The History of the Civil War: The Causes, Battles, and Generals of the War Between the States

By Charles River Editors (Editor)

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take 4 years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it did, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the biggest battles ever since.

The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for secession, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War.

On December 20, a little more than a month after Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined.

The Confederacy's hope of being let go in peace ended at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War. For nearly 36 hours, Beauregard’s Confederates unleashed a general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars positioned at various points across the Harbor. Unable to effectively reply or defend themselves, Major Robert Anderson raised the white flag early in the afternoon of April 13, bringing the first battle of the Civil War to a close. No casualties were suffered on either side during the dueling bombardments across Charleston Harbor, but ironically two U.S. Army soldiers were killed by an accidental explosion during the surrender ceremonies.

After Fort Sumter, the Lincoln Administration pushed for a quick invasion of Virginia, with the intent of defeating Confederate forces and marching toward the Confederate capitol of Richmond. Lincoln pressed Irvin McDowell to push forward. Despite the fact that McDowell knew his troops were inexperienced and unready, pressure from the Washington politicians forced him to launch a premature offensive against Confederate forces in Northern Virginia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Charles River Editors
• Release date: May 2, 2025
• ISBN: 9781475332773

Book preview

The History of the Civil War: The Causes, Battles, and Generals of the War Between the States

By Charles River Editors

File:Waud Chickamauga.jpg

Painting by Alfred Waud depicting a Confederate advance at Chickamauga

About Charles River Editors

Charles River Editors was founded by Harvard and MIT alumni to provide superior editing and original writing services, with the expertise to create digital content for publishers across a vast range of subject matter. In addition to providing original digital content for third party publishers, Charles River Editors republishes civilization’s greatest literary works, bringing them to a new generation via ebooks.

Introduction

File:Battle of Shiloh Thulstrup.jpg

The Civil War

*Includes pictures of important people, places, and events.

*Includes maps of the battles.

*Explains the causes and chain of events that led to the secession of Southern states and the formation of the Confederacy.

*Includes a Bibliography for further reading.

*Includes a Table of Contents.

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves.

The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take 4 years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it did, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the biggest battles ever since.

The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for secession, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War.

On December 20, a little more than a month after Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined.

The Confederacy's hope of being let go in peace ended at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War. For nearly 36 hours, Beauregard’s Confederates unleashed a general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars positioned at various points across the Harbor. Unable to effectively reply or defend themselves, Major Robert Anderson raised the white flag early in the afternoon of April 13, bringing the first battle of the Civil War to a close. No casualties were suffered on either side during the dueling bombardments across Charleston Harbor, but ironically two U.S. Army soldiers were killed by an accidental explosion during the surrender ceremonies.

After Fort Sumter, the Lincoln Administration pushed for a quick invasion of Virginia, with the intent of defeating Confederate forces and marching toward the Confederate capitol of Richmond. Lincoln pressed Irvin McDowell to push forward. Despite the fact that McDowell knew his troops were inexperienced and unready, pressure from the Washington politicians forced him to launch a premature offensive against Confederate forces in Northern Virginia.

Today First Bull Run is remembered as the first important land battle of the Civil War, but with over 350 killed on each side, it was the deadliest battle in American history to date, and both the Confederacy and the Union were quickly served notice that the war would be much more costly than either side had believed.

The 10 biggest Civil War battles were incredibly bloody, desperate fights that involved the war's most famous figures and determined the fate of several states. All told, over a quarter of a million casualties were inflicted by the two sides during the 10 largest battles, and the fates of the battles and the war itself hung in the balance.

Shiloh, Stones River and Chickamauga would all feature Union heroes like Ulysses S. Grant and George H. Thomas preserving Federal control over Tennessee and Kentucky. But during those same periods of time, Robert E. Lee was leading the Army of Northern Virginia to victory over several Union commanders at Fredericksburg, Second Bull Run, and Chancellorsville.

Of course, the most famous battles of the war involved the Army of the Potomac blunting Lee's offensives at Antietam and Gettysburg. Antietam was the bloodiest day of the war and forced Lee out of Maryland, allowing Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. The following summer would see the biggest and most famous battle at Gettysburg. Lee would try and fail to dislodge the Union army with attacks on both of its flanks during the second day and Pickett’s Charge right down the center of the line on the third and final day. Meade’s stout defense held, barely, repulsing each attempted assault, handing the Union a desperately needed victory that ended up being one of the Civil War’s turning points.

At the Battle of the Wilderness (May 5-7, 1864), Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee fought to a standstill in their first encounter, failing to dislodge each other despite incurring nearly 30,000 casualties between the Union Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Despite the fierce fighting, Grant continued to push his battered but resilient army south, hoping to beat Lee’s army to the crossroads at Spotsylvania Court House, but Lee’s army beat Grant’s to Spotsylvania and began digging in, setting the scene for on and off fighting from May 8-21 that ultimately inflicted more casualties than the Battle of the Wilderness. In fact, with over 32,000 casualties among the two sides, it was the deadliest battle of the Overland Campaign.

