nt in this matter, to-morrow. I am not
disposed to surrender these arms under a threat of this kind,
especially when I know that I am only doing my duty to the Government."

[Sidenote] Foster to De Russy, Dec. 20, 1860. W.R. Vol. I., p. 101.

[Sidenote] Foster to De Russy, Dec. 19, 1860. W.R. Vol. I., pp. 97,
98.

According to his promise, Captain Foster went to the city on the 19th
to hold an interview with General Schnierle and "several other
prominent citizens of Charleston" on the subject of the alleged
"intense excitement" which was again paraded as a menace to induce him
to return the arms. If he was originally surprised at the reported
excitement he was now still more astonished to find that it did not
exist except in the insurrectionary zeal of those who were performing
this farcical role purely for its theatrical effect. A majority of the
"prominent citizens," who had been convoked as a part of the stage
retinue to intimidate him by the threat of a mob, had not yet even
heard of the affair. Detecting readily the sham and pretense of the
performance, he seems to have at least accorded them the merit of an
honest delusion. He quietly and politely explained to them the
regularity of his orders and proceedings, and the good faith of himself
and his brother officers. But he firmly declined to return the muskets
until he should be directed to do so by the Government. Yet willing to
go to the verge of his discretion to allay irritation, he agreed to
appeal immediately by telegraph to the Ordnance Bureau for a decision.

He had not long to wait for a solution of the question. The Government
was in all appearance deaf to the advice of its Secretary of State,
General Cass, of its General-in-Chief, Lieutenant-General Scott, of its
Charleston Commander, Major Anderson, of its engineer, Captain Foster,
so long as the problem was the safety of three great forts. But when
the question became the possession of forty muskets, and the arming of
two ordnance sergeants, "men with worsted epaulettes on their shoulders
and stripes down their pantaloons" in the language of the Secretary of
War, that eminent functionary could sacrifice his rest and slumber to
the crisis. Captain Foster, who had returned from the city to Fort
Moultrie, was awakened a little after midnight to receive the following
peremptory instruction:

[Sidenote] W.R. Vol. I., p. 100.

I have just received a telegraphic dispatch informing me that y