Civil War Heritage Trails

The Bombardment of Fort Sumter

Fri, 12 Apr 1861 12:14:34 -0500

On April 10, 1861, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of all Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, received new orders from Secretary of War LeRoy Pope Walker in the Confederate capital of Montgomery, Alabama. A Federal naval expedition was en route to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and within days would bring much needed food and other supplies. Beauregard’s orders were to demand the fort be evacuated immediately. If refused, Beauregard was to “…proceed in such manner as you may determine…to reduce it.” This news sent Charleston into an excited, frenzied state of anticipation. Diarist Mary Chesnut wrote of “the merriest, maddest dinner we have had yet.” Charleston’s men were “more audaciously wise and witty” than ever.

Before noon on April 11th, General Beauregard ordered Colonels James Chesnut and James A. Chisholm, plus Captain Stephen Dill Lee, to present a surrender ultimatum to Fort Sumter’s commander, U.S. Major Robert Anderson. Anderson had been Beauregard’s artillery instructor at West Point. Now Beauregard had the upper hand, with Anderson heavily outgunned. Yet Anderson rejected Beauregard’s ultimatum, adding that his garrison would be “starved out in a few days.” Chesnut reported this to Beauregard, who sent the party back to Fort Sumter with a final ultimatum after midnight on April 12th. With the Federal naval expedition just outside Charleston Harbor, Anderson gave an ambiguous reply that he would evacuate on April 15th, but only if not threatened, fired upon, ordered to stay or resupplied. Chesnut handed him a personal handwritten note, “We have the honor to notify you that [Beauregard] will open fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour.” It was 3:20 AM.

At 4:30 AM on April 12, 1861, Confederate Lieutenant Henry S. Farley’s 10-inch mortar at Fort Johnson on James Island fired a signal shot, arcing high above Fort Sumter about 2400 yards away. Quickly, some 42 other guns opened fire on Fort Sumter from James, Morris and Sullivan Islands. Charleston’s citizens raced to rooftops to watch the bombardment, to pray, or to shout after every explosion. Mary Chesnut later wrote in her diary, “I sprang out of bed, and on my knees prostrate, I prayed as I never prayed before.” Fort Sumter withheld its limited defense until 7:00 AM when Captain Abner Doubleday fired their first response, barely missing its target on Morris Island.

Throughout the 12th into the 13th a steady albeit largely inaccurate Confederate bombardment was answered by a limited Federal response. Confederate gunners cheered in tribute each time a rare Federal shot was fired. Fort Sumter’s flag was eventually shot away, prompting Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. Senator from Texas, to assume Major Anderson intended to surrender. Without authorization, Wigfall rowed out to the fort. With fires threatening to explode Fort Sumter’s main powder magazine, Wigfall convinced Anderson to surrender at about 1:30 PM. When General Beauregard’s authorized emissaries arrived a short time later, led by Captain Lee, Anderson was furious at having “surrendered” to the wrong man. Lee persuaded Anderson against resuming the fight, and formal surrender terms were agreed upon. Despite some 3,341 shells having been fired at Fort Sumter, no one was killed or seriously wounded on either side. Other than the accidental deaths of two Federal gunners during a ceremonial surrender cannonade on April 14th, the bombardment of Fort Sumter was a near bloodless start to the bloodiest war in America’s history.

Georgia Secedes From the Union

Sat, 19 Jan 1861 19:08:21 -0500

Abraham Lincoln’s election in November 1860 led to the calamitous conflict known as the Civil War. Following other Southern states, delegates to Georgia’s convention to consider secession convened in its capital city of Milledgeville in January 1861. After spirited debate, delegates voted 208 to 89 to leave the Union.

Far from the war’s early fighting, and being one of the new Confederacy’s largest states, Georgia’s primary initial war contributions were its men and materials. Some 130,000 Georgians served in the Confederate military, while manufacturing facilities were quickly constructed or expanded in several cities with rail service, including Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Macon and Rome. The state’s relatively remote location from the conflict was ideal.

The war reached Georgia in April 1862, with the Federal capture of Fort Pulaski near its largest city and seaport, Savannah. Fort Pulaski’s surrender, caused by rifled artillery bombardment, ended the era of masonry coastal defenses.

The following day one of the war’s most storied episodes occurred through northwest Georgia. After stealing the locomotive “General” in Big Shanty (Kennesaw), the Great Locomotive Chase (a.k.a. Andrew’s Raid) covered ninety miles northward past Ringgold. Its legend prompted two future Hollywood films and a U.S. Supreme Court decision (over ownership of the General). Many of the raiders became the first recipients of the Medal of Honor. The raid itself failed, with several raiders hanged as spies.

