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.