The April 1861 attack on Fort Sumter?

Question

Who was involved? what happened? where did it happen? when did it happen? why was it important?

Answer 1

I apologize for the length but I have made it as short as possible to answer your questions. The story is far more detailed than what is listed here. Although you will find various sites on the internet, my sources are from my own library out of books from the 1880s. What I hope you realize is that all of these people who were involved were just that people, little different from people in our own times and I suspect that (although the details are different) the pressures and interrelationships among the players reminds you of the Bay of Pigs from the 1960s.

In the events leading to instigation of hostilities of the 1860s war, much is made of President Lincoln’s activities pro and con and that is only right. However, a case could be made that when Lincoln took office events were well on their way to war due to inaction of President Buchanan.

The election had the following results:

Candidate States Popular Vote Electoral Vote

Lincoln 17 1,866,352 180
Breckinridge 11 845,703 72
Bell 3 589,581 39
Douglas 2 1,375,157 12

And we think that the 2000 election was contentious.

With Lincoln clearly the winner the die was cast. The State Convention of South Carolina met in Charleston 17 December 1860 and on the 20th the unanimously adopted secession.

South Carolina then appointed ministers to proceed to Washington and treat with for United States property within the borders of South Carolina. The ministers were refused recognition by President Buchanan. At the same time South Carolina invited other States to join them.

While the North responded to President Buchanan’s proclamation recommending 4 July 1861 as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, South Carolina began to prepare for the eventuality of war because as the first to secede it was most likely that hostilities would begin there. The natural step was to strengthen the defenses of Charleston Harbor which had Castle Pinckney, Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie and Fort Johnson with Fort Sumter the strongest.

Being a military man Major Anderson (the Union Commander in Charleston Harbor) knew that it would be impossible for his command to defend the four forts and decided to focus on Fort Sumter. Knowing that the people of Charleston were watching him, a show was made to move into Fort Johnson with the Women and Children (the garrison’s families) being taken to Fort Johnson. During the night of 26 December 1860 the garrison moved to Fort Sumter as others of the command spiked the guns, burned the carriages and cut down the flag staff of the other forts. Anderson sent a letter to Union Adjutant General Cooper informing of this action, but this letter was preceded by a telegram from the people of Charleston to the War office.

The authorities of South Carolina declared that Major Anderson’s act was a virtual declaration of war, with hundreds of young men demanding to attack Fort Sumter. Although such an act was not allowed, Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney were occupied by forces of South Carolina with the custom-house and post office also sized, and the militia took possession of the government arsenal. The union revenue cutter “William Aiken” was surrendered by its commanding officer. As a tone of the times, when Major Anderson asked of the new commander of Fort Moultrie by what authority did he occupied it, the reply was, “By the authority of the sovereign State of South Carolina, and by the command of her government.”

This act of Major Anderson and the response of South Carolina began to solidify pressure in the North for President Buchanan to act. This is when he made the strong unionist Edwin Stanton the Attorney General. The unarmed steamer “Star of the West” was sent to Charleston with supplies for Major Anderson. Buchanan’s Secretary of the Interior Thompson was so offended by this act that he resigned going back to Mississippi to work in support of secession. On 9 January 1861 the “Star of the West” approached Fort Sumter and a battery on Morris Island fired on her and she replied by running up the Stars and Stripes. The battery continued to fire with Fort Moultrie joining in and, two steam tugs and an armed schooner moved out to intercept. The “Star of the West” put about and returned to New York. It is my understanding that this date and action is the official beginning of the Civil War.

Interestingly Major Anderson was not aware of the coming of the supply steamer. He demanded from South Carolina Governor Pickens the meaning of the firing on the flag (of the Star of the West) further declaring that if not disavowed that he (Major Anderson) would accept the firing as an act of war and he would respond by not allowing vessels to pass within range of his guns. The governor responded by stating that this was an act of the State of Carolina.

These events spurred other Southern States to move forward to secession, meeting on 4 February 1861 which converted itself into a “Congress” and by 9 February 1861 all members taking the oath of allegiance and then electing President Davis and Vice President Stephens.

It is also interesting to note (in the context of the Forts of Charleston) that when Louisiana seceded 26 January 1861 the U.S. Mint at New Orleans was sized and more than $1,300,000 in double eagles and silver half dollars were struck until the bullion was depleted in May of 1861 and the U.S. dies were destroyed. There were other U.S. forts in the South (such as in Florida) which were also sized.

With all of these events the firing on Fort Sumter had not yet occurred. The American States teetered on the brink of war and yet the full move to war waited one more player on the stage and soon President Lincoln would take the reins of the federal government firmly into his control.


On 11 February 1861 President elect Lincoln began his trip to Washington (arriving 23 February 1861) to assume the presidency.