Just as the war was nearing its end, its most shocking event took place. Until April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth was one of the most famous actors of his time, and President Abraham Lincoln had even watched him perform. But his most significant performance at a theater did not take place on the stage. That night, Booth became one of history’s most infamous assassins when he assassinated President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor. But he was also a Confederate sympathizer who dabbled in espionage, and he was increasingly outraged at the Lincoln Administration. Although Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered days earlier, Booth believed the war was not yet over because Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army was still fighting the Union Army, so he and his group of conspirators plotted to kill Lincoln and other top officials in a bid to decapitate the federal government and help the South.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the actor’s flair for the dramatic came at a cost to the plot. It took almost no time for the shocked public and the federal government to begin unraveling Booth’s conspiracy, which had mostly faltered from the beginning. Following the shooting, America’s most famous manhunt commenced, which itself became the stuff of legends. After the shooting, during which it is believed he broke his leg, Booth fled south on horseback, with authorities hot on his tail. 12 days later, while he was at a farm in rural northern Virginia, Booth was tracked down and shot by Boston Corbett, a Union soldier who acted against orders. Eight others were tried for their alleged involvement in the plot and convicted, and four were hanged shortly thereafter as a result of some of the nation’s most famous trials.

The History of the Civil War comprehensively analyzes the events that brought about the war, the major campaigns and decisive battles, and the aftermath of the nation’s deadliest conflict. Accounts of the battles by important generals are included, along with analysis of the generals and fighting. Along with maps of the battle and pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Civil War like you never have before.

The History of the Civil War: The Causes, Battles, and Generals of the War Between the States

About Charles River Editors

Introduction

The Start of the Civil War

Chapter 1: 19th Century Politics and the Election of 1860

Chapter 2: South Carolina Secedes

Chapter 3: Following South Carolina’s Lead

Chapter 4: Forming the Confederacy

Chapter 5: Charleston Harbor

Chapter 6: Fort Sumter’s Defenses Before the Battle

Chapter 7: Communications Before the Battle

Chapter 8: April 12, 1861

Chapter 9: April 13, 1861

The First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas)

Chapter 10: Preparing for War

Chapter 11: McDowell Advances

Chapter 12: Skirmishing at Blackburn’s Ford

Chapter 13: July 19-20, 1861

Chapter 14: McDowell’s Turning Movement

Chapter 15: There Stands Jackson Like a Stonewall

Chapter 16: The Aftermath

The Battle of Shiloh

Chapter 17: Johnston, Grant, and Sherman

Chapter 18: Fort Henry and Fort Donelson

Chapter 19: The Armies Catch Their Breath

Chapter 20: The Beginning of the Battle

Chapter 21: The Hornet’s Nest

Chapter 22: Holding the Line

Chapter 23: April 7, 1862

Chapter 24: The Aftermath of Shiloh

Bibliography

The Peninsula Campaign and the Northern Virginia Campaign

Chapter 25: The Peninsula Campaign

Chapter 26: John Pope and the Army of Virginia

Chapter 27: Cedar Mountain

Chapter 28: Moving Toward Manassas

Chapter 29: August 28, 1862

Chapter 30: August 29, 1862

Chapter 31: August 30, 1862

Chapter 32: The Aftermath of the Battle

Bibliography

The Maryland Campaign of 1862

Chapter 33: Lee Decides to Invade Maryland

Chapter 34: Initial Movements

Chapter 35: The Lost Order

Chapter 36: Harpers Ferry

Chapter 37: Dispositions Before the Battle

Chapter 38: The Beginning of the Battle

Chapter 39: Fighting in the Center

Chapter 40: Burnside’s Attack

Chapter 41: Lee’s Retreat and the Aftermath

Bibliography

The Fredericksburg Campaign

Chapter 42: The Aftermath of Antietam

Chapter 43: Moving Toward Fredericksburg

Chapter 44: Crossing the Rappahannock

Chapter 45: Fighting South of Fredericksburg

Chapter 46: It Is Well That War Is So Terrible

Chapter 47: The Aftermath of the Battle of Fredericksburg

Bibliography

The Battle of Stones River

Chapter 48: Middle Tennessee

Chapter 49: Moving to Murfreesboro

Chapter 50: December 31, 1862

Chapter 51: January 1-3, 1863

Chapter 52: The Aftermath of the Battle of Stones River

Bibliography

The Chancellorsville Campaign

Chapter 53: Preparing for the Chancellorsville Campaign

Chapter 54: Getting the Jump on Lee

Chapter 55: May 1, 1863

Chapter 56: May 2, 1863

Chapter 57: May 3, 1863

Chapter 58: Hooker Withdraws

Chapter 59: The Aftermath of Chancellorsville

Bibliography

The Pennsylvania Campaign

Chapter 60: The Battle of Brandy Station

Chapter 61: Lee Invades Pennsylvania

Chapter 62: July 1, 1863

Chapter 63: July 2, 1863

Chapter 64: July 3, 1863

Chapter 65: Controversy over Lee’s Retreat

Chapter 66: Who’s to Blame?

