"Mr Binney* has written a letter. It is in the Intelligencer. He offers Lincoln life and fortune; all that he has is put at Lincoln's disposal to conquer us.
Queer. We only want to separate from them, and they put such an inordinate value on us, they are willing to risk all—life and limb and all their money—to keep us, they love us so.
Mr Chesnut is accused of firing the first shot. And his cousin, the Reverend ex-West Pointer, writes in a martial fury.
They confounded the best shot made on the island the day of the picnic, with the first shot at Fort Sumter.
That is claimed by Capt. James.** Others say it was one of the Gibbses.
Anderson fired the train which blew up the Union when he slipped into Fort Sumter that night when we expected to talk it over."
*Horace Binney, Philadelphia lawyer and brother-in-law of Mrs James Chestnut, Sr, supported Abraham Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and helped give the measure the legitimacy it badly needed.
**Capt. George S. James, commanding a mortar battery on James Island, did indeed fire the signal shot at 4:30 a.m. that opened the bombardment.
