James Buchanan, Buchanan's administration on the eve of the rebellion

Having pointed out the course pursued by President Buchanan in regard to Fort Sumter, we must now return to Fort Pickens, in Florida. This feeble State was the last from which a revolutionary outbreak could have reasonably been expected. Its numbers had not entitled it to admission into the Union, and a large amount of blood and treasure had been expended by the Government of the United States for the protection and defence of its inhabitants against the Seminole Indians Nevertheless, weak as the State was, its troops, under the command of Colonel William H. Chase, formerly of the corps of engineers of the United States army, suddenly rose in rebellion, attacked the troops of the United States, and expelled them from Pensacola and the adjacent navy yard. Lieutenant Slemmer, of the artillery, and his brave little command, consisting of between seventy and eighty men, were thus forced to take refuge in Fort Pickens, where they were in imminent danger of being captured every moment by a greatly superior force.

From the interruption of regular communications with Washington, Secretary Holt did not receive information of these events until some days after their occurrence, and then only through a private channel Reenforcements were despatched