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150 years ago today, President Lincoln rolled the dice and placed the nation on a course he must have known would lead to war. He gave the go ahead to Gustavas Fox to depart with his relief expedition on the 6th for Fort Sumter. Fox complained to the president that it might well be too late, that they had waited too long and Sumter was likely to fall before he could get there. Lincoln told him that the attempt was what was important, more so than if he triumphed or failed in getting the supplies to the beseiged installation.
Did Lincoln know how the South would react? It seems highly probable that he did. The day before issuing these orders, the Confederates had already fired upon a US merchant schooner which had become lost in the fog and drifted into Charleston Harbor by mistake, thinking that they had arrived at their proper destination. The Rhoda H. Shannon, out of Boston, was carrying a load of ice, bound for Savannah. When the defenders of Sumter saw a US flag in Charleston Harbor, they at first thought it was the promised relief expedition.
Major Anderson soon realized the truth of the matter and sent a boat out to the errant vessel to explain the situation to their bewildered captain. With two holes in his sails he did not require much persuasion to put about and make a hasty exist.
This incident would seem an unambiguous forecast for what any relief vessel, armed or otherwise, could expect if it attempted to reach Sumter.
President Davis had issued orders to the Charleston Confedrates that any attempt to relieve Sumter in any manner, should be met with sufficient force to frustrate their purpose. President Lincoln committed himself to sending a ship.
This was it...there was no turning back now by either side and war was but eight days away.
The flow of resignations from the US officers corps had commenced with the first secessions and continued throughout the Sumter crisis. Names that were to become famous for the Confederacy were already aboard...January 31st, Earl Van Dorn, February 20th, Pierre G.T. Beauregard, March 23rd, Lafayette McLaws, Kirby Smith would be resigning 150 years ago tomorrow, and 150 years ago today saw the departure of Henry Heth, who at the time was a Captain in the US army specializing in the teaching of marksmanship.
Heth rose to Brigade, and then Division command, the position he occupied July 1st, 1861, when against Lee's orders not to bring on a general engagement, he brought about the battle of Gettysburg by reinforcing his attack on what he thought was going to be state militiamen guarding the town.
As he had indicated he would do, 150 years ago today President Lincoln sent notification to Governor Pickens of South Carolina, informing him that a relief ship, carrying only food and medicines, had been dispatched to Fort Sumter.
Lincoln had pledged in his inaguaral address that if war was to come, the Southerners would have to fire the first shot. By his action in dispatching the relief ship, he has placed the Confederacy in a position where they will have to do exactly that, or accept a "foreign" military outpost in their territory.
The latter was no longer on the menu. General Beauregard was already under instructions from President Davis that under no circumstances should he allow the reprovisioning of the fort.
America had four days of peace left before the commencement of four years of war.
An article in the New York Times describes the steamer Baltic, which has been dispatched to Charleston to provide supplies to Fort Sumpter. The Baltic carries a large quantity of stores and a number of small boats to assist in landing supplies at the fort. The Baltic also carries soldiers and boat-howitzers on board should it prove to be necessary to repel attackers.
The decision for war was made 150 years ago today. Having learned that the US had dispatched a relief ship for Fort Sumter, from Montgomery, General Beauregard received orders to demand the surrender of the installation, and if that was refused, he was to open a bombardment and reduce the fort before the expedition could arrive. Beauregard complied and received a refusal from Major Anderson.
Beauregard then began the final preparations for his attack. The floating battery which had been constructed, was towed into position. A call went out for the surgeons of Charleston to place themselves at the ready for treating casualties.
The below link provides an illustration of Sumter's hopeless position. Designed to frustrate an invasion from the sea, Sumter instead was being subjected to assault by artillery planted on land and in the floating battery. Confederate guns pointed at Sumter from all directions save East. Charleston, SC - April 1861
In Charleston Harbor, the last day of peace which America was to enjoy for the next four years, was devoted to negotiations between General Beauregard and Major Anderson.
Beauregard had dispatched a pair of officers to the Fort under a flag of truce to demand its surrender. Anderson declined, but added:
Quote:
"I shall await the first shot, and if you do not batter us to pieces, we shall be starved out in a few days."
When Beauregard was informed of Anderson's comment, he saw one last possibility for avoiding martial hostilities. He sent a message to Anderson at 1 am which offered to abstain from opening fire on the fort if Anderson would state an exact time that he would be evacuating. Anderson replied to this that in the absense of contrary orders, he would evacuate by noon of the 15th.
Because it was conditional, Beauregard's messenger was authorized to refuse it on the spot. He handed Anderson a note which read:
Quote:
"Sir: by authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time."
True to his announcement to Major Anderson, at 4:30 am, 150 years ago today, in obedience to General Beauregard's orders, Lt. Henry S. Farley of the Fort Johnson battery, fired the 10 inch mortar he commanded. The shell arched over Sumter and exploded in the air.
Hostilities had commenced.
All of the confederate batteries joined in the general bombardment. Anderson's command rode it out in their bombproofs, the Major having decided not to return fire until daylight. The US troops rose and breakfasted at 6 am, and just past 7 am the fort began to return fire. Anderson's supply of powder was limited, and his force was small to the point where only a few guns could be manned at a time. Thus Sumter's return fire was slow. Sumter had been designed to repel an invasion by wooden ships, not to resist a bombardment from protected batteries on land. There wasn't a lot that they could do to hurt the Confederates.
The relief ship, the Baltic, had arrived at 3am, but was ahead of its supporting ships, so it waited. When those ships did arrive at 6 am, the attack was already underway. The fleet was forced to withdraw.
The bombardment continued throughout the day, averaging a shot at the fort every two minutes. Despite all the flying metal, there were no casualties on either side. Late in the afternoon, in response to hot shot used by the Confederates, a wooden barracks caught fire inside Sumter and the defenders were unable to extinguish it. It threatened the fort's magazine, but then a rainshower at 7 pm solved the problem for them. Anderson called a halt to firing for the night. The Confederates did not cease, but after dark they limited their rate of fire to four shots an hour.
As soon as the light returned, the Confederates resumed the full bombardment of Fort Sumter, again employing hot shot to try and ignite a fire inside the walls. By noon they were successful, several fires had started and spread, all of Sumter's wooden buildings were ablaze. Anderson ordered the powder evacuated from the magazines, but only a third of it was removed before it became too dangerous to continue the work.
At one pm the flagpole was shot down. Colonel Lewis Wigfall, former senator, thought that it had been lowered as a sign of surrender. On his own authority, he had himself rowed to the fort through the ongoing bombardment. He asked Anderson if he was now prepared to evacuate Sumter. The word "surrender" wasn't used and Anderson, noting that the installation was on fire, he was just about out of ammunition and food, and his command was exhausted , agreed to a truce. A white flag was run up. Seeing this, Beauregard dispatched some officers to Sumter, unaware of the deal struck with Wigfall. After some confusion, they extended to Anderson the same terms as Wigfall. The capitulation took place at 2:30 pm, the battle having lasted 34 hours and producing no deaths on either side.
Casualties did take place, but this was during the firing of the ceremonial salute to the US flag that a spark landed in a pile of cartridges which exploded and killed one man, mortally wounded another and wounded the other members of the gun crew. The first deaths of the war.
Sumter, though pounded into ruins later by US attacks, was to remain in Confederate hands until shortly before the end of the war.
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