On 4 March 1861 Lincoln entered the U.S. Senate chamber to deliver his inaugural speech. He was escorted arm-in-arm with President Buchanan. If Lincoln’s intent is taken from this speech, he offered no reason to begin a war over slavery. At the same time Lincoln was committed to a union perpetual.

His cabinet included: William Seward as Secretary of State; Salmon Chase as Secretary of Treasury; Simon Cameron as Secretary of War; Gideon Wells as Secretary of the Navy; Caleb Smith as Secretary of the Interior; Edward Bates as Attorney General; and Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General.

On the morning after the inaugural festivities (5 March), Lincoln went to his office and found a report from Major Robert Anderson, written on February 28, which had reached Washington on Inauguration Day. Anderson reported that he had made an examination of his provisions and found that his supplies would be exhausted in about four to six weeks. Equally disconcerting, Anderson reported that he and his staff agreed that it would take a considerable land and naval force to relieve and reinforce the fort. He estimated it would take no less than "twenty thousand good and well-disciplined men."

Lincoln presented the information to General Winfield Scott for evaluation and received a gloomy response that evening. Scott, who had earlier advised the reinforcement of Sumter, now stated that the time had passed to save the fort. "I now see no alternative but a surrender, in some weeks," Scott argued. "Evacuation seems almost inevitable . . . if, indeed, the worn out garrison be not assaulted & carried in the present week."

Scott also mentioned the existence of "something like a truce," which he also referred to as a "truce, or informal understanding," at Fort Pickens. It had been established by the Buchanan administration following the movement of federal troops to the fort from the mainland. Reinforcements remained aboard ship with orders not to land at the fort until "an attack shall be made by the secessionists."

After consulting with selected cabinet and military officials, Lincoln convened his cabinet Saturday night (9 March) and informed them of the situation at Sumter. This was the first cabinet session to discuss the state of the country and the issue of the forts, particularly Sumter. The general effect of Lincoln's remarks was that of dismay and even consternation. "I was astonished to be informed that Fort Sumter . . . must be evacuated," Attorney General Edward Bates noted in his diary, "and that General Scott . . . and Major Anderson concur in opinion, that, as the place has but 28 days provision, it must be relieved, if at all, in that time; and that it will take a force of 20,000 men at least, and a bloody battle, to relieve it!"

On this same date General P.G.T. Beauregard received orders from Montgomery to prevent the reinforcement of Fort Sumter "at all hazards" by the "use of every conceivable agency." He was informed that Sumter was "silent now only because of the weakness of the garrison. Should re-enforcements get in, her guns would open fire upon you."

During the two days of 11 & 12 March, Lincoln received discordant advice about the situation at Sumter.

General Scott sent two replies in response to Lincoln's inquiries. Scott considered the relief of Sumter unfeasible; it would take up to eight months to authorize and prepare an expedition sufficiently large to relieve the fort. As a military question, the time for assisting Sumter had passed nearly a month before. "Since then a surrender under assault or from starvation has been merely a question of time." He recommended that Anderson be instructed "to evacuate" the fort.

But Lincoln also received contrary advice. On either March 11 or March 12, Francis P. Blair, father of Lincoln's postmaster general, Montgomery Blair, was so disturbed by reports that Sumter would be surrendered, that he went to see the President. Blair heatedly contended that the surrender of Sumter was "virtually a surrender of the Union," and, unless done under absolute military necessity, constituted treason. Those fortifications presently in the government's possession were necessary to protect all states against foreign invasion, and so long as they were not used to attack a southern state, the border slave states would accept continued federal occupation.

Faced with the shocking news from Major Anderson and the conflicting recommendations about what to do, Lincoln took the following steps:

On March 11, he issued General Scott a broad reminder to "exercise all possible vigilance for the maintenance of all the places within the military departments of the United States." He specifically directed Scott to reinforce Fort Pickens (Florida), the more accessible of the two forts.

The following day, March 12, Scott dispatched orders to Captain Israel Vogdes, commander of the army's troops aboard a ship lying off Fort Pickens (Florida), to "re-enforce Fort Pickens" and to hold the fort. The message was taken aboard the steamer Crusader, which left New York for the Gulf of Mexico on March 15. In taking this action, Lincoln was, in effect, terminating the truce that the Buchanan administration had arranged with Florida.

With many advisers, particularly General Scott, declaring that the relief of Sumter was militarily unfeasible, advocates of Sumter relief sought to persuade Lincoln otherwise. In response to a telegram from his brother-in-law, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, Gustavus Vasa Fox arrived in Washington and met with Lincoln on March 13. He presented Lincoln with a plan that he had unsuccessfully urged on General Scott during the last weeks of the Buchanan administration. Naval authorities considered Fox's plan militarily feasible.

Fox's plan called for a combination of warships, transports, and tugboats to run reinforcements and supplies into the fort. He proposed to put about three hundred troops aboard a large steamer, which would be convoyed by warships. Along with Fort Sumter's guns, these warships would, if necessary, subdue Confederate resistance. The troops would be run into the fort at night, using either the tugboats or small boats brought along for that purpose.

