Fort Sumter: Civil War Beginnings: Line of Battle, #4

By Nick Vulich

Fort Sumter: Civil War Beginnings outlines the battle and explains how it came about. In less than an hour, you will meet the main participants, understand Union and Confederate troop movements, and learn how South Carolina initiated the first battle of the civil war. For those readers who want to know more and understand how contemporary readers learned about the battle, we included the original accounts printed in local and national newspapers.

It's not the complete story, but enough to bring you up to speed, understand the issues of the day, and maybe encourage you to explore more on your own.

Each book includes a timeline to help you see the bigger picture so you can watch events unfold.

****************************************************************
Whether you are a Civil War buff or are just looking for a simple overview of the Battle of Fort Sumter, you will enjoy this book. It is written in a simple, conversational style that makes it easy to understand the complex troop movements of the Union and Confederate armies.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Vulich
• Release date: Jan 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393717799

Book preview

Fort Sumter

Civil War Beginnings

Line of Battle – Book 4

Copyright ©2019 Nick Vulich

Table of Contents

Introduction

Time Line

Participants

Fort Sumter

After the Battle

Appendix

Forts in Charleston Harbor

Fort Sumter – Final Countdown

Battle of Fort Sumter

Report of J. G. Foster, Engineer

Footnotes

Introduction

––––––––

A very small affair, indeed, that shelling of Fort Sumter. And yet who can tell what may arise from it?

William Howard Russell[1]

––––––––

After one look at the forts in Charleston Harbor, William Howard Russell, the English war correspondent, saw the problem as clear as the nose on his face. If the commander of Sumter had been allowed to open his guns on the island the first time he saw the indication of throwing up a battery against him, he could have saved his fort.[2]

Major Robert Anderson had nothing to do with the loss of the forts. The blame rested entirely on the United States government and its mollycoddling of the South Carolinians. While the secessionists perfected their defenses and built new weapons, the Americans looked on castrated—and unable to respond because of war department orders not to appear aggressive.

Nothing about it made sense.

Looking around him, Russell saw gawkers and military men everywhere he went in Charleston. Secession is in fashion here. Young ladies sing for it; old ladies pray for it; young men are dying to fight for it; old men are ready to demonstrate for it.[3]

Such is the folly of war.

After the forts were taken, the people were changed. The utter contempt and loathing for the venerated Stars and Stripes, the abhorrence of the very words of the United States, the intense hatred of the Yankee on the part of these people, cannot be conceived by anyone who has not seen them, wrote Russell. I am more satisfied than ever that the Union can never be restored as it was and that it has gone to pieces, never to be put together again, in the old shape.[4]

Mary Chestnut was up at 4 am when the rebels attacked Fort Sumter. We hear nothing, can listen to nothing; boom, boom goes the cannon all the time. The nervous strain is awful.[5] For her, more so, because as she sat in that dark room, her husband floated in the dark harbor in a rowboat, moving from island to island as shells burst overhead.

Life in Charleston underwent subtle changes during the siege of Fort Sumter. Instead of meals, they served tea off trays. The negroes seemed unaffected. They just sat there profoundly indifferent. That confounded her the most. People talk before them as if they were chairs or tables. Still, the negroes made no sound. Are they stolidly stupid? Or wiser than we are, silent and strong, biding their time?[6]

When it was over, all was confusion.

The fort surrendered... Our flag is flying there. Fire engines have been sent for to put out the fire. Everybody tells you half of something and then rushes off to tell something else or to hear the last news.[7]

And later in the afternoon, everyone was gathered in the harbor with their glasses turned on the fort. So much excitement. It was more of a party than a war—at least, in those first few days.

Everyone knew the war was coming. No one believed it would happen.

President James Buchanan was part of the problem. Like Emperor Nero, he hid in the White House while the nation splintered. He said that no state had the power to secede, then added to Congress belongs the power to declare war, or authorize the employment of military force....[8]

In effect, the crafty devil shifted the blame for the impending conflict to Congress. I am president, he said. Secession is illegal, but I do not have any power to act or stop the individual states from seceding. It is up to Congress.

That assured, nothing would get done during his administration.

To better understand Buchanan’s viewpoint, we need to take a more in-depth look at his presidency. Just days after his inauguration, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, which stated that African Americans, whether freemen or slaves had no standing to sue in Federal courts. Many observers assumed it meant Congress had no authority to regulate slavery in states or territories acquired after the formation of the United States.

Buchanan assumed the Dred Scott decision had settled the slavery question once and for all. Instead, Northerners worried the decision would cause slavery to be legalized in the newly organized Western states and possibly restored in the Northern states. For the South, it was a vindication that slavery was legal. It strengthened their belief that abolitionists were enemies of the Union.

Tensions continued to flare throughout Buchanan’s presidency. In 1857 he supported the Lecompton Constitution, a document designed to protect the rights of slaveholders in Kansas. Northern Democrats, notably Stephen Douglas (architect of the Kansas-Nebraska Act), were outraged by the document. One result was a split in the Democratic Party during the 1860 election that enabled Abraham Lincoln to win the presidency.

The other problem was the Republican presidential candidate himself.

Abraham Lincoln challenged the crowd in a September 17, 1859 speech in Cincinnati. He said he often heard it said they were going to divide the Union[9] if a Republican got elected.

Lincoln scratched his head in askance, then asked the crowd, Well then, I want to know what you’re going to do with it?[10]

It was a good question and one that demanded answers. Lincoln explained that the Fugitive Slave Laws allow slaveowners to reclaim their property if they escape to the North. If they become two countries, then what?

After a pause, he asked, will you make war upon us, and kill us all?[11]

There it was. The W word (war) was on the table. Lincoln didn’t dare go any further; he broached the subject and let it go.

In another talk he delivered that day, Lincoln told the crowd he had no inclination to interfere with the institution of slavery where it now exists. He closed that portion of his speech, saying, I believe we have no power to do so.[12]

The problem was all the Southerners heard was Lincoln’s challenge: Will you make war upon us and kill us all?

Southerners expected the worst. South Carolina threatened to secede rather than suffer rule by Abraham Lincoln’s Black Republicans.

War was in the air.

In early January 1861, the New York Herald determined James Buchanan had done all he could to preserve the peace. Whatever he does from this point on is likely to precipitate a crisis. They believed Buchanan could not safely abandon Fort Sumter except by authority from Congress, and yet he cannot keep the United States flag flying over it without provoking a hostile assault.[13]

In many ways, the New York Herald shared the common fallacy of the day. They were sure it was still possible to pound out a compromise. And, if a war did break out by some chance, they believed it would be a short one and the outcome assured. The paper cautioned, the first necessity, then to the Union, is peace. Let peace be maintained a few weeks longer, and we shall have a reconciliation, a compromise, a restoration of the Union.[14]

They called for Buchanan to hold his ground and hang tight. They left it to the president-elect to affect a compromise and make peace.

Meanwhile, the South Carolinians continued to build their defenses in Charleston Harbor. The Union’s continued lethargy was an invitation to disaster.

This book outlines the Battle of Fort Sumter and explains how it came about.

In less than an hour, you will meet the main participants, understand Union and Confederate troop movements, and learn more about the opening battle of the Civil War.

For readers who would like to know more and understand how contemporary readers learned about the battle, I’ve included the original accounts of the fight as published in the New York Herald and the Yorkville Enquirer. Add to that the official report of J. G. Foster, who engineered Fort Sumter defenses.

It's not the complete story, but enough to bring you up to speed, understand the issues of the day, and maybe encourage you