Since the first week last November (and later I started this daily blog), I have been writing about the events that led up to the Civil War.  I was curious how it all got started.  And over the past months I have tried to give you some pieces that struck me from various blog sites of the Civil War. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey and gained much insight to those years long ago and found them instructive for our current era. 

I am going to take a break now for a bit...  but I leave you with the days I have posted...for your thoughtful care and musing... 

Thanks for being along with me on the journey thus far... 

Until possibly later...

April 12, 1861 (Friday)

The Civil War has Begun.....

Today, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter.  Following are a number of links highlighting this day.

From the Civil War Trust, Fort Sumter Animated Map -- The First Shots of the Civil War. 

also, Fort Sumter, a Photo Gallery


Hat tip, Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War -- two maps on the bombardment of Fort Sumter appear... 

Map One:  

Map Two:


The Battle of Fort Sumter


Hat tip from Charleston -- The Post and Courier, "Charleston at War:  Shells rain on Sumter in war's first battle," January 9, 2011. 


From The American Civil War, April 12, 1861, "Diary of Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball."

"All yesterday I was in a most terrible state of anxiety and misery, about my boys -- but I know my case is not different from others.  Mrs. Elliott, the mother of William's Captain, has her only child down there, Mrs. Lowndes her only son, and many others, but mine are very fine boys, and very dear to me, still they must do their duty to their State; and I put my trust in my God, and their God, my Savior and their Savior, -- and I pray for them, and for myself -- The Government at Washington seems full of duplicity, and in looking back to the conduct of the seceding States, there seems to have been a truthful and noble faith, actuating them."


Hat tip Civil War Daily Gazette:  "The Bombardment of Fort Sumter," April 12, 1861. 

At the end of the day:  "The sun had slipped across the sky and now twilight fell upon the scene.  Anderson had further reduced his firing to just two guns and then, by 7 p.m., all fire from the fort was halted until morning.  The flag, however, still flew.  Beauregard's guns were also silent, but for two batteries of mortars firing once every 15 minutes.

A storm had blown in, bringing with it strong winds, rough seas and torrents of rain.  With the weather and nightfall closing any chance of a troop landing -- the war's first day of battle trickled to an anti-climatic ending."

April 11, 1861 (Thursday)

On the eve of the Civil War

Beauregard demands the evacuation of Fort Sumter immediately:
Hat tip Tulane University, Department of History, April 11, 1861, "Beauregard Demands Evacuation of Fort Sumter." 


A speech given to a Confederate volunteer infantry group in Georgia on April 2, 1861, "May the God of Battles Go With You," hat tip One More Shot.

"...Take then, that flag in your hands, and remember that, in the presence of this vast audience, I here commit the honor of Georgia to your keeping. 

Go, then, and may the God of battles go with you, and lead, protect and defend you, till the last foot-print of the invader shall be obliterated from the soil of our common country."


A look inside the mind and heart of Major Robert Anderson, commander at Fort Sumter on the eve of the Civil War.  Hat tip Disunion--New York Times, April 10, 2011, "A Closed Book," by Adam Goodheart.  (read all the details at the link above....)

"A quality that revealed itself more slowly was Anderson's hatred of war itself.  Carnage sickened him, and he had already witnessed far too much in the course of his career...It was to peace that Anderson was most loyal...But now, almost every facet of the major's character seemed to weigh in favor of surrender.  His political sympathies made a war against the slave states -- and a war that would tear apart his beloved Union -- anathema.   His humanitarian and religious principles recoiled at the prospect of bloodshed.

A few days before, after receiving the Lincoln administration's notification that a relief expedition was on its way to the fort, Anderson had written in reply:  'I frankly say that my heart is not in the war which I see is to be thus commenced.'

'The red tape of military duty,' Lincoln's secretary John Hay would later sneer, 'was all that bound his heart from its traitorous impulses.'  ...His heart was bound -- or perhaps more precisely, pulled upon -- by forces far more powerful and complicated than red tape alone."

 Hat tip Civil War Daily Gazette, "Open Fire in One Hour," April 11, 1861. 

" James Chestnut, one of the messengers from Beauregard, said, '...the shore batteries will open fire in one hour.'  Anderson checked his watch.  It was 3:20 a.m...Anderson was visibly shaken...the battle was upon them, but no matter how bad it got, they would not fire until dawn.  He then ordered the flag to be raised."