On 14 March Lincoln convened his cabinet twice on this day to consider Fox's plan. The first cabinet session was from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., and the second session ran from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.

Fox presented evidence both from military experiments and wartime experience of the difficulty for land batteries to hit objects, such as ships, moving rapidly at right angles to their line of fire, especially at night. Army experts, however, contended that the expedition would be destroyed. Sometime during these deliberations, Fox offered to visit Charleston Harbor to pursue his case for sending in supplies.

No decision was made at these sessions about Fox's relief plan.

Fox's plan, though highly controversial, offered at least a possibility of a successful military operation to relieve Fort Sumter. But Lincoln knew there was another, perhaps more important, question to consider. Even if feasible, would it be wise to undertake such an expedition? What would the political consequences be?

On March 15, Lincoln sought his cabinet's advice on this problem. He asked them to write a response to the following question: "Assuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, under all the circumstances is it wise to attempt it?"

On 19 March acting on Gustavus V. Fox's suggestion, Lincoln ordered Fox to Charleston to assess Anderson's situation, and as well the mood and intentions of the South.

Fox left on the same day, March 19, and passing through Richmond and Wilmington, reached Charleston two days later, on March 21. He was introduced to Governor Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina and General Beauregard, and after some delay, was permitted to go to Fort Sumter. He reached the fort that evening, "after dark and remained about two hours," discussing the situation with Major Anderson. He hinted at, but did not explicitly describe to Anderson, his plan to reinforce the fort.

21 March, in addition to Fox, Lincoln dispatched two personal, Illinois friends to assess the situation in Charleston, Stephen A. Hurlbut and Ward H. Lamon.

Hurlbut had family and prominent friends in Charleston. He traveled as a private citizen and stayed with his sister for two days before returning to Washington. Lamon formally came as a government agent to examine some post office matters. With his official status, imposing physical dimensions, and gregariousness, he drew more attention than Hurlbut. During his two day stay, Lamon was granted a formal audience with Governor Pickens and was permitted to visit Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. Lamon conveyed to both Governor Pickens and Anderson the impression that Sumter would be evacuated shortly.

On 25 March, having returned to Washington, Fox reported his assessment of Sumter's condition to Lincoln. He affirmed the feasibility of his plan, noting that at night it would be impossible to see small landing boats before they reached the fort. He confirmed that Anderson's troops were getting short of provisions, and set April 15 noon as the deadline for resupplying them.

Over the next few days, Fox met "frequently" with Lincoln, cabinet members, and military authorities. He answered the objections of army officers like Scott, who considered a relief expedition impracticable, and presented testimony from high ranking navy officers that supported his case. During one of these discussions, Fox cautioned that valuable time was being lost and that he "ought to be allowed to take the preparatory steps if there was any possibility of sending it out."
Meanwhile news of Fox's report became public.

On 8 April 1861 President Lincoln notified Governor Pickens of South Carolina that he was resolved to provision Fort Sumter at all costs. General Beauregard telegraph the Confederate Secretary of War for instructions and was told (9 April) to compel evacuation of Fort Sumter without delay. Beauregard sent two of his staff to Major Anderson to demand surrender, he refused and further informed that provisions were so low that they could not hold out much longer. Beauregard notified Anderson that if he would name a day of surrender and not use his guns on the confederates, unless attacked, Beauregard would not attack him. Anderson named 15 April unless he should receive supplies or orders from Washington. Beauregard could not accept such conditions because he knew that a fleet with provisions and re-enforcements was then off the harbor. Beauregard told Anderson that he would open fire within the hour (12 April 1861 4:30 A.M.).

From here on history is known by most people in that Fort Sumter was fired on and surrendered.

Answer 2

The 1861 attack on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston, South Carolina, is arguably the first battle of the Civil War. No one knows for sure who shot first, but the Confederate forces fired on the Union fort early in the morning on April 12. It was important because many of the southern states who had been debating whether to secede from the Union or not decided to secede after this battle. Check out the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Sumter

Answer 3

What Happened On April 12 1861

Answer 4

If the fort had been reprovisioned, ships would not have been able to enter Charleston harbor and carry on trade with the secessionists. Charleston harbor was one of 3 or 4 major ports. If that had occurred, the south would not have been able to trade for goods, and would have slowly starved, probably. At some point, war was inevitable. Perhaps, although unlikely, the CSA could have made treaties with England and/or France and/or Spain, in an attempt to broaden the scope of the war and put pressure on the north to end it, or suffer serious attacks from Canada and invasion from the sea. It would also have been a different war if the South had attacked the Northern states immediately instead of fighting a defensive war.

Answer 5

that's a tricky question...

Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Sumter

everything is there