150--Year--Ago: FORT MOULTRIE EVACUATED

The Charleston Mercury
December 28, 1860

An Harper's Weekly sketch of the evaucation aftermath
at Fort Moultrie, Charleston, S.C. (Library of Congress)

   The Events of Yesterday.--Charleston was yesterday morning thrown into a state of wildest excitement, by the news that the United States troops had been transferred from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. At first the flying rumors were so numerous and so contradictory that it was no easy matter to get at the truth; but in a short time the leading facts began to be pretty well established. It seems that on Wednesday night, about eight o'clock, Major Anderson and his command having spiked the guns, fired the gun carriages of Fort Moultrie, and sawed down the flagstaff, evacuated the place, and took possession of Fort Sumter instead. The ladies, who had hitherto lived in the fort had been previously sent to Charleston, and, whatever furniture, ammunition and provisions that could be moved without exciting suspicion, had been quietly transferred to Fort Sumter. The report that the defences of Fort Moultrie had been so shamefully mutilated naturally aroused great indignation in the city. People immediately sought the steeples and cupolas of the public buildings, and telescopes were brought into active requisition, to gratify the general curiosity. Little, however could be described beyond a dense smoke issuing from within the ramparts, and large gangs of men at work unloading cargoes of schooners into Fort Sumter.