Attack on Fort Sumter

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Attack on Fort Sumter
Part of: American Civil War
Bombardment of Fort Sumter by Currier & Ives, hand-colored steel engraving
Bombardment of Fort Sumter by Currier & Ives, hand-colored steel engraving
date April 12-13, 1861
place Charleston County , South Carolina, then CSA
Exit Confederate victory
Parties to the conflict

United States 33United States United States

States of America Confederate 1861-1Confederate States of America Confederate States of America

Commander
Troop strength
about 80
about 500
losses
none
(two dead and two injured in a gun salute after the surrender)
no

The attack on Fort Sumter from April 12th to 13th, 1861 is considered to be the beginning of the four year long civil war between the Union states of the north and the Confederate States of America . The attack was preceded by a four-month siege, during which seven of the later eleven slave-holding states in the south had already left the Union.

After Abraham Lincoln was elected president on November 6, 1860, South Carolina , on whose territory Fort Sumter was located in Charleston Bay , declared its independence. After an attempt started on January 9th under the government of James Buchanan to strengthen the fort's garrison, which was only about 80 men strong, failed, Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave Brigadier General Pierre GT Beauregard command of about 6,000 men strong militia. They should besiege the fort and prevent any further attempts by the north to strengthen it.

When Lincoln was informed of the situation at Fort Sumter after taking office on March 4, the garrison only had provisions for a few weeks. On April 6th, he decided to notify South Carolina Governor Francis Wilkinson Pickens that his government would attempt to supply the fort's garrison with provisions. The supply ship was to be accompanied by warships, which would only intervene if the Confederates opened fire. Thereupon Jefferson Davis gave orders to Beauregard to take the fort before the arrival of the supply fleet. This opened fire on the morning of April 12 at 4:30 a.m. The garrison, under the command of Major Robert Anderson , finally surrendered on the afternoon of April 13th.

The events at Fort Sumter sparked widespread support for further military action in both the north and the south. On April 15, Lincoln ordered 75,000 soldiers to be mobilized for a period of 90 days. This move prompted four more southern states to join the Confederate.

prehistory

1856 map of the United States, showing slave states (gray), non-slave states (red), territories (green), and the Kansas Territory (white)

The election of 1860 and the secession of the south

In the previous years of the war there had already been repeated tensions between the “free” states north of the Mason-Dixon Line and the slave-holding states in the south, which were sparked above all by the question of slavery. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 decided to continue the line westward along the 36th parallel. Slavery should be banned in all future states north of this demarcation line , while it would continue to be allowed south. The balance between northern and southern states should thereby be preserved.

However, this compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act , which was introduced to the Senate by Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in early 1854 and signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30th . The law provided for the admission of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, both above the demarcation line, to the United States, but left the question of introducing slavery to the residents of the territories. In the Kansas Territory there were then civil war-like clashes between proponents and opponents of slavery (" Bleeding Kansas "), which only ended on January 29, 1861, when Kansas joined the Union as a "free" state. At this point in time, several southern states had already left the Union.

In the dispute over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, opponents of slavery formed the Republican Party on February 28, 1854 , which gained popularity in the following years, while the fronts between the northern and southern states increasingly hardened. Slavery became the dominant campaign theme during the presidential election of 1860 , from which Abraham Lincoln emerged victorious. He first prevailed within the party against the more radical opponents of slavery and won the election on November 6 against John C. Breckinridge of the South Democrats and Stephen A. Douglas of the North Democrats. In the south, Lincoln received few votes as he did not appear on many of the electoral lists there.

Lincoln was a moderate opponent of slavery, from him the people of the north hoped for an easing of relations between north and south, which should prevent the looming secession of the south. Nevertheless, on December 20, South Carolina became the first of a total of eleven southern states to leave the Union after delegates to a special convention had voted 169-0 in favor. As those responsible had hoped, the secession triggered a chain reaction. Between January 9 and February 1, 1861, Mississippi , Florida , Alabama , Georgia , Louisiana, and Texas followed the example of South Carolina and together formed the Confederate States of America . The states of the upper south initially remained in the Union.

