American Civil War For Dummies. Keith D. Dickson

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      War Department / The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration / Public Domain

      The growing crisis in Charleston: Fort Sumter

Major Robert Anderson was the U.S. commander at Charleston, South Carolina. In late December he had abandoned his original location in Charleston, Fort Moultrie. Moultrie was too close to the city, now filling with pro-Southern rowdies (fortified by a few quarts of liquor), who bragged they would take care of the problem by waltzing into the fort and convincing the soldiers they weren’t welcome any longer. Fort Sumter, in the middle of Charleston harbor, was the most defensible place. Anderson secretly moved his entire command of 85 soldiers (along with 45 women and children) to the fort to prevent any confrontations. Begun in 1829, Sumter was still incomplete and had only a few operational cannons for defense. Nevertheless, with walls anywhere from 8 to 12 feet thick, it was the most formidable defensive position in the Western Hemisphere. In the coming days, Fort Sumter for the North would become far more than just a piece of military real estate. Very soon it would become a symbol of national resolve to defend the flag and the Union.

      Walking the tightrope: President Buchanan

      In the midst of all this activity, President Buchanan was waiting out the last few weeks of his term. His Southern sympathies and his unwillingness to stir the already troubled pot led him to pass assurances to South Carolina that he would take no aggressive action.

      As much as Buchanan would have liked to wait, events set into motion by a number of individuals forced the president to take action. Several commissioners from South Carolina had arrived in Washington to meet the president and negotiate a peaceful settlement that would allow the new Confederate nation to go its own way. At the top of their list was the removal of the U.S. garrison from Fort Sumter. Buchanan would have gladly acceded to such a request, but he was faced with threats from his cabinet to resign en masse and the possibility of certain impeachment proceedings from Congress if he showed such weakness. He had to walk a political tightrope, so he took another course. Here is what he needed to do:

This would be a tough call for any political leader, let alone a lame duck president with only a month left in office. Nevertheless, he put a plan together to meet both requirements. Buchanan ordered that Sumter be resupplied and reinforced. But rather than use a warship, which could be seen as a provocation, a merchant ship, the Star of the West, was dispatched with supplies and troops from New York. The plan was supposed to be a secret, but then as now, nothing is a secret long in Washington. Pro-Southern spies had the information to Charleston in a flash. While useful and dramatic, this act of espionage was unnecessary. The War Department, as it had done for years, sent all of its orders and information to Major Anderson through the U.S. mail, having forgotten that the U.S. Post Office no longer existed in the sovereign nation of South Carolina. All mail addressed to Fort Sumter had been intercepted and read. It seemed that everyone knew about the resupply effort except Anderson. Sitting in a fort surrounded by water and cut off from all information, Anderson knew nothing about what the government had planned.

      On the 9th of January, as expected, the Star of the West arrived outside Charleston harbor. Everyone was waiting. Most expectant of all were cadets from the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, who were standing by heavy cannons on the shore. A cadet fired a cannon aimed at the Star of the West — a miss. This could have been the first shot of the war, with all honor and glory going to the Citadel, but the Citadel was denied such an important historical footnote because there was no response from the cannons at Fort Sumter. Other cannons around the harbor joined in, causing no damage to the Star of the West. Enough lead was flying, however, to convince the ship’s captain to turn away. Anderson watched this display from Sumter and almost returned fire to respond to the Confederate batteries, but, not knowing what the ship was doing in the harbor or why it was being fired upon, he decided to wait. A war would have to come on another day.

      Confederates at Charleston: Waiting for a sign and heavily armed

      In the wake of the Star of the West incident, the new Confederacy waited for the U.S. government to respond. Nothing happened. As the days went by, Charleston harbor became one of the most heavily armed places in the world. Cannons surrounded Fort Sumter on three sides. Both confidence and contempt rose among the population of Charleston. Some thought the North’s silence meant that the federal government wouldn’t interfere with Southern independence. To others the lack of response meant that the Yankees were cowards and afraid to fight. (Yankee was a term of disparagement for Northerners. Originally a term used for generations throughout America to describe business-minded New Englanders, Southerners applied it to all Northerners.)

      WHAT ABOUT FORT PICKENS?

The commander of the garrison at Fort Pickens was a first lieutenant, who defiantly refused to turn the fort over to the state of Florida. Unlike Sumter, Pickens’s position at the mouth of Pensacola Bay kept it out of the reach of any Confederate cannon. Thus, it could be resupplied and reinforced easily. Ironically, Fort Pickens was named after Thomas Pickens, a famous Revolutionary War leader and the father of the 1860 governor of South Carolina, who was now leading his own revolution. Fort Pickens remained in federal hands throughout the war.

      Sitting quietly: The outgoing president beats the clock

      Although certainly justified to retaliate for the attack on the Star of the West, Buchanan discovered two things. First, public support in the North for direct military action was weak, with many differing opinions on what to do next. No politician goes to war without the strong backing of the public. Buchanan, even if he wanted to take action (and he didn’t), had no clear support to do so. Second, with the exception of a few warships, the U.S. government had no armed forces to speak of available to do anything. Total military strength of the U.S. Army in 1860 was about 16,000 officers and enlisted men, who were scattered over the continent in small groups. In fact, Anderson’s garrison of almost 90 men represented 10 percent of the entire U.S. Army strength east of the Mississippi River. These conditions allowed Buchanan to sit quietly until the new president was sworn in.

Taking Office: Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address

      On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office to become the 16th president of the United States. As all presidents have done before and since, he swore an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Ironically, the Constitution no longer existed in seven Southern states. Lincoln used his oath as the basis for his message to the nation and to those seven states. He made four points: