magazine and a consummate collector, amassed one of the most substantial autograph collections of such breadth and depth that it filled a half-dozen residences on three continents. Many of his manuscripts were sold in a series of multi-million dollar sales by Christie's in the early 2000s. The Forbes name is considered to be the apex of provenance, especially when attached to an item like the above. We are honored to have been chosen by the family to sell at auction the substantial balance of the collection.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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