President
Jefferson Davis took the view that after
a state seceded, federal forts became the property of the state. On
12th April, 1861, General Pierre T.
Beauregard demanded that Major Robert
Anderson surrender Fort Sumter in Charleston
harbour. Anderson replied that he would be willing to leave the fort
in two days when his supplies were exhausted. Beauregard rejected
this offer and ordered his Confederate troops to open fire. After
34 hours of bombardment the fort was severely damaged and Anderson
was forced to surrender.
(1)
William Seward, memorandum to Abraham
Lincoln (1st April, 1861)
My system is built upon the idea as a ruling one, namely, that
we must change the question before the public from one upon slavery,
or about slavery, for a question upon union or disunion. In other
words, from what would be regarded as a party question to one of patriotism
or union.
The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, although not in fact
a slavery or a party question, is so regarded. Witness the temper
manifested by the Republicans in the free states, and even by the
Union men in the South.
I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for changing the issue.
I deem it fortunate that the last administration created the necessity.
For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and reinforce all the
ports in the Gulf and have the Navy recalled from foreign stations
to be prepared for a blockade. Put the island of Key West under martial
law.
(2)
Mary Boykin Chesnut, Charleston, South
Carolina, diary entry (13th April, 1861)
Fort Sumter has been on fire. Anderson has not yet silenced any
of our guns. So the aides, still with swords and red sashes by way
of uniform, tell us. But the sound of those guns makes regular meals
impossible. None of us go to table. Tea trays pervade the corridors
going everywhere. Some of the anxious hearts lie on their beds and
moan in solitary misery.
(3)
Walt Whitman wrote about his thoughts
on hearing about the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Specimen Days
(1881).
Even after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the gravity of the
revolt, and the power and will of the slave States for a strong and
continued military resistance to national authority, were not at all
realized at the North, except by a few. Nine-tenths of the people
of the free States looked upon the rebellion, as started in South
Carolina, from a feeling of one-half of contempt, and the other half
composed of anger and incredulity. It was not thought it would be
joined in by Virginia, North Carolina, or Georgia. A great and cautious
national official predicted it would blow over "in sixty days"
and folks generally believed the prediction.
(4)
Mary Livermore was staying in Boston
with her father when the American Civil
War started in 1861.
My own home had been in Chicago for years, but my aged father
was thought to be dying, and the stern speech of the telegram had
summoned me to his bedside. The daily papers teemed with the dreary
records of sucession. The Southern press blazed with hatred of the
North, and with fierce contempt for her patience and her avowed desire
for peace. Northern men and women were driven from Southern homes,
leaving behind all their possessions, and thankful to escape with
life.
The day after arrival, came the news that Fort Sumter was attacked,
which increased the feverish anxiety. The telegraph, which had registered
for the astounded nation the hourly progress of the bombardment, announced
the lowering of the stars and stripes, and the surrender of the beleaguered
garrison, the news fell on the land like a thunderbolt.
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