"I am still confused by the lack of a reply to the steady request for orders or assistance from the Charleston Arsenal in December. The acting commander of the arsenal tried to get anything he could from any official in DC but recieved nothing. He had to surrender it to the South Carolina Militia. I wonder if the lack of 'interest' in that issue may have been part of his reason the resign from the US Army and join the Confederate Army."

Let me give you some food for thought.

Shortly after the election of Lincoln several federal arsenals in the south were suddenly garrisoned where there was not a previous garrison. Two arsenals I can think of that were garrisoned by companys of the 2nd US artillery were the arsenals at Little Rock, Ar. and at Augusta, Ga. There were other companies of the 2nd Us Artillery from Fort levenworth Ks that garrisoned some other arsenals but I can't think of their names right now.

Now the question is why did these arsenal suddenly need to be garrisoned so quickly after Lincoln election? The Garrisons being only one company each were not large enough to actually defend these arsenal. But they were large enough to cause an "Incident". These garrisons seemed to be "Scarificial Lambs", so to speak, in order to provoke an incident by which Lincoln would be justified in sending in other troops. The problem was that each of these garrisons surrendered peacefully without a conflict and bloodshed so Lincoln didn't get his "Spark", his excuse, His just reason he needed, to start his war. Hence he had to stage the re-enforcement of Fort Sumter to finally get his "Incident", his 'Act of War' on the part of the Southern people so that he could make it look like they started the War..

This is what I believe was happening with the Arsenal at Charleston. Why no help or even instruction were forthcoming to give the commander guidence. And why I believe that the commander surrendered the arsenal, resigned his commission and joined the Confederacy once he realized what was going on. That he had been hung out on a limb by Lincoln.