Thanks Doyle. That does make sense and explains why the state militias took back posession. It was real smart of them to do it before Sumter. It looks to me like they were getting their ducks in a row 'just in case' and the Feds knew why they were doing it. Even more interesting, the Feds had to keep supplying these arsenals so most were well stocked when the individual states retook them.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mal:@field(DOCID+@lit(d0794200))

Pam