April 10, 1861 (Wednesday)

The Writing of History

C-SPAN has a video-interview with Shelby Foote who wrote the esteemed three-volume series on the Civil War entitled "The Civil War:  A Narrative in Three Volumes."  (Excellent interview of a writer of history, especially the Civil War...great anecdotes on writing, reading, and the meaning of words.)


A look at what was happening within Fort Sumter on April 9, 1861, as written by Adam Goodheart, "Upon the Points of Our Swords," Disunion--New York Times, April 9, 1861. 

"The most marked change to be observed on that dispiriting morning was in Sumter's commander himself.  The officers were not privy to his official correspondence with Washington, but for days they had noticed Anderson's usual stoicism sinking into depression.  He seemed even grayer and more melancholy than ever, as if oppressed by some new and secret care. 

Lincoln had sent a message through Cameron: 'It is not, however, the intention of the President to subject your command to any danger or hardship beyond what, in your judgment, would be usual in military life; and he (Lincoln) has entire confidence that you will act as becomes a patriot and soldier, under all circumstances."    At long last, the commander in the White House had made his wishes known to the commander at Fort Sumter.  What unfolded in the coming days would depend, more than anything else, on these two men."


Hat tip Tulane University, Department of History, "Davis Demands Withdrawal From Sumter," April 10, 1861.

"President Davis, interpreting the expedition as an attempt to supply Fort Sumter 'by force,' ordered Beauregard to demand 'at once' the evacuation of Fort Sumter.  If Anderson refused, he was to proceed to 'reduce it.'  General Beauregard replied that he would make his demand the next day at noon."

Also this... "Commentary on the Confederates Decision"

The news of the day from Civil War Daily Gazette, "You May Determine to Reduce It," April 10, 1861

"Confederate Secretary of War Walker, agreeing with President Jefferson Davis to bombard the fort, wired Beauregard ordering him...to demand the surrender of the fort....and if this is refused, proceed in such a manner as you may determine to reduce it."


Some interesting information from The American Civil War, "Toombs tries to warn Jefferson Davis," April 10, 1861.  (read at the link the two documents presented....)

"Documents related to the deliberations of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet on whether to launch an attack against the federal troops in Fort Sumter are scarce.  Meetings were conducted in private.  Records, if they were kept, were later lost in the chaos of the fall of Richmond.  All we have is what Jefferson Davis wrote after the war and an account from Robert Toombs' point of view that appeared in a biography of Toombs in 1892."

April 9, 1861 (Tuesday)

New leaves and sunshine....

Hat tip The American Civil War, "Our Policy for the Future," April 9, 1861:

"We have seen many arguments of secession advanced by different Southerners.  What we haven't seen much of are Northern voices explaining why the Union had to be preserved, voices explaining why it may be necessary to fight the South.  On April 9, 1861 the editors of the New York Times dropped the pretense of conciliation. If Southerns thought that the North wouldn't fight, they were greatly mistaken."  (Read the article at the link above.)


The news of the day, hat tip Civil War Daily Gazette, "The Treachery of Mr. Fox," April 9, 1861.

"The Confederate chorus swells in full debate.  News of the plan to resupply Fort Sumter had reached them, but there was no clear idea of what to do.  President Davis had warned against firing upon Fort Sumter, but that was back in January.  The chorus was swelling for attack and Davis was found at its head.  Secretary of State Robert Toombs (Confederacy) was the sole voice against it.

'The firing upon that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen...at this time, it is suicide, murder and will lose us every friend at the North.  You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean, the legions, now quiet, will swarm out and sting us to death.' "

Hat tip The American Interest -- The Long Recall, April 9, 1861:

"Business in Charleston is at a standstill as the city prepares for a confrontation at Fort Sumter.  The famed floating battery is in place, 5,000 additional troops have been ordered to Charleston, and communication between city officials and Major Anderson has been suspended on orders from General Beauregard.  However, in a response that will surely disappoint pugnacious South Carolinians, the New York Times correspondent in Washington confirms that, rather than reinforcing Fort Sumter militarily, the government will 'attempt to send supplies of provisions by means of an unarmed vessel' -- although he admits, 'If Charlestonians choose to fire upon her, they will thus render themselves responsible for all disasters which must necessarily follow."


Finally... from Daily Observations from The Civil War:  two links...

Confederate Messages and Directives -- On the Brink of War, April 9, 1861

"...by God's providence we will, I trust, be prepared for them; and if they approach with war vessels also I think you will hear of as bloody a fight as ever occurred."

