I had forgotten that a cadet unit occupied Morris Island at that point (and I had just read about it, too!). Just finished reading James Lee Conrad's The Young Lions : Confederate Cadets At War (Mechanicsburg, PA : Stackpole Books, 1997). I recommend it. It covers the military schools in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, Appropos here is the passage on pp. 31-32 which reads, "The South Carolinian troops around the harbor were placed on alert with orders to prevent the ship [Star of the West] from reaching the fort [Sumter]. The Citadel cadet gun crew was called out by the firing of three blank rounds from a fieldpiece run out in the barracks' sally port. Major [Peter F.] Stevens formed up the forty-man gun crew and marched it to the Charleston-Morris Island ferry landing. After passing directly under Sumter's guns, the ferry deposited the cadets at Cumming's Point, where they spent the rest of the day drilling and preparing their guns. A guard boat in the harbor first spotted the Star of the West at daybreak on January 9 and signaled the defenders on shore. Cadet William S. Simkins saw the signal and sounded the arlarm in the sand battery. The cadets rushed to their places, gunners poised with lanyards in hand. The Star of the West, 'a beautiful ship decked from stem to stern; from water line to topmost mast as in holiday attire,' passed into the channel and rapidly decreased the range between it and the cadet guns. The officers in command of the sand battery garrision hesitated, undoubtedly deterred by the prospect of actually firing upon the Stars and Sripes. Seveens, true to his orders to stop the Star of the West, shouted, 'Commence Firing!' Cadet Captain John M. Whilden passed the order: 'Number One, Fire!' and Cadet George E. 'Tuck' Haynsworth of Sumter, South Carolina, yanked his lanyard and sent a shell sailing over the Star of the West. Cadet Samuel B. Pickens fired the second gun. Then the firing continued at will...."

This still begs the issue of who was in overall command.