Major Anderson requests safe passage for the soldiers' families at Fort Sumter before any attack begins

Major Anderson sent one of his officers, Lieutenant  Snyder, to request from Governor Pickens permission to send away in safety the forty-five women and children then in the garrison at Fort Sumter, prior to any attack.  Pickens granted this request in writing but at the same time ordered no further communications, or transport of supplies between Charleston and the fort so as to "prevent irregular collisions, and to spare the unnecessary effusion of blood."  (By John Osborne)