The immediate necessity of settling this question, grows out of the fact, that there is only a limited supply of bread at Fort Sumter, but plenty of salt meat, and that it must either be re-supplied or abandoned very soon. The question has been under discussion in high military circles for several days.
Gen. Scott advises that reinforcements cannot now be put in, without an enormous sacrifice of life. Of course his views on the subject, cannot be known officially to the public; but he is understood to say that we have neither military nor naval force at hand, sufficient to supply the fort against the threatened-opposition, which it would require twenty thousand men to overcome. Besides, if it should initiate civil war, in addition to uniting the South and overwhelming the Union sentiment there in the waves, of passion, it would require two hundred and fifty thousand Government soldiers to carry on the struggle, and a hundred millions of money to begin with. In such an event, twenty thousand men would, be needed to preserve Washington and the Government archives.
The general impression here on the streets is that the Administration has determined on withdrawing the troops from Fort Sumter, leaving only one Corporal, two men, and the Stars and Stripes, compelling the chivalry to capture the fort after all. They have been threatening to do it for three months, and failed when there were only about seventy men in it. They may have an opportunity to accomplish it against only three.--Times, March 11.
