A Slave at Fort Sumter Letter. A mystery that has never been resolved.
General David F. Jamison (President of the South Carolina Secession Convention in 1860), writes to Ft. Sumter’s doctor, Asst. Surgeon Samuel W. Crawford, on SC Department of War letterhead on Feb. 26, 1861. The subject concerns the fort’s only remaining hired slave, Thomas Moore Lynch, nicknamed “Jim,” who won’t be permitted to return due to a police investigation.
Jim and his mother were literate despite the state’s prohibition, and above, Jamison states Jim’s “very improper correspondence” with her “has been discovered by the police … and that his owner is unwilling to permit his return” as “the reason for his prolonged absence.” It is alleged their mutual owner claimed Jim had written his mother saying that should a conflict with Sumter begin, Charleston’s slaves would rise up to defend the Union. However, Jamison himself later contended she was supplying Jim with military dispositions, adding it was the result of Sumter’s officers corrupting him with abolitionist ideas.
Anticipating the conflict, the cover of Harper’s Weekly depicts Dr. Crawford, seated 2nd from right, next to Sumter’s commander, Major Robert Anderson, 2nd from left. Jim had a keen intellect and worked closely with Lieutenants Snyder and Meade, pictured standing 2nd from left and 2nd from right respectively. Harper’s Weekly, Mar. 23, 1861.
In Dr. Crawford’s diary (at the Library of Congress), he cites the above letter upsetting the latter two officers because Major Anderson – a former Kentucky slaveholder who favored both union and slavery – refused to push Jamison for Jim’s release.
We may never know whether Jim actually gave his life in spying for the Union six weeks prior to the 34-hour shelling of Sumter, April 12-14, 1861, reducing it to smoking rubble.