50
	Ripley and His Garrison.
Fort Sumter ��don�t prevent us.�  I asked if
he thought Moultrie could be held, if Sumter
opened fire upon it.    �Perhaps a couple of hours,�
said Ripley �and he may blow us to h__l in
half that time!�     He talked more freely thus
than he did afterwards, speaking in a hearty
military tone about Bob Anderson, and in
some degree tal discussing the matter as if it were
a joke.          Ripley impressed me as a perfect
soldier of fortune with with some private pique
against the U. S. Government, disliking the
Republican party but a little disposed to pooh-
pooh the un-military indefitniteness of the
Secessionists.   I had that day�s Mercury
and gave it to him.   Asking about the young
fellows who were in the fort he said they were
�as green as grass but they had pluck enough
and would fight like hell!�     They were greatly
excited during the firing on the Star of the West
and must needs entreat him to let them blaze
away with a cannon, too, though they could
do no possible mischief and he and they fully
expected that Anderson would open fire upon
them from Fort Sumter, in retaliation.    There
was a story about this in, I think, the paper
I had given Ripley stating that he had consent-