Historians are divided as to the cause of the American Civil War. Perhaps because there was no single cause. The popular notion that slavery was the cardinal issue is wrong. A stronger argument can be made that state’s rights was a more provocative issue – except among abolitionists, who were as disliked in the north almost as they were in the south.
The 150th anniversary of the first shot fired in a conflict that would claim over 600,000 casualties in the next 48 months passed last week on April 12. That April morning was the culmination rather than the beginning of the disputes that led the nation to take up arms as it had on another April morning 86 years earlier. Except this time the enemy was itself.
Fort Sumter is located in the mouth of Charleston (SC) harbor on 70 tons on New England granite dumped there to build up a sand bar for a fort. Although construction had begun in 1827, the fort remained unfinished in 1861, and except for a single soldier who acted as a light keeper and a small group of civilian contractors, it was unoccupied.
Fort Moultrie located across the bay from Sumter was the headquarters of the US Army presence in the area. It had been built in 1776 and was indefensible from land attack since it was little more than a gun platform to guard the entrance of Charleston harbor.
Various artillery batteries were located on the mainland ringing the harbor to support its defense.
South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union – a fact not forgotten by Sherman’s army when it swept through the state during the first 66 days of 1865, leaving a swath of destruction 100 miles wide. Six days after South Carolina declared its secession, 56-year old US Army Major Robert Anderson, anticipating an attack by South Carolina militia, surreptitiously moved his 127 men – 13 of whom were musicians – on the night of December 26, 1860 to the incomplete fortifications of Fort Sumter by longboats, abandoning Moultrie. Anderson was a Kentuckian by birth, a former slave-owner, and was married to a Georgian. He was pro-slavery and his family was sympathetic to the Confederacy throughout the war, yet he remained loyal to the Union.
His antagonist across the bay was Brig. Gen. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, the first general officer of the newly formed Confederate States of America and the commanding officer of the Confederate military in Charleston. Ironically, Beauregard had been an artillery student of Anderson at West Point. When he took command of Confederate forces on March 1, he demanded that Fort Sumter surrender, which was predictably refused, so Beauregard made certain that food and water supplies to the fort were cut off.
This was the scene during the late winter months of 1861 when the situation around Fort Sumter was beginning to look like a siege. Anderson’s move to Fort Sumter sparked the SC Governor to seize Moultrie and the batteries ringing the harbor. All were strategically located to fire on Sumter. The federal arsenal in Charleston was also seized. The batteries and Fort Moultrie were refitted and new batteries were added to increase the fire power aimed at Sumter.
In contrast, Sumter had only half of the planned number of guns installed. There was little ammunition for the guns that were installed and Anderson was running out of food and supplies. It would be difficult to resupply them.
The newly elected President Lincoln would not be inaugurated until March 4, 1861, so until then, President James Buchanan had to deal with the developing crisis in SC. Buchanan attempted a resupply of Sumter with the Star of the West, an unarmed merchant ship, which was hoped would be less provocative to the Confederates. It passed through the harbor entrance on January 9 and started down the ship channel bringing it under the battery guns of the now-refurbished Fort Moultrie and Morris Island batteries. The first shot was over the bow, which the merchant captain ignored; therefore the following shots were directly at her, striking three hits. This accomplished its purpose in discouraging the Star from her venture and the captain turned around and steamed toward open sea. Anderson prepared his guns when he heard the Confederate fire, but since he was never told of the Star’s rescue mission, he withheld firing his guns to conserve ammunition.
Now it was Lincoln’s turn. Upon his inauguration, the new President was informed that Anderson was down to six weeks’ rations. There were already seven states in the Confederacy and Lincoln was anxious to avoid any action that would encourage the border states to join them. Jefferson Davis and his advisors were struggling with a similar conundrum, wishing to avoid being viewed as the aggressor in the escalating crisis. Five border states, including Virginia, had voted against succession and Lincoln had offered to evacuate Fort Sumter if Virginia would pledge to remain in the Union. It would not.
