"Raise the Flag, & Go!"

South Carolina Governor F. W. Pickens to Gen. James Simons of the 4th Brigade, S.C. Militia.

State of South Carolina
Head Quarters. 20th April 1861

Dear Genl:

The Navy yard at Norfolk is all in flames -- Baltimore unanimous on our side, and all communications with Washington cut off -- & only 5,000 troops in Washington -- it can be taken.

Troops are meeting from Augusta to Norfolk & will be there before we start.

Send Gregg immediately with as many as he can get -- wait not a moment, or we are ruined. I will send companies as fast as possible. Let Gregg start immediately with as many possible -- no delay -- for God sake make every thing move. Let Kershaws start with as many companies as he can get immediately. I have seen Beauregard, & he is sending the detailed orders.

We will be disgraced if Georgia gets there before we do. Raise the flag, & go -- My whole heart is with you. Washington is cut off -- and if we could march on it we could take it -- as Baltimore is a unit for us and Maryland rising. They are alarmed in Va. Genl. Taliaferro & Letcher both telegraph me this morning to push forward.

Truly,

Chronology: 1861

April 17: Virginia convention voted for secession.

April 18: Five companies of Pennsylvania troops reached Washington, the first to arrive. The U.S. Armory at Harper's Ferry, Va., at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah, was abandoned and burned by its garrison. In Richmond, the U.S. Custom House and Post Office was taken over by state troops on order of the Virginia Governor W.B. Letcher and two vessels seized in the James River. A pro-secession flag was raised on Federal Hill in Baltimore. Virginia was rapidly arming and organizing its state troops to defend its territory, even though not yet officially part of the Confederacy. President Davis told Gov. Letcher that the Confederacy would furnish whatever aid it could.

President Lincoln received eyewitness reports of what had happened at Charleston, quartered a group known as the "Frontier Guards" composed of Kansas men in the East Room of the White House.

April 19: President Lincoln declares blockade of Confederate states. Baltimore riots as the Sixth Massachusetts transfers trains in Baltimore. In Washington politicians as well as military men were organizing companies, patrolling streets, and guarding Federal buildings.

April 20: Several railroad bridges were burned to prevent passage of Union troops from Baltimore to Washington while rioting continued in the Maryland city. Col. Robert E. Lee formally resigned his commission in the U.S. Army. The night of April 20 the Federal Gosport Navy Yard near Norfolk, Va. was evacuated and partially burned by the garrison and several vessels scuttled.