Cabinet: "Reinforce Fort Sumter"

Fort Sumter in 1861

• In Washington, lame duck President Buchanan refuses to acknowledge officially a letter from the South Carolina commissioners. This letter concerns the disturbing decision of Major Anderson to move his Federal garrison to Fort Sumter and mount guns on the city.  The letter prompts Buchanan’s Cabinet to recommend that Fort Sumter be reinforced./1861

• Immediately the USS Brooklyn is readied at Norfolk, Virginia, despite General Winfield Scott’s plea that a non-military naval vessel be sent to Fort Sumter so that it might not be received by the South Carolinians as an act of war but rather a humanitarian mission/1861

• As fear and tensions continue to heighten, military defense of the District of Columbia is assigned to US Colonel Charles Stone/1861

• [SC SECESSION CONVENTION] In Charleston, the Convention appoints a Committee of Three to design an "Ensign of the State of South Carolina,"/1861

• South Carolina forces seize the inactive Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor/1861