Chickamauga and Chattanooga

Chapter 67: The Summer of 1863

Chapter 68: Davis’s Cross Roads

Chapter 69: Concentrating the Army of the Cumberland

Chapter 70: September 19, 1863

Chapter 71: The Morning of September 20, 1863

Chapter 72: The Union Blunder

Chapter 73: The Rock of Chickamauga

Chapter 74: Beginning the Siege of Chattanooga

Chapter 75: Reorganization in October

Chapter 76: The Cracker Line

Chapter 77: Battle of Wauhatchie

Chapter 78: Preparing for Battle

Chapter 79: The Battle of Lookout Mountain

Chapter 80: The Battle of Missionary Ridge

Chapter 81: The Aftermath of Chickamauga and Chattanooga

Bibliography

The Overland Campaign

Chapter 82: Grant Comes East

Chapter 83: Entering the Wilderness

Chapter 84: May 5, 1864

Chapter 85: May 6, 1864

Chapter 86: The Campaign Continues

Chapter 87: Racing to Spotsylvania

Chapter 88: May 8, 1864

Chapter 89: Digging In

Chapter 90: May 10, 1864

Chapter 91: May 11, 1864

Chapter 92: The Bloody Angle

Chapter 93: Lee Lives to Fight Another Day

Chapter 94: Moving to the North Anna

Chapter 95: May 23, 1864

Chapter 96: May 24, 1864

Chapter 97: May 25-26, 1864

Chapter 98: Heading Toward Cold Harbor

Chapter 99: Fighting over the Crossroads

Chapter 100: June 1, 1864

Chapter 101: June 2, 1864

Chapter 102: June 3, 1864

Chapter 103: The Aftermath of Cold Harbor and the Overland Campaign

Moving to Petersburg

Chapter 104: The First Battle of Petersburg

Chapter 105: Crossing the James

Chapter 106: June 15, 1864

Chapter 107: June 16, 1864

Chapter 108: June 17, 1864

Chapter 109: June 18, 1864

Chapter 110: Beginning a Siege

Chapter 111: Planning the Mine

Chapter 112: Planning the Attack

Chapter 113: The Battle of the Crater

Winning the West

Chapter 114: The Atlanta Campaign

Chapter 115: Sherman’s March to the Sea and the Sledge of Nashville

Chapter 116: Sherman and Columbia

Chapter 117: The Siege of Petersburg

Chapter 118: Five Forks

Chapter 119: Appomattox

Chapter 120: The Last Confederates in the Field

Chapter 121: Booth’s Plot Against the President

Chapter 122: From Kidnap to Murder

Chapter 123: The Manhunt for Booth

Chapter 124: The Aftermath of the Lincoln Assassination

Chapter 125: Ending the War

The Start of the Civil War

Chapter 1: 19th Century Politics and the Election of 1860

[T]his momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. it is hushed indeed for the moment. but this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper. – Thomas Jefferson

When President Thomas Jefferson went ahead with the Louisiana Purchase, he wasn’t entirely sure what was on the land he was buying, or whether the purchase was even constitutional. Ultimately, the Louisiana Purchase encompassed all or part of 15 current U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, including Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River, most of North Dakota, nearly all of South Dakota, northeastern New Mexico, northern Texas, the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide, and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans. In addition, the Purchase contained small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The purchase, which immediately doubled the size of the United States at the time, still comprises around 23% of current American territory.

With so much new territory to carve into states, the balance of Congressional power became a hot topic in the decade after the purchase, especially when the people of Missouri sought to be admitted to the Union in 1819 with slavery being legal in the new state. While Congress was dealing with that, Alabama was admitted in December 1819, creating an equal number of free states and slave states. Thus, allowing Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state would disrupt the balance.

James Tallmadge of New York was the first to try to address this issue by limiting slavery in Missouri, and the Tallmadge Amendment sought to ensure that children of slave parents born in Missouri would automatically go free at the age of 25: And provided, That the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been fully convicted; and that all children born within the said State, after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." While the House passed legislation with that amendment in it, the Senate refused to go along with it.

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Tallmadge

The Senate ultimately got around this issue by establishing what became known as the Missouri Compromise. Legislation was passed that admitted Maine as a free state, thus balancing the number once Missouri joined as a slave state. Moreover, slavery would be excluded from the Missouri Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north, which was the southern border of Missouri itself. As a slave state, Missouri would obviously serve as the lone exception to that line.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 staved off the crisis for the time being, but by setting a line that excluded slave states above the parallel, it would also become incredibly contentious.

In 1831, the South was suffering under the harsh effects of the Tariff of 1828, which had been passed during the presidency of John Quincy Adams. The tariff taxed the importation of manufactured goods, many of which came from the industries of Great Britain, with the intention of protecting industry in the Northern states from competition from foreign industrial countries. The South, however, was less industrial and relied on the export of cotton; by reducing the competitiveness of British industry, the economy there was less able to afford to import cotton from the United States. To the South, the protective tariffs were one-sided and supported the North at the expense of the South, and the region loudly opposed them.

Congress worked to soften and reduce the impact of the tariff with the Tariff of 1832, which was less harsh than the one from 1828, but the South still opposed the bill. In response, South Carolina began to consider passing an ordinance of nullification, prohibiting the tariff within its borders. Vice President John C. Calhoun encouraged the act and supported its constitutionality. On November 19th, South Carolina adopted the Ordinance of Nullification, overturning the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 within its borders. It also vowed that any attempts to enforce the law within its borders would lead to the state's secession from the Union.

Modern American jurisprudence has ensured that federal laws are supreme to state laws when they are in conflict, but South Carolina’s assertion that it had the ability to nullify a federal law dated all the way back to the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which were drafted by Jefferson and Madison. Together, the two drafted the first major political documents advocating the rights of the states to nullify federal law that the states believed was unconstitutional. Citing this doctrine of nullification, various states in both the North and South asserted the states’ rights to consider federal laws invalid. The Resolutions sought to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts within those states back in the late 18th century, Northern states debated nullification during the War of 1812, and in 1860, Southern states would take nullification one step further to outright secession, leading to the Civil War.

