1861 with which his sense of honor and obligation to his government prevented compliance. At the same time the aides were informed verbally that if they did not batter the fort to pieces the garrison would be starved out in a few days. In view of this verbal observation General Beauregard, after communicating with the Confederate Government at Montgomery, decided to offer Major Anderson another proposition before proceeding to attack him. Accordingly, toward midnight of April 11, aides were again sent to propose that if he would state the time at which he would evacuate and agree not to use his guns against them in the meantime, the Confederates would abstain from firing upon the fort. Major Anderson held a long conference with his officers and it was past two o'clock in the morning when he replied that he was willing to evacuate on the 15th should he not receive, prior to that date, instructions to the contrary from his government, or additional supplies. The aides, without consulting General Beauregard, rejected these conditions, and at 3:20 A. M. the following day notified Major Anderson that within one hour from that time their batteries would open fire on the fort. Surgeon Samuel W. Crawford, one of the officers of the fort, records that the sea was calm and the night still under the bright starlight when, at half-past four in the morning, the sound of a mortar from a battery at Fort Johnson broke upon the stillness.17 It was a signal shell giving notice to the batteries to open fire. The first shot was fired by Captain George James, who commanded the battery; the shell rose high in the air, and curving in its course, burst almost directly over the fort. After a deathly silence of a few moments a gun discharged from the iron-clad battery on Cummings Points, fired by Edward Ruffin, a Virginia volunteer. Hardly had its echo died upon the air when the mortars commenced, followed in succession by the batteries, until the fort was surrounded by a circle of fire. It was not until seven o'clock that Fort Sumter replied, the battery commanded by Captain Doubleday being the first to respond. All day the bombardment continued, and by evening it was evident that Fort Sumter was badly damaged. Throughout the dark and rainy night which followed the Confederate batteries kept up their fire at regular intervals, making a grand and terrible spectacle. Early in the morning of the following day the cannonading was renewed in earnest by 17 Crawford, "The Story of Fort Sumter," p. 427. 1861 both sides. Soon smoke was seen issuing from Sumter, and the Confederate batteries increased their fire in the hope of bringing the enemy to terms. Sumter's guns continued with less regularity and at longer intervals, and before the afternoon was well advanced the condition of the garrison had become pitiable. The interior of the fort was a heap of ruins, most of the guns were out of working order, with smoke so dense in the casemates that the men were unable to work those that remained, and the fire had spread until the entire stock of powder, except five barrels, had to be thrown into the sea. The flag-staff having been cut away, so that the flag could no longer be seen, General Beauregard sent messengers to inquire if the garrison were in distress and if they wished aid. Further resistance being useless, Major Anderson accepted terms and surrendered the fort. The Stars and Stripes were lowered and the Stars and Bars, the Confederate emblem, hoisted in its place. It is a singular fact that not a single life was lost on either side, in spite of the long and terrific bombardment. After the surrender the garrison was placed aboard the steamship Baltic and carried to New York. The story of the attack was briefly told in Major 1861 Anderson's official report to the government: "Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burnt, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard · being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities and marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.' While the bombardment was taking place a portion of the Federal fleet, consisting of eight vessels and 1,380 men, within hearing distance of the guns, lay outside the harbor, but took no part in the fight, being powerless, it was alleged, to aid their hardpressed comrades. The raising of the Confederate flag over the fort caused great rejoicing in Charleston; bells were rung, cannon were fired, and special services were held in the churches in honor of the victory. In the North Major Anderson was welcomed as a returning hero, salutes were fired in his honor and swords were voted him by various public and private bodies. The South had at last spoken; what would be the reply of the North! T Chapter XXIX THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR 1861 I NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SENTIMENT HE prophecy of Secretary Toombs that the firing on Fort Sumter would inaugurate the greatest civil war of modern times proved to be literally true. Up to this event the diversity of sentiment in the free States with regard to the duty of the government had been painfully distressing to staunch Unionists. The Northern Democrats as well as many Republicans had hardly made up their own minds whether the government had any constitutional power to prevent the slave States from seceding or not, and if so, whether it was expedient to exercise the power. Horace Greeley, the editor of the New York Tribune, one of the leading Republican journals of the country, spoke for a large class of Northern people, when on November 9, 1860, he wrote: “ We hold, with Jefferson, to the inalienable right of communities to alter or abolish forms of government that have become oppressive or injurious; and if the cotton States shall decide that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary right, but it exists nevertheless; and we do not see how one party can have a right to do what another party has the right to prevent. We must ever resist the right of any State to remain in the Union and nullify or defy the laws thereof; to withdraw from the Union is quite another matter. And whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep her in. We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets." Again, as late as April 9, 1861, Wendell Phillips declared from a public platform that the Southern people had a right to decide for themselves whether they should have a separate gov 1861 ernment, and asserted that Lincoln had no right to a single soldier in Fort Sumter. Mr. Greeley, however, soon changed his mind on this question, as did many other Republicans, and whatever secession sentiment existed in the North on April 12, 1861, it apparently vanished with the news of the bombardment of Fort Sumter. "That event," said James Russell Lowell, "brought the free States to their feet as one man." It united the people of the North as the election of Lincoln had already united those of the South. The prevailing sentiment now was summed up in General Dix's famous telegram to a New Orleans customs officer: "If anyone attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." President Lincoln, who had declared that his path of duty under the Constitution was as plain as a turnpike road, issued a proclamation the day after the fall of Sumter reciting that the execution of the laws of the United States was being opposed in certain States by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings and calling for 75,000 of the militia of the States to serve for three months to suppress the said combinations and regain possession of the forts and other property which had been seized by the authorities of the seceding States. By the same proclamation all persons opposing the laws were commanded to disperse and retire peaceably to their homes within twenty days. At the same time Congress was summoned to meet in extraordinary session on July 4. The response of the Northern States was prompt and generous. Northern Democrats like Douglas, Whigs like Everett, and others whose sympathies had either been with the people of the South, or averse to strong measures against them, at once announced their intention of supporting the President. Men from all walks of life - farmers, mechanics, clerks, students, clergymen, college professors, merchants, all promptly volunteered for the defense of the Union. Two days after the publication of the proclamation the Sixth Massachusetts passed through New York on its way to Washington. On April 19, while attempting to cross the city of Baltimore in horse cars, they were attacked by a mob and a fight ensued, in which four soldiers and nine citizens were killed and many wounded. Finding the car tracks obstructed, the soldiers left the cars and made their way to the station on foot, fighting their way as they went and keeping back the surging mob with their bayonets. Finally, boarding the waiting train, they |