The siege

Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, steel engraving from 1911

One of the Confederate’s first steps was the seizure of federal property, including customs offices, arsenals, and forts. Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay initially remained one of the few locations in Confederate territory under the control of the north. The garrison, usually around 80 men, was at the time of South Carolina's secession, however, mostly in Fort Moultrie, a mile away and much more vulnerable . The garrison in command was Major Robert Anderson , who actually sympathized with the cause of the South and had previously been a slave owner himself. However, Anderson had served the United States armed forces for 35 years, sworn allegiance, and wanted to avoid civil war at all costs.

President James Buchanan remained in office until Lincoln's inauguration and had been negotiating the fort's future with South Carolina congressmen since December 10th. He promised not to comply with Anderson's request for reinforcements. In return, South Carolina pledged not to attack Sumter as long as negotiations over an eventual surrender of the fort continued. Anderson, however, mistakenly interpreted Buchanan's hesitation and conflicting orders from the War Department as authorizations to take all measures to hold Fort Sumter. On the night of December 26th, he moved the garrison there unnoticed by the Confederates. The next day Anderson was hailed as a national hero in the newspapers of the north, while in the south his actions were lamented as a serious breach of trust. Buchanan was now under pressure from the newly elected President of the Confederation, Jefferson Davis , and the South Carolina MPs. He was about to recall Anderson, but realized that he and his party would lose all credibility and the people of the north, who were united behind Anderson's measures, would turn against them.

After the secession of South Carolina, two members of Buchanan's cabinet from the south also resigned from their offices, which were then reoccupied with Northerners. Joseph Holt became the new Minister of War while Edwin M. Stanton held the office of Attorney General . Both were hostile to the South and their attitude moved Buchanan to give Anderson more support. On January 9, an unarmed merchant ship, the Star of the West , with a crew of 200 men was supposed to reinforce the garrison at Fort Sumter. However, the plans came to the public before they were realized, so that the Star of the West came under artillery fire immediately upon entering the Bay of Charleston. Anderson, who had received no orders, watched the action and decided not to fire back while the captain of the ship turned and turned back.

The political tensions between North and South continued to increase, but neither side wanted to be the first to unleash a war. The two opponents therefore quickly agreed on a ceasefire. The South Carolina government agreed not to attack Fort Sumter until the north made further attempts to reinforce the garrison. Jefferson Davis placed Brigadier General Pierre GT Beauregard in command on March 3 of a volunteer militia of several thousand men, which as a precaution surrounded the port of Charleston and manned all artillery positions there.

Abraham Lincoln finally took his oath of office on March 4th in Washington and was informed the next day of the precarious situation of the garrison in Fort Sumter, which only had provisions for a few weeks. In his inauguration speech, Lincoln had promised to keep the Confederate properties occupied, but not to escalate the tense situation through acts of war. Holding the fort with all military means would make him stand there as a warmonger, the renegade southern states unite even more tightly and possibly also the slave-owning states of the upper south, which had not yet joined the confederation, also move away from the union avert. Handing over the fort, however, would in turn be tantamount to diplomatic recognition of the confederation as an independent nation, which the south was striving for as a clear signal for other countries. In addition, the credibility of Lincoln and his Republican Party would suffer massively.

While Lincoln hesitated, William H. Seward , appointed by Lincoln as Secretary of State to the Cabinet, contacted the Confederation envoys without his knowledge and informed them that Fort Sumter would surrender. He also passed this information on to the press. Barely a week after Lincoln took office, the newspapers announced that the Union soldiers would be withdrawn from Fort Sumter. As the criticism of his government in the population grew louder, Lincoln was increasingly under pressure. Although most of his cabinet advised him to hand the fort over to South Carolina, Lincoln secretly prepared a sea operation to reinforce the fort.

