The Civil War -150 Years Later - The War Begins

In this and subsequent special editions of Hooves, Heels and Wheels, the blog will take a look at the 150th anniversary of the events of the Civil War, and reflect on how they came about, and what implications they have for today ...

The Civil War

150 years ago This Week - Assault on Fort Sumter

April 12, 1861

At 4:30 am on April 12th, 1861 the most destructive and deadly war in United States history began. Americans would fight their most dangerous, most tenacious, most feared, most respected, most hated, and most intimate foes --- fellow Americans.

For the prior 85 years, the concept of America and freedom had been defined, debated and defied. The very substance of what an American was and what an American's rights and obligations were to his government, his flag, his fellow citizens, his fellow man, his home, and his state were thrown into violent re-evaluation. So too were the roles, duties, obligations, and limits of state power and federal power. For 85 years, intelligent and thoughtful men had tried numerous times to bind the US closer together- to augment kinships and offset differences in the way North and South lived their lives. Geniuses like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay attempted to make the two fundamentally different sections of the country co-exist.

Ultimately they failed ,and that failure would cost 600,000 Americans lives. From the destruction of four years of conflict, a new America would emerge, an America very different from the one that ripped itself assunder on April 12, 1861.

The destruction began 150 years ago this week in Charleston harbor, South Carolina.

Background

Since before the founding of the United States, slavery was the economic engine of the Southern way of life.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the Untied States in November 1860. For the first time in history, a president-elect was openly hostile to slavery, although he promised not to interfere with the institution in states were it already existed. He did however, promise to resist the spread of slavery into western territories.

Outraged that a president with such anti-slavery views (however mild) could be elected, several Southern states decided to secceed from the Union. South Carolina led the way in December 1860, and was soon joined by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Geogia, Louisiana and Texas. These seven states joined to form the Confederate States of America, and would soon be joined by Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

The secession of these states immediately created a crisis as to the status of the US Army troops within these states.

From the point of view of the US, secession was illegal. Thus, the breakaway states were only in rebellion, and not a new nation. Thus the US army soldiers must go about their business as usual at their posts. They must defend US army property from any challenges and invasions, including the Confederates, who had no legal authority. And so US soldiers would remain on duty at Fort Pickens, Florida and Forts Moultrie and Sumter, South Carolina.

From the point of view of the new Confederates, the new nation of the Southern States had the right to demand that their frontiers be respected, and that any 'foreign' powers be removed from Confederate territory. Foreign (read: US) troops could leave in peace, but they must leave.

In South Carolina, US Army Major Robert Anderson withdrew all of his men from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. This was done on Christmas of 1860. Major Anderson had been expecting trouble, and brought his men to this man-made island to keep them isolated from trouble.

In the four months following, Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard surrounded Sumter with dozens of cannons, menacing the Union enclave with overwhelming firepower.

Attack on the Fort

Union and Confederate were at an impasse from the first day of negotiations. Neither side would budge. The US president, Abraham Lincoln, would not recognise the right of southern states to secceed. The Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, would not recognise the authority of the federal government. Negotiaions continued for four months, but produced nothing.

On April 10th, 1861 Beauregard recieved orders to "reduce" (attack) Fort Sumter. At 4:30am on April 12, the first shell was fired against the fort. All the guns in the harbor opened up, pummeling Fort Sumter, while the Fort responded weakly. After 33 hours of continuous bombardment, Sumter was in ruins, and Major Anderson decided his brave command had had enough. He surrendered at 1:30 pm on April 13th, after enduring a 33 hour bombardment.

With heavy hearts, the Union garrison of Sumter exited the fort, and sailed back to Northern states. Behind them, jubilant Confederates entered their hard-fought prize.

Thus did the Confedracy have it's first victory, the Union it's first defeat, and the American Civil War it's first battle.

Beauregard's terms for surrender were generous. Anderson was allowed to fire a salute to the US flag as it lowered in a ceremony right before the evacuation on the 14th. In a tragedy almost unbelieveable in it's irony, two Union soldiers were killed in a gunpowder accident during the salute - a salute following a bombardment in which no soldiers, Northern or Southern were killed.

As the US flag was lowered from Sumter, and the first Confederate flag raised, neither 'Yankee' nor 'Rebel' knew for sure what the future held. What would the Northern reaction be to this attack upon the United States flag? Had Southern independance been won? Was the new Confederate nation now a reality? Or would the President of the US launch an invasion of the South? If he did, would Northerners respond to it? Would Southerners be able to resist it? Would there truly be a terrible, destructive war? Or was the war already over, and nobody knew it?

All of these questions would be answered in time, some in a matter of days, some within months. Within a year, the answers would be nothing short of horrifying. The Civil War would devour 1 out of every 50 Americans ... but in the first few days, this was in the future, with all manner of alternatives possible, and hopefully more likely. A sort of anxious ignorance settled over the minds of Northerner and Southerner 150 years ago this week.