His authority was limited by his orders. To this day there is no record I know with "tangiable evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act" by any person or group.

"WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, December 21, 1860.
Major ANDERSON,
First Artillery, Commanding Fort Moultrie, S. C.:

SIR: In the verbal instructions communicated to you by Major Buell, you are directed to hold possession of the forts in the harbor of Charleston, and, if attacked, to defend yourself to the last extremity. Under these instructions, you might infer that you are required to make a vain and useless sacrifice of your own life and the lives of the men under your command, upon a mere point of honor. This is far from the President's intentions. You are to exercise a sound military discretion on this subject.

It is neither expected nor desired that you should expose your own life or that of your men in a hopeless conflict in defense of these forts. If they are invested or attacked by a fom ce so superior that resistance would, in your judgment, be a useless waste of life, it will be your duty
to yield to necessity, and make the best terms in your power.

This will be the conduct of an honorable, brave, and humane officer, and you will be fully justified in such action. These orders are strictly confidential, and not to be communicated even to the officers under your command, without close necessity,
Very respectfully,
JOHN B. FLOYD."

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"Memorandum of verbal instructions to Major Anderson, First Artillery, commanding at Fort
Moultrie, South Carolina.

You are aware of the great anxiety of the Secretary of War that a collision of the troops with the people of this State shall be avoided, and of his studied determination to pursue a course with reference to the military force and forts in this harbor which shall guard agaiust such a collision. He has therefore carefully abstained from increasing the force at this point, or taking any measures which might add to the present excited state of the public mind, or which would throw any doubt on the confidence he feels that South Carolina will not attempt by violence to obtain possession of the public Works or interfere with their occupancy. Bat as the counsel and acts of rash and impulsive persons may possibly disappoint these expectations of the Government, he deems it proper that you shall be prepared with instructions to meet so unhappy a contingency. He has therefore directed me verbally to give you such instructions.

You are carefully to avoid every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression; and f9r that reason you are not, without evident and imminent necessity, to take up any position which could be construed into the assumption of a hostile attitude. But you are to hold possession of the forts in this harbor, and if attacked you are to defend yourself to the last extremity. The smallness of yonr force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than one of the three forts, but an attack on or attempt to take possession of either one of them will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your command into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar defensive steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act.

D.C. BUELL,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

FORT MOULTRIE, S. C., December 11, 1860.

This is in conformity to my instructions to Major Bud.

JOHN B. FLOYD,
Secretary of War.

These were the last instructions transmitted to Major Anderson before his removal to Fort Sumter, with a single exception, in regard to a particular which does not in any degree affect the present question. Under these circumstances it is clear that Major Anderson acted upon his own responsibility, and without authority, unless, indeed, he had "tangiable evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act" on the part of the authorities of South Carolina, which has not yet been alleged. Still, he is a brave and honorable officer, and justice requires that he should not be condemned without a fair hearing.

Be this as it may, when I learned that Major Anderson had left Fort Moultrie and proceeded to Fort Sumter, my first promptings were to command him to return to his former position,..."

[President James Buchanan.]

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To the President of the United States, Washington D.C., January 1, 1861. From the Commissioners from South Carolina

"You received and acted on assurances from the highest official authorities of South Carolina that no attempt would be made to disturb your possession of the forts and property of the United States if you would not disturb their existing condition until commissioners had been sent and the attempt to negotiate had failed. You took from the members of the House of Representatives a written memorandum that no such attempt should be made, "provided that no re-enforcements shall be sent into those forts, and their relative military status shall remain as at present."....Scarcely had their commissioners left, than Major Anderson waged war. No other words will describe his action. It was not a peaceful change from one fort to another; it was a hostile act in the highest sense- one only justified in the presence of a superior enemy, and imminent peril. He abandoned his position, spiked his guns, burned his gun carriages, made preparations for the destruction of his post, and withdrew, under cover of the night, to a safer position. This was war.

No man could have believed (without your assurance) that any officer could have taken such a step, "not only without orders, but against orders." What the State did was in simple self-defense; for this act, with all its attending circumstances, was as much war as firing a volley; and war being thus begun..."

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Anderson's 'trying to avoid trouble' was really dereliction of duty. It had the opposite effect to the wishes of the President. Anderson went to far as to avoid trouble by not firing in defense of the Star of the West, who, with Anderson's help should have been successful in reenforcing Fort Sumter.

________________________
David Upton