A Diary From Dixie:  "The air is too full of war news, and we are all so restless."   (very good read....)

April 8, 1861 (Monday)

Rained and Drizzled All Day....

From Tulane University, History Department -- "South Carolina Notified and Confederate Action, April 8, 1861

"Lincoln's messengers, Robert S. Chew and Captain Theodore Talbot, having arrived in Charleston in the early evening, around 6 p.m., met with Governor Pickens.  Chew read Lincoln's message and handed him a copy.  The governor called General Beauregard and read him the same message.

Late that evening at Charleston, Governor Pickens and General Beauregard apprised the Confederate government of Lincoln's communication that 'provisions would be sent to Sumter peaceably, otherwise by force.'  Davis immediately instructed Beauregard that 'under no circumstances' was he to allow provisions to be sent to Fort Sumter."


From Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War, "The News," April 8, 1861.

"Dispatches from Montgomery, Alabama, state that no attack will be made by the troops of the Confederate States on either Fort Sumter or Fort Pickens.  To do so, President Davis argues, it would be to place the new government in a false position before the world, and he is determined that if civil war must ensue, the first blow shall be struck by the administration at Washington."


News of the day from Civil War Daily Gazette, April 8, 1861, "Charleston Learns of Fort Sumter Mission."


From Daily Observation from the Civil War, "Diary of William Howard Russell:  "...the majority of the New York papers are inclined to resist Secession and aid the Government," April 8, 1861.

April 7, 1861 (Sunday)

"...a wet drizzly day."
Diary of a Yankee in the Patent Office

 Hat tip Adam Goodheart, "Courtesy's End," Disunion--New York Times narrative, April 6, 2011.

"On April 7, a startling note came to Anderson from General Beauregard.  The first indication that something had changed was in the salutation.  Just a few hours earlier, Beauregard had sent one of his customarily genteel missives, beginning 'Dear Major' and ending with:  'Let me assure you, Major, that nothing shall be wanting on my part to preserve the friendly relations and impressions which have existed between us for so many years.'

But Beauregard's second note of the day contained no such pleasantries.  It began, curtly, with the single word 'Sir.'   ...After the long months of stasis, something had broken in Charleston.  The time of pleasantries was at an end, and it remained only to see what would come next."
(Read the details of this note at the link above and the implications going forward for the men inside Fort Sumter.)

Hat tip Seven Score and Ten, "Lincoln's Policy on Sumter", April 7, 1861 (an overview.)

"This report gets Lincoln's policy about right -- he plans to provision Sumter, but not to attack southern positions.  If the 'hotheads" in South Carolina attack, then war will be their fault."


An interesting comment in an article by The American Civil War, "Bragg is Not Ready to Attack Fort Pickens," April 7, 1861.

"In Montgomery, Alabama Leroy P. Walker and the rest of the Confederate cabinet were meeting with President Jefferson Davis and working on making the final decision to attack Fort Sumter, yet there seems to have been no plan or preparation for coordinating an attack on Fort Pickens to be carried out at the same time as the planned attack on Sumter.  The South would pay dearly for this oversight."


Hat tip from Daily Observations from the Civil War, an entry from the Diary of William Howard Russell:  "...the United States can never be considered as a free country till a man can speak as freely in Charleston as he can in New York or Boston."

And finally, the week of April 1-7, 1861 related to the Baptists and the American Civil War.

Stories related to Baptists and the Native Americans in the South, differences between slave-holding and non-slave-holding Baptists, equating black slavery with God's purposes in churches of the South, Virginia Baptists divided between Union and secession, life of a Confederate Baptist pastor during the Civil war, life continues uninterrupted for most Baptist congregations of the South, and war talk is thick among Baptists in Charleston.

April 6, 1861 (Saturday)

"Things seem to draw
near a crisis."
A Diary from Dixie

This weeks issue of the Harper's Weekly has arrived:

"The April 6, 1861 edition of Harper's Weekly featured a portrait and biography of William H. Seward, Secretary of the State for President Lincoln.  It also featured interesting pictures and articles about Fort Pickens, and other Civil War news of the day.  Articles include:  1860 Census with Slaves, The Wyandotte, Union Flag Flying Over Fr. Pickens, Scenes in Virginia, and State Seals (beautiful picture of Coats of Arms of the Several States of the Union). "



A Diary From Dixie:  "Things seem to draw near a crisis."  Hat tip The American Civil War, April 6, 1861.