On April 6, 1861, Lincoln dispatched a courier to Charleston informing Governor Francis Wilkinson Pickens that his government would attempt to supply Fort Sumter with provisions. The plan was to send supply ships to the fort and have them escorted by warships, which would only intervene if the supply ship were exposed to artillery fire. If the Confederates opened fire on an unarmed supply ship, they would be shamed for having started the war, potentially driving the states of the upper south into the arms of the north. Letting the supply ship pass, however, would have been an important symbolic victory for Lincoln's administration. Jefferson Davis was of the opinion that the South had to prove its absolute will to independence in order to win the states of the Upper South over. On April 9th, he gave Beauregard orders to take the fort before the northern navy arrived.

The attack

The location of Fort Sumter and the surrounding positions in Charleston Bay
The Virginia native Edmund Ruffin (1794-1865) in the uniform of the "Palmetto Guards" around 1861. Ruffin was a fanatical supporter of the secession, he fired one of the first cannon shots at the fort. When the South's defeat was sealed in 1865, he wrapped himself in a Confederate flag and shot himself.
Photo of the devastated inner courtyard, around 1864

Starting position

Fort Sumter was built on an artificially raised island about six kilometers outside the port of Charleston, fortified with brick walls over twelve meters high and two and a half to three and a half meters thick and armed with 146 guns. The fort was actually designed for a crew of up to 650 men, but at the time of the siege there was only a garrison of about 80 Union soldiers under the command of Major Robert Anderson and his deputy Captain Abner Doubleday . After more than four months of siege, their supplies were also slowly running out.

Fort Sumter was besieged by General Beauregard's 6,000 militiamen , 500 of whom actively participated in the cannonade. They had taken up their positions mainly at the artillery positions around the port. On April 10, Beauregard called on the fort's crew to surrender, but Anderson refused.

bombardment

After the failure of the surrender negotiations, Beauregard opened fire on the fort on April 12th. Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, in command of a battery of two 10-inch siege mortars on James Island, fired the first shot at 4:30 a.m. The Union reinforcement fleet had already arrived in the bay but was unable to intervene due to a storm that had dispersed most of their ships. The weak garrison was unable to man all of the fort's guns to effectively counter the Confederate fire. Anderson finally agreed to surrender after a 33-hour bombardment with 4,000 shells and cannonballs that had already destroyed large parts of the fort. Remarkably, there was no loss of life during the attack, but on April 14, one of the cannons exploded during a gun salute . Two Union soldiers died and two others were injured in the explosion.

Effects

The Confederate flag over Sumter, oil painting by Conrad Wise Chapman, 1863

The North

In an immediate response to the defeat at Fort Sumter, Lincoln ordered the mobilization of 75,000 militiamen for the next 90 days. The population of the north gathered for spontaneous rallies, hundreds of thousands took to the streets in several cities and demanded military action against the Confederates. In New York City alone , whose population was previously thought to be sympathetic to the South, an estimated 250,000 people gathered.

Support for a military response was shared across parties. Stephen A. Douglas gave a high profile speech in his hometown of Chicago in which he declared that there could be no non-party members in this war, "only patriots - or traitors". Editorials in the newspapers continued to heat the mood. “Our enemies should die by the sword!” Wrote the Madison Wisconsin Daily Patriot on April 24th, accurately reflecting the mood among the people.

The call for mobilization was followed with enthusiasm. The governor of Indiana offered twelve regiments to Lincoln , although Lincoln had only asked for six. Thirteen regiments were to follow from Ohio , but the volunteers were enough for 20 regiments. Massachusetts provided four regiments in the first week. The events at Fort Sumter had changed the mood among the population. The people now saw military action against the south as inevitable.

The upper south and the border states

Slavery was not as firmly anchored in the border states of Missouri , Kentucky , Virginia , Maryland and Delaware as in the states of the upper south Arkansas , Tennessee and North Carolina as in the states further south, which had already been established before the capture of Fort Sumter Union had resigned. Both sides hoped to win the sympathy of these states through their action.

