nance Bureau at
Washington for forty muskets, with which to arm twenty workmen in Fort
Sumter and twenty in Castle Pinckney. "If," wrote the Chief of
Ordnance to the Secretary of War, "the measure should on being
communicated meet the concurrence of the commanding officer of the
troops in the harbor, I recommend that I may be authorized to issue
forty muskets to the engineer officer." Upon this recommendation,
Secretary of War Floyd wrote the word "approved." Under the usual
routine of peaceful times the questions went by mail to Colonel
Gardner, then commander of the harbor, "Is it expedient to issue forty
muskets to Captain Foster? Is it proper to place arms in the hands of
hired workmen? Is it expedient to do so?"

[Sidenote] Gardner to Craig, November 5, 1860. W.R. Vol. I.,
pp. 68-9.

To this Colonel Gardner replied, under date of November 5, that,
repeating what he had already written, his fears were not of any
attack on the works, authorized by the city or State, but there was
danger of such an attempt from a sudden tumultuary force; and that
while in such an event forty muskets would be desirable, he felt
"constrained to say that the only proper precaution--that which has no
objection--is to fill these two companies with drilled recruits (say
fifty men) at once, and send two companies from Old Point Comfort to
occupy, respectively, Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney."

[Sidenote] Dawson, "Historical Magazine," January, 1872, p. 37.

[Sidenote] F.J. Porter to Cooper, November 11, 1860. W.R. Vol. I.,
pp. 70-72.

His answer and recommendation were both business-like and soldierly,
and contained no indications that justify any suspicion of his loyalty
or judgment. Meanwhile, on the heels of this official call for
reenforcements, came a still more urgent one. It is alleged on the one
hand that complaints of the inefficiency of Colonel Gardner had
reached Washington, and that, in consequence thereof, either the
Secretary of War or the President sent for specific information in
regard to it. Major Fitz John Porter, then Assistant Adjutant-General,
on duty in the War Department, went in person to Charleston, and made
the examination. There are, on the other hand, several vague
allegations by the insurgents, to the substantial effect that this
call for reenforcements was Colonel Gardner's real offense; leaving
the implication that Major Fitz John Porter's inspection was purposely
instituted to find reasons f