"The plot thickens, the air is red hot with rumors; the mystery is to find out where these utterly groundless tales originate...Things seem to draw near a crisis...."


Hat tip GeorgiaInfo, This Week in Georgia War History, April 6, 1861. 

"President Lincoln sent a message to Governor Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina that he would attempt to send supplies to Fort Sumter:

'...an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice, except in case of an attack on the fort.' "

News of the day....

Hat tip Civil War Daily Gazette, "Tying Up Loose Ends with the Powhatan, Lincoln, Seward and Welles,"  April 6, 1861.


Hat tip Daily Chronicles of the Civil War, "The Very Latest -- Important News From Washington." 

April 5, 1861 (Friday)

Trees Blossoming....

From The Lincoln Log:  April 5, 1861

"Comdr. Dahlgren at White House again today, finds Lincoln "ill at ease, and not self possessed."

"White House levee cancelled because of public business."

"President receives first (March) salary warrant for $2,083.33 and opens account by depositing it with Riggs and Co."


Diary of William Howard Russell:  hat tip Daily Observations from the Civil War, April 5, 1861.

"The last cabinet had tampered with treason, and had contained traitors; a miserable imbecility had encouraged the leaders of the South to mature their plans, and had furnished them with the means of carrying out their design."


Finally, an article by Nina Silber, "Men at War,"  Disunion--New York Times, April 4, 2011.   A look at the reasons the non-slave-holding white men of the South entered into the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy.

"Most historians now argue -- and contemporary documents bear them out --  that the leaders of the Confederacy were, above all, motivated by a desire to protect their system of slavery.  Leaving the Union, they believed, was the surest way to preserve an institution that was now threatened by the newly-elected, and self-proclaimed anti-slavery, president, Abraham Lincoln.

But if slavery motivated the leaders -- almost all of them slave-owners -- where did that leave the vast majority of Southerners, the men who owned no slaves but filled the ranks of the Confederate army?  For them, the answer was less about the slave economy or states' rights than the perceived threat that abolition posed to their very identity as white men." 
(Read the details of the argument at the link above) 

April 4, 1861 (Thursday)

"There has been a storm in the air
for a long time." 
Village Life in America

Here are places to get the news of the day:

"Lincoln Meets with John B. Baldwin with Commentary", hat tip Tulane University


"Fox Gets the Go-Ahead with Commentary,"  hat tip Tulane University


"Important from Washington --The Warlike Movements of the Government,"  hat tip Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War.


"Virginia Totters on the Edge -- Orders for Sumter, " hat tip Civil War Daily Gazette


Diaries and Correspondence for your enjoyment today: 

"Lincoln's Letters and Correspondence:  4/4 and 4/5



The following diaries hat tip Daily Observations from the Civil War:


"Diary of William Howard Russell:  Meeting with Southern Commissioners -- Dinner at British Legation -- Evening at Russian Minister's -- Party at Spanish Minister's


"A Diary From Dixie:  A ship was fired into yesterday, and went back to sea.  Is that the first shot?"

"Village Life in America"

"We seem to have come to a sad, sad time.  The Bible says, 'A man's worst foes are those of his own household.'  The whole United States has been like one great household for many years.  'United we stand, divided we fall!'  has been our watchword, but some who should have been its best friends have proven false and broken the bond.  Men are taking sides, some for the North, some for the South.  Hot words and fierce looks have followed, and there has been a storm in the air for a long time."

April 3, 1861 (Wednesday)

The New York Times has an article, "Wanted A Policy," April 3, 1861. 

"The fact is, our Government has done absolute nothing, towards carrying the country through the tremendous crisis which is so rapidly and so steadily settling down upon us.  It allows everything to drift...the President must adopt some clear and distinct policy in regard to secession, or the Union will not only be severed, but the country will be disgraced. 

One of the highest and noblest functions of a Government in a free country is to lead the nation...to summon the people to rally to the standard set up in their defense.  The people look to their Government for guidance in every great emergency. 

The Union is weaker now than it was a month ago.  Its foes have gained courage, and its friends have lost heart.  Step by step the new Confederacy marches forward towards solid and secure foundations -- and day by day the bright hopes of the lovers of the Union fade and die away.