By April 4, Anderson’s situation in the siege was growing untenable. Lincoln was forced to do something and that something was to send Gustavas Fox, a former navy captain, with a fleet whose purpose was only to land supplies at Sumter unless opposed, in which case it would land supplies, ammunition, and men. Lincoln notified SC Governor Pickens of his intentions.
After Pickens had conferred with Jefferson Davis, Beauregard was ordered to demand the immediate surrender of Fort Sumter, and if the demand was refused, to reduce the fort before the relief fleet arrived. As his representatives, Beauregard sent over to Sumter on April 11 an envoy consisting of Col. James Chesnut, whose wife Mary would write a famous diary of the war, Col. James Chisholm, and Capt. Stephen Lee. After reading the ultimatum to surrender the fort, Anderson declined saying “I shall await the first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces, we shall be starved out in a few days."
The envoy sailed back to the mainland and presented Anderson’s refusal to Beauregard, including the departing comment. The General sent them back at 1 a.m. with this message:
If you will state the time which you will evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree in the meantime that you will not use your guns against us unless ours shall be employed against Fort Sumter, we will abstain from opening fire upon you.
After reading this note, Anderson conferred with his officers and asked how long they could hold out. His surgeon estimated five days, the last three without food. Anderson therefore replied to Beauregard’s legation that he would evacuate Sumter on the 15th at noon “… should I not receive prior to that time controlling instructions from my government or additional supplies.” Hearing this, Col. Chesnut concluded that there were too many “ifs” in Anderson’s reply so he sat down and wrote an immediate formal response, which he handed to Anderson:
Sir; By the authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to inform you that he will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time.
It was 3:20 a.m. Major Anderson accompanied the Confederate officers to the Sumter wharf, cordially shook hands with them and bidding them farewell said, “If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next …”
At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, Lt. Henry S. Farley, fired a looping shot from a 10-inch mortar that exploded over the fort. Beauregard gave orders that the guns should fire one at a time from each battery surrounding Sumter in a counterclockwise fashion at 2-minute intervals. Thus began a murderous shelling from the perimeter of Charleston bay, awakening the residents of the city, one of whom was Mary Chesnut the diarist, all of whom crowded outside on Battery Point to watch the arcing shells burst inside the fort.
Anderson tried to maintain a normal garrison routine, ordering roll call and breakfast before Capt. Abner Doubleday fired the first shot. It was aimed at the battery on Cummings Point but missed because the lowest sighting of fort’s guns could not target the batteries. The firing and answering fire continued for 34 hours, putting Sumter on the bull’s eye of the shore batteries and consuming its ammunition supplies down to a perilously low level. In addition, Anderson was running out of cloth gunpowder bags, forcing him to reduce the number of operating guns to six.
Ships from Fox's relief expedition began to arrive on April 12 but were driven back by Confederate batteries. Fox thought it best to wait until nightfall before attempting to land men, supplies, and ammunition, but the winds picked up that night making it impossible to load the shuttle boats necessary to get everything to the fort.
In the meantime, Confederate gunners managed to start several fires inside the fort by lobbing in “hot shots” – cannonballs that had been heated in ovens. The storm that interrupted Fox produced rain that extinguished the fires, giving the gunners on both sides a respite for sleep, albeit a fitful one.
The next morning bombardment resumed with Confederate gunners firing hot shot against the wooden buildings inside the fort. By 11 a.m. fire and smoke became so intense it made staying in the fort almost impossible. Men lay on the ground with handkerchiefs over their mouths in order to breathe. Watching the scene from Morris Island, Confederate Major Whiting later wrote that he was almost moved to tears that day thinking of what the men inside the fort were going through. Whenever a gun would fire from the fort, Confederates manning the batteries would cheer the Union garrison for its courage. At the same time, the Confederates cursed the Union ships standing outside the harbor for failing to come to the aid of their countrymen.
By mid-day most of the buildings and the main gate were aflame. When fire began to creep toward the main ammunition magazine, Union soldiers began moving barrels of gunpowder to safer locations. Anderson stopped them and ordered the magazine doors closed. Shortly after, a thunderous explosion showered the fort with burning debris and broken bricks when the power magazine exploded. A plume of smoke rose above the fort and the citizens of Charleston watching from Battery Point despaired that anyone could remain alive after such a holocaust.
