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February 9, 1861 - Captain Joseph Foster to General Joseph Totten

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Union Correspondence, etc.

FORT SUMTER, S.C., February 9, 1861.

General JOS. G. TOTTEN,
Chief Engineer U.S. Army, Washington, D.C.:

GENERAL: Nothing of marked importance has transpired since the date of my last better. Your letters of the 2nd and 6th are received. The South Carolinians on Cummings Point have been occupied in perfecting the embrasures and merlons for the three guns in the field work that bear most directly upon this fort, in connecting this battery with the bomb-proof iron-covered battery by a curtain, and in completing this latter battery and extending the parapet of its flanks. On Fort Moultrie the merlons between the guns looking in this direction have been still farther raised, made roof-shaped on top, and supported more strongly by horizontal timbers, kept in place by braces extending across the embrasures at the top. I am now mining the wharf, and am also to arrange fougasses at different points on the exterior.

There does not appear to be very great activity among the South Carolinians, although the force is maintained the same.

I hear that five columbiads have arrived in the city from Richmond, and more are expected.

It is reported that the floating battery prepared in the city is a failure, the draught being greater than was expected.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

J.G. FOSTER,
Captain, Engineers.

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