Amid the crisis, President Andrew Jackson was reelected by a wide margin. He did not, however, win the state of South Carolina, which nominated its own candidate, John Floyd of the Nullifier Party. Within less than a week of his reelection, Jackson stated his position on the Nullification Crisis, asserting that the doctrine of Nullification was an impractical absurdity, defied Constitutional law, and was tantamount to treason. President Jackson absolutely denied that a state had the right to overturn federal law, and he committed the U.S. military to quelling any attempts to do that in South Carolina. Ten days later, Vice President Calhoun resigned, having won a seat in the U.S. Senate, and he continued to support Nullification throughout the crisis.

John C. Calhoun

To give added support to his demands, the President asked Congress for an authorization to use force in January of 1833. On February 20th, Congress passed the Force Bill, known as the Bloody Bill, which authorized Jackson to use military force in South Carolina. Jackson went beyond this, vowing to personally murder John C. Calhoun and hang him high as Hamen. Such belligerent militance was typical of President Jackson, but Congress ultimately managed a compromise in March, authored by the Great Compromiser Henry Clay himself. The new bill reduced all tariffs for a ten year period and was signed into law on March 15th. South Carolina revoked its Ordinance of Nullification, though it nullified the Force Bill in the same act. Regardless, the Nullification Crisis was over.

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Clay

Despite the attempt to settle the question with the Missouri Compromise, the young nation kept pushing further westward, and with that more territory was acquired. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the sectional crisis was brewing like never before, with California and the newly-acquired Mexican territory now ready to be organized into states. The country was once again left trying to figure out how to do it without offsetting the slave-free state balance was tearing the nation apart.

With the new territory acquired in the Mexican-American War, pro and anti-slavery groups were at an impasse. The Whig Party, including a freshman Congressman named Abraham Lincoln, supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico, but the slave states would have none of it. Even after Texas was annexed as a slave state, the enormous new territory would doubtless contain many other new states, and the North hoped to limit slavery as much as possible in the new territories.

The Compromise of 1850 was authored by the legendary Whig politician Henry Clay. In addition to admitting California to the Union as a free state to balance with Texas, it allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of what became known as popular sovereignty, which meant the settlers could vote on whether their state should be a free state or slave state. Though a Whig proposed popular sovereignty in 1850, popular sovereignty as an idea would come to be championed by and associated with Democratic Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. The Compromise also abolished the slave trade – though not the existence of slavery itself – in Washington, D.C. The Whigs commended the Compromise, thinking it was a moderate, pragmatic proposal that did not decidedly extend the existence of slavery and put slow and steady limits on it. Furthermore, it made the preservation of the Union the top priority.

However, even though it added a new free state, many in the North were upset that the Compromise also included a new Fugitive Slave Act, which gave slaveholders increased powers to recapture slaves who had fled to free states by providing that a slave found in a free state could be ordered captured by police or federal marshals and returned to the slaveholder without any trial or due process whatsoever. In addition, no process was provided for the accused escaped slave to prove that he was actually free. This outraged most Northerners, who saw it as an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of their states and the rights of the individual accused of being an escaped slave. It also raised the specter of southern slave owners extending grip over the law enforcement of Northern states.

Some states even refused to comply. In Wisconsin, a rioting anti-slavery crowd freed an escaped slave who had been recaptured by federal marshals. When the leader of the riot was imprisoned, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision, the Wisconsin Legislature simply refused to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act or enforce it. Similarly, other Northern states passed laws restricting the ability of federal marshals or bounty hunters to recapture escaped slaves, and they also made it illegal for state officials to help recapture escaped slaves or use state jails for that purpose.

Throughout the 1850s, American politicians tried to sort out the nation’s intractable issues. In an attempt to organize the center of North America – Kansas and Nebraska – without offsetting the slave-free balance, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act eliminated the Missouri Compromise line of 1820, which the Compromise of 1850 had maintained. The Missouri Compromise had stipulated that states north of the boundary line determined in that bill would be free, and that states south of it could have slavery. This was essential to maintaining the balance of slave and free states in the Union. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, however, ignored the line completely and proposed that all new territories be organized by popular sovereignty. Settlers could vote whether they wanted their state to be slave or free.

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Stephen Douglas, The Little Giant

When popular sovereignty became the standard in Kansas and Nebraska, the primary result was that thousands of zealous pro-slavery and anti-slavery advocates both moved to Kansas to influence the vote, creating a dangerous (and ultimately deadly) mix. Numerous attacks took place between the two sides, and many pro-slavery Missourians organized attacks on Kansas towns just across the border.

The best known abolitionist in Bleeding Kansas was a middle aged man named John Brown. A radical abolitionist, Brown organized a small band of like-minded followers and fought with the armed groups of pro-slavery men in Kansas for several months, including a notorious incident known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, in which Brown’s supporters murdered five men. Over 50 people died before John Brown left the territory, which ultimately entered the Union as a free state in 1859.

John Brown

After his activities in Kansas, John Brown spent the next few years raising money in New England, which would bring him into direct contact with important abolitionist leaders, including Frederick Douglass. Brown had previously organized a small raiding party that succeeded in raiding a Missouri farm and freeing 11 slaves, but he set his sights on far larger objectives. In 1859, Brown began to set a new plan in motion that he hoped would create a full scale slave uprising in the South. Brown’s plan relied on raiding Harpers Ferry, a strategically located armory in western Virginia that had been the main federal arms depot after the Revolution. Given its proximity to the South, Brown hoped to seize thousands of rifles and move them south, gathering slaves and swelling his numbers as he went. The slaves would then be armed and ready to help free more slaves, inevitably fighting Southern militias along the way.