Around 1 p.m. on the 13th, Confederate artillerists toppled the fort’s flagpole, knocking down its large garrison flag. It had been struck nine times by shore gunners. The flag fell on the fort’s parade field where Lt. Hall ran to retrieve it in heat so intense that it singed his hair and forced him to rip off his epaulets because they became too hot to wear. Hall and several others jerry-rigged a temporary flag pole and hoisted it again, drawing more Confederate fire.
Confederate Col. Louis Wigfall, a former US Senator who had been observing the battle when the flag fell, thought it meant the fort was ready to surrender. He commandeered a small boat and had it row him out to the fort while waving a white flag from his sword. The Union gunners could see his approach and ceased fire, but many of the Confederate gunners could see neither the dingy nor the flag and continued to fire, putting Wigfall in serious danger.
Unable to land at the fort’s wharf because the gate was afire, Wigfall crawled through an open embrasure where a Union private refused to let him enter. Finally Wigfall persuaded the private and an officer to take him to Major Anderson. "You have defended your flag nobly, Sir,” Wigfall said. “You have done all that it is possible to do, and General Beauregard wants to stop this fight. On what terms, Major Anderson, will you evacuate this fort?" Anderson took note that Wigfall used the word "evacuate" instead of "surrender." Almost out of ammunition with his men exhausted and shell-shocked after taking 3,300 rounds from Confederate guns, Anderson believed he could agree to a truce with honor. He agreed to leave under arms and with all company property, if they would be allowed to fire a military salute to their flag. Wigfall agreed and complimented Anderson on his courage. A bed sheet was run up on the provisional flag pole and Wigfall returned to Morris Island.
The truce that Wigfall negotiated almost collapsed when two Charleston civilians, unaware of Wigfall’s entreaty, rowed over to the fort after seeing the white flag to discuss surrender terms. Arriving at Sumter they confessed ignorance of Wigfall’s visit and abjured his authority to negotiate a treaty. Anderson was furious and ordered the garrison flag raised again. However, when Beauregard had seen the white flag, he sent over two officers who agreed to the same terms Wigfall had set forth, and the truce was thus preserved.
At 2:30 p.m. on the 14th the Union garrison surrendered Fort Sumter to the Confederate legation. To avoid embarrassing his former instructor, Beauregard did not attend the ceremonies.
Remarkably, no one on either side had been killed during the Sumter bombardment. However, when Anderson’s 100-gun salute was fired, the cannon exploded on the 17th salute, killing the gunner and mortally wounding the assistant. The assistant was taken to a Charleston hospital where he was cared for until he died two days later. Arguably these were the first casualties of the Civil War.
The chaos of the exploding gun caused the Confederate steamer Isabel to miss the ebb tide and it was fast aground at the end of the fort’s wharf. The Isabel was to take Anderson and his men, arms, and supplies to the waiting Union ship, Baltic, of Fox’s command which was anchored off the bar outside of the harbor. Anderson boarded the Isabel with the garrison flag under his arm, and he his soldiers spent the night onboard the steamer even as the Confederates and civilians occupied the destroyed fort and celebrated the occasion that put it in their possession.
The Isabel was able to get underway early the next morning. As it steamed past Morris Island on its way to the Union fleet, the Confederate gunners who had shelled the garrison for two days uncovered their heads in salute to Anderson and his command. Transferred to the Baltic, the Fort Sumter garrison sailed for New York.
Upon his arrival, Anderson was promoted to Brig. Gen. and sent to Kentucky. While he was not wounded in the Sumter shelling, the strain of the affair wrecked him emotionally and physically. He was retired for disability on October 27, 1863. Just before the war ended, however, Anderson was promoted to Maj. Gen. and he returned to Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865 to raise the shell-shot garrison flag that he had lowered four years before to the day.
Later that evening, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford’s Theater in Washington City.
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