The President has to decide whether he will enforce the law at the hazard of civil war or whether he will waive the execution of the law and appeal to the people of the seceded States on behalf of the Union.  We trust this period of indecision, of inaction, of fatal indifference, will have a speedy end.  Unless it does, we may bid farewell to all hope of saving the Union from destruction and the country from anarchy. 

The country looks eagerly to President Lincoln for the dispersion of the dark mystery that hangs over our public affairs.  The people want something to be decided on -- some standard raised -- some policy put forward, which shall serve as a rallying point for the abundant but discouraged loyalty of the American heart.  In a great crisis like this, there is no policy so fatal as that of having no policy at all."



Several diary entries for the day: Hat tip Daily Observations from The Civil War, April 3, 1861.

William Howard Russell
"Washington is full of rumors of desperate descents on the capital, and an attack on the President and his Cabinet."

Life in Kansas and Death as a Spy


A Diary from Dixie
"And so we fool on into the black cloud ahead of us."

April 2, 1861 (Tuesday)

New Beginnings

Following up on the report yesterday on the census, we have another good article by Adam Goodheart, "The Census of Doom," Disunion--New York Times, April 1, 2011.   Lots of information on the eve of the Civil War. 

"Worried Southerners could not fail to notice that the areas of the greatest population boom were all in the North.  Both Wisconsin and Minnesota were free states.  Both went heavily for Lincoln in the 1860 election.  Both were populated largely by immigrants with roots in Germany and Scandinavia and pioneers with roots in New England and New York -- groups well known for their strong antipathy to slavery.  And both, as it happened, would soon send tens of thousands of their inhabitants to fight in the Union Army.

Southern analysts looked at the data...were quick to note the changing demographics were about to usher in a political cataclysm in Washington...legislative reapportionment based on the new Census figures were about to set off a tectonic shift.

...and so, on the even of the war's first shots, Southern slaveholders felt that they were escaping one of the worst fates that a human being might suffer:  that of becoming a politically oppressed minority."


For the news of the day, we go to the Civil War Daily Gazette, "The Fog Over Sumter, April 2, 1861.  We read about the orders that General Beauregard receives from the Confederate War Office. 


And an informative diary to read today:  The American Civil War, "The Diary of Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut," April 2, 1861.

 "On April 2, 1861, Mary Chesnut decided to sit out a trip her husband was taking to look at the island forts in Charleston Harbor.  Instead, she stayed in and held an impromptu and belated celebration of her thirty-eighth birthday...in the course of the day she encounters John L. Manning, Louis T. Wigfall and his wife Charlotte, and nearly runs into General P.G.T. Beauregard. 

Mary Chesnut paints a poignant portrait of ante-bellum Charleston.  But even as war looms she notes that no one in her immediate circle wants to talk about it.  They dine on grouse, venison, and salmon blissfully unaware of what is about to happen."

April 1, 1861 (Monday)

Hat tip The American Civil War, "Revelations of the Census", April 1, 1861.

"On April 1, 1861 the New York Times reprinted a story from the March 15, 1861 edition of the London News, which examined the results of the recently completed Census of 1860 and applied the data from the census to the growing conflict in the United States.  I have never seen any evidence that any major Southern political figure considered the results of the Census of 1860 prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War."    Astonishing article...and very informative...read it at the link above.  

Some highlights: 
              "population of all United States:  31, 648, 496
                population of whites in Free States:   19,046,173
                population of whites in Slave States:  8,602,470
                slave population in the Slave States:  3,999,853
                               
It is not unnecessary to explain that, in any time of public danger, four millions of slaves are much more of an encumbrance than the same number of women and children.  They have not only to be fed and guarded but to be guarded against.  South Carolina entire free population is only 308,186, while her slaves are 407,185.  So far from her having power to make war, her whole white population would be needed to coerce the black....It is a striking fact that three States -- New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio -- contain more white inhabitants than all the Slave States together. 

We may well find words fail us to express the insanity which the Seceders are manifesting...If they will not read sermons, philosophy, novels, or poetry which touch upon human liberties, they had better read these figures, which so dispassionately and indisputably present the case of the different sections of the Republic. "



The news of the day: 

"Pickens Expedition Ordered,"  Tulane University, Dept of History, April 1, 1861.

"An All Fool's Day Full of Secrets," Civil War Daily Gazette, April 1, 1861.



And finally, the Diary of William Howard Russell:  "In fact, the Federal system is radically defective against internal convulsion," Daily Observations from the Civil War, April 1, 1861.