As December began, Major Robert Anderson and most of his Federal command was stationed at Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. A Federal detachment under Captain John G. Foster occupied Castle Pinckney, which was much closer to Charleston than Moultrie and therefore more vulnerable to potential attack. Fort Sumter, a man-made island in the harbor about a mile southwest of Moultrie and three miles east of Charleston, was unoccupied.
In a letter to Washington written on December 1, Anderson opened by reporting “that things look more gloomy than the day at the date of my last communication (November 28).” Federals who had interacted with Charlestonians “say that anything which indicates a determination on the part of the General Government to act with an unusual degree of vigor in putting these works in a better state of defense will be regarded as an act of aggression, and will… cause an attack to be made on this fort.”
The next day, Anderson reported that Foster was in the process of strengthening Castle Pinckney, and once completed, “I shall feel that, by the blessing of God, even my little command will be enabled to make such a resistance that the authorities of South Carolina will, though they may surround, hardly venture to attack us.” Anderson also noted: “We expect a full supply of provisions about the 10th of the month. I trust that such arrangements will be made to secure their delivery, as well as that of the supply of ordnance and ordnance stores recently required.”…