P.G.T. Beauregard to Quincy A. Gillmore, August 22, 1863

Brig. Gen. Q. A. GILLMORE, Commanding U.S. Forces, Morris Island, S. C.:

Sir: Last night, at fifteen minutes before 11 o’clock, during my absence on a reconnaissance of my fortifications, a communication was received at these headquarters, dated headquarters Department of the South, Morris iano C., August 21, 1863, demanding the ”immediate evacuation of Morris Island and Fort Sumter by the Confederate forces,” on the alleged grounds that ” the present condition of Fort Sumter, the rapid and progressive destruction which it is undergoing from my batteries, seem to render its complete demolition within a few hours a matter of certainty ;” and that if this demand were ” not complied with, or no reply thereto were received within four hours after it is delivered into the hands of your (my) subordinate commander at Fort Wagner for transmission,” a fire would be opened on the city of Charleston ”from batteries already established within easy and effective range of the heart of the city.” This communication to my address was without signature, and was, of course, returned.

About half-past 1 this morning, one of your batteries did actually open and throw a number of heavy rifled shells into the city, the inhabitants of which, of course, were asleep and unarmed.

About 9 o’clock this morning, the communication alluded to above was returned to these headquarters, bearing your recognized official signature, and it can now be noticed as your deliberate, official act.

Among nations not barbarous the usages of war prescribe that when a city is about to be attacked timely notice shall be given by the attacking commander, in order that non-combatants may have an opportunity for withdrawing beyond its limits. Generally the time allowed is from one to three days; that is, time for a withdrawal, in good faith, of at least the women and children. You, sir, give only four hours, knowing that your notice, under existing circumstances, could not reach me in less than two hours, and that not less than the same time would be required for an answer to be conveyed from this city to Battery Wagner. With this knowledge, you threaten to open fire on the city, not to oblige its surrender, but to force me to evacuate these works, which you, assisted by a great naval force, have been attacking in vain for more than forty days.

Batteries Wagner and Gregg, and Fort Sumter, are nearly due north from your batteries on Morris Island, and in distance therefrom varying from half a mile to 24 miles. This city, on the other hand, is to the northwest, and quite 5 miles distant from the battery opened against it this morning.

It would appear, sir, that despairing of reducing these works, you now resort to the novel measure of turning your guns against the old men, the women and children, and the hospitals of a sleeping city, an act of inexcusable barbarity from your own confessed point of sight, inasmuch as you allege that the complete demolition of Fort Sumter within a few hours by your guns seems to you ‘”‘a matter of certainty.”

Your omission to attach your signature to such a grave paper must show the recklessness of the course upon which you have adventured; while the facts that you knowingly fixed a limit for receiving an answer to your demand which made it almost beyond the possibility of receiving any reply within that time, and that you actually did open fire and throw a number of the most destructive missiles ever used in war into the midst of a city taken unawares, and filled with sleeping women and children, will give you ”a bad eminence” in history, even in the history of this war.

I am only surprised, sir, at the limits you have set to your demand. If, in order to attain the bombardment of Morris Island and Fort Sumter, you feel authorized to fire on this city, why did you not also include the works on Sullivan’s and James Islands, nay, even the city of Charleston, in the same demand ?

Since you have felt warranted in inaugurating this method of reducing batteries in your immediate front which were found otherwise impregnable, and a mode of warfare which I confidently declare to be atrocious and unworthy of any soldier, I now solemnly warn you that if you fire again on this city from your Morris Island batteries without granting a somewhat more reasonable time to remove noncombatants, I shall feel impelled to employ such stringent means of retaliation as may be available during the continuance of this attack.

Finally, I reply, that neither the works on Morris Island nor Fort Sumter will be evacuated on the demand you have been pleased to make. Already, however, Iam taking measures to remove, with the utmost possible ee allnon-combatants, who are now fully aware of and alive to what they may expect at your hands.

Respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,