In recognition of how important escaped slave Frederick Douglass had become among abolitionists, Brown attempted to enlist the support of Douglass by informing him of the plans. While Douglass didn’t blow the whistle on Brown, he told Brown that violence would only further enrage the South, and slaveholders might only retaliate further against slaves with devastating consequences. Instead of helping Brown, Douglass dissuaded freed blacks from joining Brown's group because he believed it was doomed to fail.

Despite that, in July 1859, Brown traveled to Harper's Ferry under an assumed name and waited for his recruits, but he struggled to get even 20 people to join him. Rather than call off the plan, however, Brown went ahead with it. That fall, Brown and his men used hundreds of rifles to seize the armory at Harper’s Ferry, but the plan went haywire from the start, and word of his attack quickly spread. Local pro-slavery men formed a militia and pinned Brown and his men down while they were still at the armory.

After being called to Harpers Ferry, Robert E. Lee took decisive command of a troop of marines stationed there, surrounded the arsenal, and gave Brown the opportunity to surrender peaceably. When Brown refused, Lee ordered the doors be broken down and Brown taken captive, an affair that reportedly lasted just three minutes. A few of Brown’s men were killed, but Brown was taken alive. Lee earned acclaim for accomplishing this task so quickly and efficiently.

The fallout from John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was intense. Southerners had long suspected that abolitionists hoped to arm the slaves and use violence to abolish slavery, and Brown's raid seemed to confirm that. Meanwhile, much of the northern press praised Brown for his actions. In the South, conspiracy theories ran wild about who had supported the raid, and many believed prominent abolitionist Republicans had been behind the raid as well. On the day of his execution, Brown wrote, "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think vainly, flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

The man in command of the troops present at Brown’s hanging was none other than Thomas Jonathan Jackson, who was ordered to Charlestown in November 1859. After Brown’s hanging, the future Stonewall Jackson began to believe war was inevitable, but he wrote his aunt, I think we have great reason for alarm, but my trust is in God; and I cannot think that He will permit the madness of men to interfere so materially with the Christian labors of this country at home and abroad.

While the political arguments between the North and South were reaching a fevered pitch, U.S. Army soldiers stationed in Southern territory found themselves in a tenuous situation, especially those who were serving in Charleston, South Carolina, which in 1860 was a hotbed of firebrand secessionists.

One of the men assigned to Charleston Harbor in 1858 was Abner Doubleday, who would later become famous for the famous (and incorrect) myth that he invented baseball. At the time, the federal garrison in the Harbor was commanded by Major Robert Anderson, and the men were stationed at Fort Moultrie. Located on Sullivan's Island and part of the Fort Sumter complex, the fort was a sleepy coastal defense post with a tiny garrison stationed in defense of the harbor. But shortly after becoming second-in-command of the garrison, Doubleday’s strong anti-slavery views made him one of the most despised men in the garrison, which like so many other Army installations across the nation had its fair share of Southern sympathizers. Doubleday was particularly loathed by Edmund Ruffin and the so-called fire eaters, a group of extremist pro-slavery politicians from the South who urged the separation of Southern states into a new nation well before the Election of 1860.

Doubleday would later write about the tenuous situation at Fort Moultrie during the months leading up to the Civil War:

"Our force was pitifully small, even for a time of peace and for mere police purposes. It consisted of sixty-one enlisted men and seven officers, together with thirteen musicians of the regimental band; whereas the work called for a war garrison of three hundred men.

The first indication of actual danger came from Richmond, Virginia, in the shape of urgent inquiries as to the strength of our defenses, and the number of available troops in the harbor. These questions were put by a resident of that city named Edmund Ruffin; an old man, whose later years had been devoted to the formation of disunion lodges, and who became subsequently noted for firing the first gun at Fort Sumter. His love of slavery amounted to fanaticism. When the cause of the Rebellion became hopeless, he refused to survive it, and committed suicide.

In the beginning of July, Robert Barnwell Rhett, and other ultra men in Charleston, made violent speeches to the mob, urging them to drive every United States official out of the State; but as many influential Secessionists were enjoying the sweets of Federal patronage under Buchanan, we did not anticipate any immediate disturbance. To influence his hearers still more, Rhett did not hesitate to state that Hamlin was a mulatto, and he asked if they intended to submit to a negro vice-president.

It is an interesting question to know how far at this period the Secretary of War himself was loyal. Mr. Dawson, the able editor of the Historical Magazine, is of opinion, after a careful investigation of the facts, that Floyd at this time was true to the Union, and that he remained so until December 24th, when it was discovered that he had been advancing large sums of money from the Treasury to contractors, to pay for work which had never been commenced. To make the loss good, nearly a million of dollars was taken from the Indian Trust Fund.