September 1863 witnessed the first major fighting in Georgia, culminating in the horrific Battle of Chickamauga. Yet 1864 was the war’s decisive year. In May a new Federal commander, William T. Sherman, began a four-month campaign to capture Atlanta. Outnumbered Confederates under Joseph E. Johnston and John Bell Hood vainly attempted to halt Sherman’s advance. Atlanta’s fall assured President Lincoln’s re-election and ultimate Union victory.

As the war dragged on, the number of prisoners mounted. Andersonville in southwest Georgia was selected for a new stockade. Dwindling Confederate resources and overcrowding quickly became acute problems. Nearly 13,000 Federal prisoners died from malnutrition and disease. Today Andersonville honors all American prisoners-of-wars from every American conflict.

The war came to a devastating end in Georgia with Sherman’s March to the Sea in late 1864, and Wilson’s Raid in April 1865. Leaving a burning Atlanta in mid-November Sherman’s army swept across Georgia, destroying everything of possible use to the Confederacy. The indiscriminate Federal foraging resulted in their hatred by many Georgians for generations. Sherman’s march ended in mid-December with Savannah’s capture.

The following April the war’s largest cavalry campaign swept into Georgia at Columbus and elsewhere, then quickly captured Macon, again laying waste to Georgia’s war-making capacity in its wake. The next month elements of James Wilson’s cavalry captured President Jefferson Davis near Irwinville, officially bringing an end to the Confederacy.

What began in 1861 with excitement and hope ended in 1865 with 11,000+ Georgians killed, many thousands more wounded, and economic devastation. Yet nearly 500,000 African-American slaves in Georgia were emancipated, beginning their long road to full civil rights. The Civil War was Georgia’s most momentous chapter.

Prelude to War

Wed, 26 Dec 1860 19:48:41 -0500

In late December 1860 speculation ran rampant as to what the newly self-declared independent Republic of South Carolina might do concerning the sixty Federal troops still garrisoned in Fort Moultrie near Charleston. Despite writing to authorities in Washington, D.C. that “The clouds are threatening, and the storm may break at any moment,” United States Army Major Robert Anderson received virtually no support from the lame-duck administration of President James Buchanan. Outdated and too large to be adequately defended by so small a force, ironically Fort Moultrie had been surrendered to the British by Anderson’s father during the Revolutionary War. Anderson did not want a repeat of history, with more South Carolina militiamen arriving daily in Charleston.

Although only 90% completed, unoccupied Fort Sumter’s isolated location on a man-made island in the middle of Charleston Harbor made it much easier to defend. Finally taking matters into his own hands, Anderson transferred his small command from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter under the cover of darkness on the evening of December 26th. This move further polarized Northern and Southern emotions, with both sides quickly viewing Fort Sumter as a symbol of their respective cause.

A haphazardly executed U.S. Navy relief expedition arrived outside Charleston Harbor on January 9, 1861, with 200 troops aboard the frigate “Star of the West.” But when the ship tried to enter the harbor and head toward Fort Sumter artillery gunners with The Citadel Military College positioned on nearby Morris Island opened fire. Fort Sumter’s guns remained silent, for fear of starting a war, and the Star of the West turned back to sea. Again emotions frayed on both sides, yet an uneasy cease-fire resumed. When the Confederate States of America, including South Carolina, officially formed on February 8th, President Buchanan’s continued indecision paralyzed any effective Federal response.

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln became U.S. President, vowing in his inaugural address to defend all Federal installations. In the face of strong political opposition, Lincoln ordered a new Fort Sumter relief expedition (of supplies only), and so informed South Carolina’s Governor Francis Pickens. Alarmed, Pickens quickly informed the President of the new Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, as well as Charleston’s Confederate military commander, Brigadier General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. In another irony of history, Beauregard’s artillery instructor and friend while a cadet at West Point had been none other than Robert Anderson, his new adversary. But now, Beauregard commanded some 6,000 militiamen and 45 artillery pieces of various sizes and quality all aimed towards his mentor inside Fort Sumter.

Meanwhile, President Davis agonized over whether to commit Beauregard to action, and thus “war.” Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs of Georgia was Davis’s only Cabinet member to oppose the use of military force against Fort Sumter. Toombs foretold that “the firing upon that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen.” Neither Davis nor Lincoln wanted to fire “the first shot” of any conflict. But Fort Sumter’s impending resupply, and the possibility of South Carolina attacking independently if indecision continued, ultimately prompted Davis to act.