Charleston Mercury
April 29, 1861
MAJOR ROBT. ANDERSON has made it a point at every stopping place at the North, to complain of our treatment in firing on Sumter after the Barracks were enveloped in flames. Did anybody prevent him pulling down his dirty stripes? And why is it that he has not told Northern people that he had a 10 inch Columniad planted on the Parade Ground at Fort Sumter, at an elevation sufficient to enable him to throw a 10 inch shell into the crowd of unarmed citizens, and helpless women, whom he knew full well would congregate in White Point Garden at the firing of the first gun. This is not a rumor the gun has been seen, the elevation and direction have been noticed, and by his own acknowledgment, and that of his officers, the guns in exposed places could not be worked without the certainty of destruction; so our mothers, wives and sisters have not been slaughtered, because our guns kept him in his casemates. This is the brave man who was supplied with fresh meat, vegetables, &c., &c., and was thought by some to be a friend.