[The following takes place during the first strokes of the American Civil War, when South Carolina militiamen took over nearby Castle Pinckney from the resident Federal troops.]
Lieutenant Meade [the resident Federal officer] refused to watch the flag-raising ceremony. He went to his room to compose a report. When Pettigrew [leader of the South Carolinian militia that had taken the fort] came to him, Meade asked whether he was to be a prisoner. No, Pettigrew replied, but if Meade left this fort, he would not be permitted to return, unless he gave his “parole.” The young lieutenant, quite properly, refused this, since to offer a parole to Pettigrew would be to recognize South Carolina as a foreign government with which the United States was at war.
Then, in a remarkably incongruous moment, Pettigrew diffidently asked Meade if the South Carolina militiamen could have permission to use the fort’s cooking stove. (During the next few months those on both sides felt uncomfortable with genuine hostility and often found it impossible to behave like thugs. This phase of the war, predictably, eventually passed, leaving behind pleasant myths about a chivalric conflict.)
Lieutenant Meade told Pettigrew that he could hardly give any such permission to what, legally, were a band of pirates.
Source:
Detzer, David. “Dueling Flags.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 135. Print.
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