Finding he would be dismissed from the Cabinet for his complicity in these transactions, and would also be indicted by the Grand Jury of the District of Columbia, he made a furious Secession speech, sent in his resignation, and suddenly left for the South. Mr. Dawson founds his opinion in this case upon the statement of Fitz John Porter, who was a major on duty in the War Department at the time, and therefore apparently well qualified to judge. Floyd's actions toward us, however, were not those of a true man, and I am of opinion that his loyalty was merely assumed for the occasion. He sent seventeen thousand muskets to South Carolina, when he knew that Charleston was a hot-bed of sedition, and that in all probability the arms would be used against the United States. Greeley says, in his American Conflict, that during these turbulent times Floyd disarmed the Government by forwarding one hundred and fifteen thousand muskets, in all, to the Southern Confederacy. In addition to this, he sold large quantities of arms to S.B. Lamar, of Savannah, and other Secessionists in the South, on the plea that the muskets thus disposed of did not conform to the latest army model. Just before his resignation, he continued the same policy by directing that one hundred and twenty-four heavy guns should be shipped from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to Ship Island, Mississippi, where there was no garrison, and to Galveston, Texas. Yet this was the official upon whom we were to rely for advice and protection. This was the wolf who was to guard the fold.

Our commander, Colonel Gardner, had done good service in the War of 1812 and in Mexico; but now, owing to his advanced age, was ill fitted to weather the storm that was about to burst upon us. In politics he was quite Southern, frequently asserting that the South had been treated outrageously in the question of the Territories, and defrauded of her just rights in other respects. He acquiesced, however, in the necessity of defending the fort should it be attacked; but as he lived with his family outside of the walls, he could not take a very active part himself. Indeed, on one occasion, when a Secession meeting was held in our immediate vicinity, accompanied with many threats and noisy demonstrations, he sent word to me to assume command at once in his place."

As it turned out, Doubleday may have been serving alongside the most rabidly partisan Southerner of them all. Ruffin, a native Virginian, was so disgusted that Virginia had not yet seceded in 1860 that he headed to South Carolina, which would be the first state to secede in the aftermath of Lincoln’s election. Doubleday and Ruffin would end up on opposite sides in April 1861, and both men would be credited with firing the first shot of their respective sides at Fort Sumter. In June 1865, weeks after the Confederacy had been defeated, Ruffin wrote in his diary, And now with my latest writing and utterance, and with what will be near my latest breath, I here repeat and would willingly proclaim my unmitigated hatred to yankee rule--to all political, social and business connections with Yankees, and the perfidious, malignant and vile Yankee race. Ruffin shot himself in the head shortly after writing that diary entry.

Given his post and its location, Doubleday was a true outsider. As his writing indicates, the highly-vocal, pro-Lincoln abolitionist regarded his fellow soldiers at Fort Moultrie as traitors. As if rehearsing for his inevitable historic role, Captain Doubleday wrote of routinely practicing his counterattack strategy, later writing, With a view to intimidate those who were planning an attack [of the fort], I occasionally fired toward the sea an eight-inch howitzer loaded with double canister . . . the splattering of so many balls in the water looked very destructive, and startled and amazed the gaping crowds around . . . I also amused myself by making small mines . . . .

Though Doubleday sounds rather alarmist, South Carolinians in Charleston had taken great interest in the federal garrison even before South Carolina had officially seceded. When the defenders removed sand dunes around Fort Moultrie that would have made it easy for attackers to scale the walls, local papers complained about the work, and local officials in Charleston even started sailing ships in the harbor to keep tabs on the movements of the garrison. At one point, when the garrison transferred 40 rifles from the Charleston arsenal to one of the forts in the Harbor, authorities loudly complained and even threatened the garrison with violence.

Going into the Republican Convention in May 1860, the Republicans were hopeful. The Democratic Party, partly because of Stephen Douglas, was deeply divided over slavery, and it had broken into a Northern and Southern faction. By dividing their votes, they were likely handing over the presidency to a Republican Party that would barely win a plurality across the nation. Sensing opportunity, the Republicans were careful in selecting their candidate. Many delegates considered the frontrunner, William H. Seward, to be too radical. With a divided electorate, there were fears that Seward's radicalism might lose the Midwest for the Republicans.

At the Convention, Seward's support maintained steady throughout the rounds of voting, but Abraham Lincoln polled a surprising second place on the first ballot. He gradually picked up votes from other Midwestern candidates until he was selected as the Republican Party's Presidential nominee on the third ballot. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated as the Vice Presidential nominee.

Lincoln had essentially been chosen for his moderate stance on slavery. Unlike many other viable Republican contenders, Lincoln was less likely to alienate valuable battleground states like Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. At the same time, the more staunchly abolitionist Northeast would have no better alternative.

Throughout the fall, the campaign broiled on. As was customary, Lincoln did no active campaigning. Presidential candidates in the mid-19th century did not campaign on their own behalf; surrogates did the work for them. His supporters portrayed Lincoln as a man of great integrity from humble origins. Opponents conjured up the image of a radical Black Republican. Evidently, such language sold well in the South. By mid-summer, talk of Southern secession if Lincoln were elected was commonplace. Lincoln himself took none of this chatter seriously: he thought it to be nothing more than the usual political sensationalism.

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Lincoln in 1860

Nevertheless, the election of 1860 was held under extraordinary circumstances, and the results were equally unprecedented. Four candidates competed, and each of the candidates won some electoral votes. While the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, the Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas, the Southern Democrats chose John C. Breckinridge and the Constitutional Union Party selected John Bell of Tennessee as its nominee. The Constitutional Union Party was compromised of former Know-Nothings and Whigs in the middle states of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia who advocated compromise and unity on the issue of slavery.

The race was so fractured that Lincoln only appeared on the ballot in five slave states: Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware and Missouri. In Virginia, Lincoln only won about 1% of the vote, and in all the other slave states where Lincoln was on the ballot he finished no better than third. Lincoln won only two counties out all 996 counties in the 15 slave states.

