You say, There was no threat to Anderson. Based on What?
Does the word "threat" mean one must be hit, kicked, or fired on, for a threat to exist?? Would threat, also include words directed at one, weapons waved at?? You know it does.
Did Anderson tell you that he never felt threatened prior to his move to Sumter? Did Anderson tell anyone after the Sumter Crisis that he had never felt threatened while at Ft. Moultrie? Documentation??
Since Anderson was there, in 1860-61, he would define what he considered a threat, not us, today, in the 21 century.
1st, lets go back to the historical record and look at his orders again:
OR Series 1, vol. 1 page 89-90
FORT MOULTRIE, S.C., December 11, 1860.
Memorandum of verbal instructions to Major Anderson,
"The smallness of your 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 any 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 steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act<---------------.
D.C. BUELL, Assistant Adjutant-General."
Then:
S1,V1 page 103
"WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, December 21, 1860.
Major ANDERSON, ....-------->If they are invested or attacked<-------- by a force 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. ...........Very respectfully, JOHN B. FLOYD.
Now, maybe you should be the one directed to actually go back and read the Historical records, as you insist for everyone else. These don't tell him to move if Fired on, but if he believes that an attack is going to be made on him.
So, we need to see what Anderson said, in 1860-61, not what anyone in the 21st century claims:
Maury Klein writes in Days of Defiance about Anderson's quandary just prior to SC's secession:
pg 151-152
"If attacked, he was to defend himself, but no reinforcements would be sent because they might increase already inflamed feelings and trigger the attack no one wanted. Meanwhile, all around him the locals were arming, organizing, drilling, boasting loudly about how the forts would be theirs once the state had seceded. Relations between the officers and citizens had not yet grown hostile, but no one knew how long that civility would last. Rumors exploded like firecrackers and sent people flying in every direction. On the (December) 5th Anderson and Huger went into the city to see the mayor and some other prominent citizens and received the same messages from all of them: They would do everything to prevent a mob, but one way or another the forts would be theirs after secession."
{Klein's source-OR1, 1-82-85; Crawford, Samuel W., The Genesis of the Civil war:The Story of Sumter (New York, 1887)}
Clearly, Anderson felt his small command was threatened. Moultrie was a fort designed to prevent assault by sea, not by land. The point being he was trying to remove his command before it was attacked. Clearly, he felt he was being threatened.
Also from Klein: pg 153:
"The more Anderson brooded over the impossibility of the situation, the more he found to brood over....Then came another unsettling piece of news: Foster and other men reported that steamers had begun patrolling the waters between Moultrie and Sumter on the night of the 20th. The night watch had hailed one of them from Pinckney and asked what it wanted, 'You will know in a week' came the reply across the dark water.
"What did it mean? Anderson wondered."
{Klein's source-OR1, 105-6}
South Carolina was hardly an innocent in this. No wonder Anderson moved his men.
More: Klein: pg 153.
"The whole situation at the arsenal was strange. State Troops had been posted there since November 9, ostensibly to prevent any mob attack but also to certify any movement of arms from the stores. Midefull of the absurdity that the garrison could not even obtain arms to defend itself from the government's own storehouse, Foster complied suddenly with Floyd's order. On the day he agreed to return the muskets South Carolina passed its secession ordiance...." (The order from Floyd was to return the 40 muskets drawn by Foster, from the National Armory, for the protection of the workers at Fort Sumter)
{Klein's source, OR 1, 1-98-103; Crawford, Genesis..119-121}
Yea, I also own this book. And its sitting right next to Series 1, Vol 1 of the OR's. I also have the OR's mounted on 3 different computers at the present time (was on 4 until it took a dive). Also loaded are the SHSP, {which I enjoy reading, especially the section containing the Procedings of the Confederate Congress} , and, the Navy OR's and the 12 vol. Confederate Military History. I only wish someone would put the "Confederate Veteran" on disc, with a easy to use format.