The commander of Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, requested that Governor Pickens of South Carolina allow the evacuation of the forty-two women and children from the fort and their departure by steamer for New York.  Pickens complied with courtesy and on February 1, 1861, the dependents transferred from the fort to the S.S. Marion and sailed out of harbor at noon two days later.  (By John Osborne) 

South Carolina authorities had begun to permit a mail exchange on January 14, 1861, and five days later a boat delivered a two-day supply of fresh meat and vegetables to Fort Sumter.  Although the garrison had had no fresh provisions for weeks, Major Anderson refused the shipment, stating that all supplies must be purchased on a federal contract.  When he later tried to renew his old official supply contract in Charleston, however, he got no immediate response since the contractor had not been paid for earlier materials.   (By John Osborne) 

Governor Pickens of South Carolina sent his Secretary of State, A.G. Magrath, and his Secretary of War, D.F. Jamison, under a flag of truce to Fort Sumter to request that Major Anderson and his men evacuate and turn over the installation to South Carolina. After an extended discussion, Anderson declined to surrender the fort.  He did request Pickens to allow one of his officers to travel to Washington DC for instructions and the next day the Governor complied.  (By John Osborne) 

Littleton Q. Washington, Dickinson College class of 1845, was a ardent secessionist with a minor post in the Buchanan administration.  He dispatched a telegram to Governor Pickens of South Carolina telling him that Secretary of the Interior Thompson had resigned over the fact that troops were being sent from New York that evening.  This and other leaks alerted the authorities in Charleston to the subsequent arrival the next day of the resupply and reinforcement ship Star of the West.  (By John Osborne)  

Alabama left the Union when its Secession Convention passed its ordinance in the early afternoon at Montgomery by a vote of 61 to 39.  Citing the republicans as "a sectional party, avowedly hostile to the domestic institutions, and peace and and security of the people of the State of Alabama," the legislation also invited "the slaveholding states of the South" to meet in Montgomery on February 4, 1861 to form a confederated government.  (By John Osborne)