On election night, Lincoln and the Republicans won decisively in the Electoral College, with 180 of the 303 votes cast and 152 needed for a majority. In the popular vote, however, Lincoln only garnered 39%, but came out nearly half a million votes ahead of his next nearest competitor, the Little Giant, Stephen Douglas. In the Electoral College, Douglas only won 12 votes with a single state – Missouri. Lincoln swept the North, Breckinridge took the South, and Bell won most of the middle. The results reflected the great regional divide, and the nation was set for Civil War.

With Lincoln's election on November 6th, 1860, the South was furious. Someone they knew as a Black Republican was now set to be inaugurated as President in March. Hate mail streamed into Lincoln's office in Springfield, and never before had a President-elect been received with such vitriol. With death threats hanging over the president-elect, Lincoln was famously hurried through Baltimore by rail into Washington D.C., partly in disguise, to avoid any potential plots. The press got wind of it and sensationalized the account, giving Lincoln a political black eye before he had even taken office. But this, however, would prove to be a minor problem amid the troubles that lay ahead.

Chapter 2: South Carolina Secedes

The tug has to come and better now, than any time hereafter. President-elect Abraham Lincoln in response to threats of secession

Though Congressmen were at work trying to forestall the latest national crisis, South Carolinians were moving forward on their promised threat of seceding from the Union. Less than a week after the election, the state legislature began calling for a convention to do just that. On December 20, 1860, a convention met to pass an ordinance of secession, and they did so unanimously:

"The State of South Carolina

At a Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the Seventeenth day of December in the year or our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, and there by divers adjournments to the Twentieth day of December in the same year –

An Ordinance To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled The Constitution of the United States of America.

We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled do declare and ordain, and it is herby declared and ordained, That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and eight eight, whereby the Constitution of the United State of America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendment of the said Constitution, are here by repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of The United States of America, is hereby dissolved.

Done at Charleston, the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty."

Having just asserted that South Carolina was no longer part of the United States, the delegates also felt compelled to list the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States. They did this in a document titled Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union:

"The People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, on the 26th day of April, A. D., 1852, declared that the frequent violations of the Constitution of the United States, by the Federal Government, and its encroachments upon the reserved rights of the States, fully justified this State in then withdrawing from the Federal Union; but in deference to the opinions and wishes of the other slaveholding States, she forbore at that time to exercise this right. Since that time, these encroachments have continued to increase, and further forbearance ceases to be a virtue.

And now the State of South Carolina having resumed her separate and equal place among nations, deems it due to herself, to the remaining United States of America, and to the nations of the world, that she should declare the immediate causes which have led to this act.

In the year 1765, that portion of the British Empire embracing Great Britain, undertook to make laws for the government of that portion composed of the thirteen American Colonies. A struggle for the right of self-government ensued, which resulted, on the 4th July, 1776, in a Declaration, by the Colonies, that they are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; and that, as free and independent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

They further solemnly declared that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government. Deeming the Government of Great Britain to have become destructive of these ends, they declared that the Colonies are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

In pursuance of this Declaration of Independence, each of the thirteen States proceeded to exercise its separate sovereignty; adopted for itself a Constitution, and appointed officers for the administration of government in all its departments—Legislative, Executive and Judicial. For purposes of defence, they united their arms and their counsels; and, in 1778, they entered into a League known as the Articles of Confederation, whereby they agreed to entrust the administration of their external relations to a common agent, known as the Congress of the United States, expressly declaring, in the first article, that each State retains its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right which is not, by this Confederation, expressly delegated to the United States in Congress assembled.

Under this Confederation the War of the Revolution was carried on, and on the 3d September, 1783, the contest ended, and a definitive Treaty was signed by Great Britain, in which she acknowledged the Independence of the Colonies in the following terms:

Article 1.—His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz: New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that he treats them as such; and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.

Thus were established the two great principles asserted by the Colonies, namely: the right of a State to govern itself; and the right of a people to abolish a Government when it becomes destructive of the ends for which it was instituted. And concurrent with the establishment of these principles, was the fact, that each Colony became and was recognized by the mother Country as a FREE, SOVEREIGN AND INDEPENDENT STATE.

In 1787, Deputies were appointed by the States to revise the Articles of Confederation, and on 17th September, 1787, these Deputies recommended, for the adoption of the States, the Articles of Union, known as the Constitution of the United States.

The parties to whom this Constitution was submitted, were the several sovereign States; they were to agree or disagree, and when nine of them agreed, the compact was to take effect among those concurring; and the General Government, as the common agent, was then to be invested with their authority.

If only nine of the thirteen States had concurred, the other four would have remained as they then were—separate, sovereign States, independent of any of the provisions of the Constitution. In fact, two of the States did not accede to the Constitution until long after it had gone into operation among the other eleven; and during that interval, they each exercised the functions of an independent nation.

By this Constitution, certain duties were imposed upon the several States, and the exercise of certain of their powers were restrained, which necessarily implied their continued existence as sovereign States. But, to remove all doubt, an amendment was added, which declared that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the people. On 23d May, 1788, South Carolina, by a Convention of her people, passed an Ordinance assenting to this Constitution, and afterwards altered her own Constitution, to conform herself to the obligations she had undertaken.