State governors responded negatively to Lincoln's mobilization order. Beriah Magoffin , governor of Kentucky, telegraphed to Washington that his state would "not provide troops for the vile purpose of subjugating its southern brother states." Lincoln received similar replies, repeatedly referring to the "brothers from the south." Tennessee, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, and Arkansas. There were no replies from Maryland and Delaware.

The Unionists of the Upper South saw Lincoln's arrangement as a setback. John Bell , who had been the Constitutional Union Party's presidential candidate in 1860 , announced on April 23 that Lincoln's mobilization had forced war on the south. He announced that he would provide assistance to the “united south”. Even before the mobilization, secessionists had marched in several cities in the upper south when news of the attack on Fort Sumter also reached the local population.

In Virginia, the news of the fort's capture caused a storm of enthusiasm, 100 gun salutes were fired in front of the Capitol in Richmond in honor of the victory and people hoisted the Confederate flag over the building . Parliament met soon after and on April 17 voted 88 to 55 for a secession decree. On April 18, several militia companies brought the federally owned Harpers Ferry armaments factory under their control.

Arkansas had already held a convention in March, but it was unsuccessful. Governor Henry Rector allowed Confederate troops to take up position on the Mississippi River before the Convention met again . At the second convention on May 6th, a motion was submitted to submit the decree of secession to a referendum, which was rejected by 55 to 15 votes. The Convention then passed the Secession Decree with 65 votes to five.

In North Carolina, prior to a session of parliament, the governor had ordered the militia to capture three federal forts on the coast. Parliament met on May 1st and approved the election of members of the Convention on May 13th, who finally met on May 20th of the month and voted unanimously in favor of secession. The governor of Tennessee allowed Confederate troops to invade the state in May. On June 8, a secession decree was passed in a referendum with 104,913 votes to 47,238. Tennessee was the last of a total of eleven states to leave the Union.

literature

  • United States War Dept .: The War of the Rebellion: Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), Govt. Print. Off., Washington (1880–1901) (Online)
  • National Park Service : Historical Handbook Series No. 12: Fort Sumter National Monument South Carolina by Frank Barnes. Washington, DC 1952 (Reprint 1961).
  • Marcus Junkelmann: The American Civil War, 1861–1865. Weltbild, Augsburg 1992, ISBN 3-89350-355-2 .
  • David R. Detzer: Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston and the Beginning of the Civil War. Harcourt, New York 2001, ISBN 0-15-100641-5 .
  • James M. McPherson : Die for Freedom. The history of the American Civil War. ISBN 978-3-86647-267-9 , Cologne (November 1, 2008)
  • Wesley Moody: The Battle of Fort Sumter: The First Shots of the American Civil War. Routledge, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-138-78346-1 .

Web links

Commons : Attack on Fort Sumter  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f The American Battlefield Protection Program
  2. Steven A. Channing: Crisis of Fear. Secession in South Carolina , New York 1970, pp. 282-85
  3. ^ Roy P. Basler (Ed.): The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln , Volume 4, pp. 249-71
  4. Junkelmann 1992, p. 63
  5. Detzer 2001, pp. 269-271
  6. James M. McPherson: Dying for Freedom. The history of the American Civil War , German edition, Anaconda-Verlag, Cologne, 2008, p. 261
  7. Let Them Perish by the Sword! , Madison Wisconsin Daily Patriot article dated April 24, 1861
  8. McPherson, p. 262
  9. The War of the Rebellion: Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (OR), Series 3, Volume 1, p. 79 (Online)
  10. McPherson, pp. 263-64
  11. ^ Mary ER Campbell: The Attitude of Tennesseans toward the Union, 1847-1861 , New York 1961, p. 194
  12. Allan Nevins : The Improvised War, 1861–1862 , p. 112 (online)
  13. McPherson, pp. 269-70.