The crisis of December 31st changed the attitude of the Government
toward Rebellion. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, was appointed Secretary of
War. General Scott was placed in military control.
An effort was at once made to reinforce Sumter. On the 5th of January
notice was sent by Assistant Adjutant-General Thomas, from New York, to
Major Anderson that a swift steamship, "Star of the West," loaded with
two hundred and fifty recruits and all needed supplies, had sailed, that
same day, for his relief. Major Anderson failed to receive the notice.
On the morning of the 9th the steamer steamed up the channel in the
direction of Sumter, when presently she was fired upon vigorously by the
secessionists. Her captain ran up the stars and stripes, but quickly
lost heart as he caught sight of the ready guns of Fort Moultrie, then
put about, and back to sea.
The commander at Sumter was enraged. He sat down and wrote a brief note
to the Governor of South Carolina, demanding to know "if the firing on
the vessel and the flag had been by his orders, and declaring, unless
the act were disclaimed, he would close the harbor with the guns of
Sumter." The Governor's reply was both an avowal and a justification of
the act. Anderson, in a second note, stated that he would ask his
government for instructions, and requested "safe conduct for a bearer of
despatches." The Governor, in reply, sent a formal demand for the
surrender of the fort. Anderson responded to this, that he could not
comply; but that, if the government saw fit "to refer this matter to
Washington," he would depute an officer to accompany the messenger.
This meant a truce, which the conspirators heartily welcomed. On the
12th of January, therefore, Attorney-General I.W. Hayne, of South
Carolina, proceeded to Washington as an envoy to carry to President
Buchanan the Governor's demand for the surrender of Fort Sumter. The
matter was prolonged; but, on the 6th of February, Mr. Hayne found that
his mission was a failure.
On the 4th of February, while the Peace Conference, so called, met in
Washington to consider propositions of compromise and concession, the
delegates of the seceding States assembled in Montgomery, Alabama, to
organize their conspiracy into an avowed and opened rebellion. On the
9th Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was elected President, and
Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the new
Confederacy. On the 18th Davis was inaugurated.
On the 1st of March General Beauregard was, by the rebel government,
placed in command of the defence of Charleston harbor, with orders to
complete preparations for the capture of Fort Sumter. The Governor had
been exceedingly anxious that the capture should be attempted before the
4th of March. "Mr. Buchanan cannot resist," he wrote to Davis, "because
he has not the power. Mr. Lincoln may not attack, because the cause of
quarrel will have been, or may be considered by him, as past."
President Lincoln was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1861. With an
unanswerable argument against disunion, and an earnest appeal to reason
and lawful remedy, he closed his inaugural address with the following
impressive declaration of peace and good-will:--
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is
the momentous issue of civil war.
The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without
being yourselves the aggressors; you can have no oath registered in
heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn
one,--to preserve, protect, and defend it.
I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bond
of affection.
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and
patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone all over this
broad land, will yet swell the Chorus of the Union when again touched,
as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
On the 15th of March President Lincoln, having been advised by General
Scott that it was now "practically impossible to relieve or reinforce
Sumter," propounded the following question to his cabinet: "Assuming it
to be possible to provision Sumter, is it wise, under all the
circumstances of the case, to attempt to do so?" Five of the seven
members of the cabinet argued _against_ the policy of relief. On
the 29th the matter came up again, and four of the seven then favored an
attempt to relieve Major Anderson. The President at once ordered the
preparation of an expedition. Three ships of war, with a transport and
three swift steam tugs, a supply of open boats, provisions far six
months, and two hundred recruits, were fitted out at New York, and, with
all possible secrecy, sailed on the 9th and 10th of April, "under sealed
orders to rendezvous before Charleston harbor at daylight on the morning
of the 11th."
Meanwhile preparations for the capture of Sumter had been steadily going
on under the direction of General Beauregard, one of the most skilful of
engineers. On the 1st of April he telegraphed to Montgomery, the capital
of the new confederacy:--
Batteries ready to open Wednesday or Thursday. What instructions?
On the same day orders were issued to stop all courtesies to the
garrison, to prohibit all supplies from the city, and to allow no one to
depart from the fort. On the 7th Anderson received a confidential
letter, under date of April 4th, from President Lincoln, notifying him
that a relief expedition would be sent, and requesting him to hold out,
if possible, until its arrival.
On the morning of the 8th the following communication from the President
was, by special messenger, placed in the hands of Governor Pickens:--
I am directed by the President of the United States to notify you to
expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions
only, and that if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in
provisions, arms, or ammunition will be made without further notice,
or in case of an attack upon the fort.
This message was at once communicated to Jefferson Davis, at Montgomery,
who entertained the opinion that the war should be begun without further
delay. On the 10th Beauregard was instructed to demand the evacuation of
Fort Sumter, and to reduce it in case of refusal.
On the following day, at two o'clock in the afternoon, General
Beauregard sent two of his aids to make the demand; but it was refused.
Still another message was sent, with the same result. On the morning of
the 12th, at twenty minutes past three o'clock, General Beauregard sent
notice to Anderson that he would open fire upon Sumter in one hour from
that time.
At half-past four appeared "the first flash from the mortar battery near
old Fort Jackson, on the south side of the harbor, and an instant after
a bombshell rose in a slow, high curve through the air, and fell upon
the fort."
It was the first gun in the Rebellion. Gun after gun responded to the
signal, and through thirty-six hours, without the loss of a single life
in the besieged garrison. At noon, on Sunday, the 14th of April, Major
Anderson hauled down the flag of the United States, and evacuated Fort
Sumter. Before sunset the flag of the Confederate States floated over
the ramparts.