Lowell (MA) Citizen & News, “Fort Sumter,” December 31, 1860

FORT SUMTER. The New York Tribune publishes a letter from Charleston, dated three days before the evacuation, which shows that it was then known to be in preparation. This letter says:

The revolutionists smell a rat! Fort Sumter is being garrisoned – at least such are the current reports. About a dozen men are reported to have arrived there yesterday (Sunday), and the rumor is that others came before them, and that more are to come in squads, till the number necessary to serve the guns arrive. It will not require more than one hundred men to enable Sumter to bid defiance to the entire southern confederacy, let them come in their best shape. This fort is considered impregnable. It commands Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, as well as the city. No doubt the Carolinians have been felicitating themselves on an easy possession of it, and the consequent speedy reduction of Fort Moultrie.