Thus was established, by compact between the States, a Government, with defined objects and powers, limited to the express words of the grant. This limitation left the whole remaining mass of power subject to the clause reserving it to the States or to the people, and rendered unnecessary any specification of reserved rights.

We hold that the Government thus established is subject to the two great principles asserted in the Declaration of Independence; and we hold further, that the mode of its formation subjects it to a third fundamental principle, namely: the law of compact. We maintain that in every compact between two or more parties, the obligation is mutual; that the failure of one of the contracting parties to perform a material part of the agreement, entirely releases the obligation of the other; and that where no arbiter is provided, each party is remitted to his own judgment to determine the fact of failure, with all its consequences.

In the present case, that fact is established with certainty. We assert, that fourteen of the States have deliberately refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own Statutes for the proof.

The Constitution of the United States, in its 4th Article, provides as follows:

No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.

This stipulation was so material to the compact, that without it that compact would not have been made. The greater number of the contracting parties held slaves, and they had previously evinced their estimate of the value of such a stipulation by making it a condition in the Ordinance for the government of the territory ceded by Virginia, which now composes the States north of the Ohio river.

The same article of the Constitution stipulates also for rendition by the several States of fugitives from justice from the other States.

The General Government, as the common agent, passed laws to carry into effect these stipulations of the States. For many years these laws were executed. But an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the Institution of Slavery has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa, have enacted laws which either nullify the Acts of Congress or render useless any attempt to execute them. In many of these States the fugitive is discharged from the service or labor claimed, and in none of them has the State Government complied with the stipulation made in the Constitution. The State of New Jersey, at an early day, passed a law in conformity with her constitutional obligation; but the current of anti-slavery feeling has led her more recently to enact laws which render inoperative the remedies provided by her own law and by the laws of Congress. In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals; and the States of Ohio and Iowa have refused to surrender to justice fugitives charged with murder, and with inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. Thus the constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.

The ends for which this Constitution was framed are declared by itself to be to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

These ends it endeavored to accomplish by a Federal Government, in which each State was recognized as an equal, and had separate control over its own institutions. The right of property in slaves was recognized by giving to free persons distinct political rights, by giving them the right to represent, and burthening them with direct taxes for three-fifths of their slaves; by authorizing the importation of slaves for twenty years; and by stipulating for the rendition of fugitives from labor.

We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of Slavery; they have permitted the open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the Common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the Common Government, because he has declared that that Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free, and that the public mind must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction.

This sectional combination for the subversion of the Constitution, has been aided in some of the States by elevating to citizenship, persons, who, by the Supreme Law of the land, are incapable of becoming citizens; and their votes have been used to inaugurate a new policy, hostile to the South, and destructive of its peace and safety.

On the 4th March next, this party will take possession of the Government. It has announced, that the South shall be excluded from the common Territory; that the Judicial Tribunals shall be made sectional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease throughout the United States.

The Guaranties of the Constitution will then no longer exist; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their enemy.

Sectional interest and animosity will deepen the irritation, and all hope of remedy is rendered vain, by the fact that public opinion at the North has invested a great political error with the sanctions of a more erroneous religious belief.

We, therefore, the people of South Carolina, by our delegates, in Convention assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, have solemnly declared that the Union heretofore existing between this State and the other States of North America, is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has resumed her position among the nations of the world, as a separate and independent State; with full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.

As the document made painstakingly clear, South Carolina was seceding from the Union because of perceived violations by Northern states over their rights to have, use, move, and recapture slaves.

The announcement that South Carolina had seceded led to boisterous celebrations and fireworks displays in places like Charleston. While Lincoln was aware of the sentiments being expressed, he was initially surprised that a Southern state had actually made good on its threats. Meanwhile, President James Buchanan sat on his hands, believing the Southern states had no right to secede but that the Federal government had no effective power to prevent secession.

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James Buchanan

Buchanan’s decision-making in 1860 greatly concerned one very important group of people: the federal garrison defending forts in Charleston Harbor in South Carolina. With a chain of forts in the harbor, only a few dozen men were on assignment there, one of whom was Abner Doubleday, who would later become famous for the incorrect myth that he invented baseball. Doubleday was an ardent Republican, and he later wrote about an issue of central importance at the time: the provisioning and supplying of the forts in the Charleston area:

"Situated as we were, we naturally desired to know how far Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet was willing to sustain us. William H. Trescott, of South Carolina, was Assistant Secretary of State at this time, and frequently corresponded with his brother, Doctor Trescott, in Charleston. We, therefore, naturally thought the views of the latter might indirectly reflect those of the Administration. The doctor was of opinion there would be no attempt at coercion in case South Carolina seceded, but that all postal and telegraphic communication would cease, and a man-of-war be placed outside to collect the revenue. This arrangement would leave our little force isolated and deserted, to bear the brunt of whatever might occur.

In October the disunionists became more bitter, but they were not disposed to be aggressive, as they thought Buchanan could be relied upon not to take any decisive action against them.

Colonel Gardner would not at this time mount the guns, or take any precautions whatever. He alleged, with reason, that the work was all torn to pieces by the engineers; that it was full of débris, and that, under the circumstances, he was not responsible for any thing that might happen. We had been promised a considerable number of recruits, but they were kept back; and we now ascertained that none would be sent until late in December, after the crisis was over.

In the latter part of the month I became quite unpopular in Charleston; partly on account of my anti-slavery sentiments, but more especially because some very offensive articles, written from that city, had appeared in the Northern papers, and were attributed to me. It