CHAPTER II

SUMTER FIRED ON-SEIZURE BY CONFEDERATES OF ARMS, ARSENALS, AND FORTS-DISLOYALTY OF ARMY AND NAVY OFFICERS-PROCLAMATION OF LINCOLN FOR SEVENTYFIVE THOUSAND MILITIA, AND PREPARATION FOR WAR ON BOTH SIDES

THE

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HE Star of the West, a merchant vessel, was sent from New York, with the reluctant consent of President Buchanan, by Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott, Commander-inChief of the army, to carry re-enforcements and provisions to Fort Sumter. As this vessel attempted to enter Charleston harbor (January 9, 1861) a shot was fired across its bows which turned it back, and its mission failed. Slapped in the mouth" was the opprobrious epithet used to express this insult to the United States. This was not the shot that summoned the North to arms. It was, however, the first angry gun fired by a citizen of the Union against his country's flag, and it announced the dawn of civil war. When this shot was fired, only South Carolina had passed an Ordinance of Secession; the Confederate States were not yet formed.

On the night of December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson, in command of the land forces, forts, and defences at Charleston, South Carolina, being threatened by armed secession troops, and regarding his position at Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, untenable if attacked from the land side, as a matter of precaution, without orders from his superiors, but possessing complete authority within the limits of his command, removed his small force, consisting of only sixty-five soldiers, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, where, at high

noon of the next day, after a solemn prayer by his chaplain, the Stars and Stripes were run up on a flagstaff, to float in triumph only for a short time, then to be insulted and shot down, not to again be unfurled over the same fort until four years of war had intervened.

An ineffectual effort was made by Governor Pickens of South Carolina to induce Major Anderson by demands and threats to return to his defenceless position at Fort Moultrie. President Buchanan, at the instigation of his Secretary of War, Floyd, was on the point of ordering him to do so, but when the matter was considered in a Cabinet meeting, other counsels prevailed, and Floyd made this his excuse for leaving the Cabinet. Fortunately, his place was filled by Hon. Joseph Holt of Kentucky, a Union man of force, energy, will power, and true courage, who, later, became Judge Advocate-General U.S.A., serving as such until after the close of the war.

To the end of Buchanan's administration, Sumter was held by Major Anderson with his small force, and around it centered the greatest anxiety. It was the policy of the South to seize and occupy all forts, arsenals, dock-yards, public property, and all strongholds belonging to the United States located within the limits of seceded States, and to take possession of arms and material of war as though of right belonging to them. The right and title to United States property thus located were not regarded. Louisiana seized the United States Mint at New Orleans, and turned over of its contents $536,000 in coin to the Confederate States treasury, for which she received

1

1 His resignation was accepted December 29, 1860. Howell Cobb of Georgia, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, resigned December 8, 1860, and was, on February 4, 1861, chosen the presiding officer of the first Confederate Congress. He left the United States Treasury empty. Jacob Thompson of Mississippi, Buchanan's Secretary of Interior, resigned January 8, 1861. He had corresponded with secessionists South, and while yet in the Cabinet had been appointed a commissioner by his State to urge North Carolina to secede. He became an aide to Beauregard, but attained no military distinction. In 1864 he went to Canada, and there promoted a plan to release prisoners at Camp Douglas, Chicago, and to seize the city, and was charged with instigating plots to burn New York and other Northern cities.

a vote of thanks from the Confederate Congress.' All the forts of the United States within or on the coast of the then seceded States, save Forts Sumter and Pickens, were soon, with their armament and military supplies, in possession of and manned by Southern soldiers. At first seizures were made by State authority alone, but on the organization, at Montgomery, of the Confederacy (February 8, 1861) it assumed charge of all questions between the seceded States and the United States relating to the occupation of forts and other public establishments; and, March 15th, the Confederacy called STATES

OF AMERICA

CONFEDERATE SILVER HALF DOLLAR

on the States that had joined it to cede to it all the forts, etc., thus seized, which was done accordingly.

On February 28th the Confederate Congress passed an act under which President Davis assumed control of all military

1 Am. Cyclopædia, 1861 (Appleton), pp. 430, 431.

It is interesting to note that Louisiana, jointly with the Confederate States, issued in April and May, 1861, made from captured United States bullion, on United States dies of 1861, gold coin, $254,820 in double eagles, and silver coin, $1,101, 316.50 in half dollars. In May, 1861, the remaining bullion was transferred to A. J. Guizot, Assistant Treasurer Confederate States of America, who at once destroyed the United States dies and had a Confederate States die for silver half dollars engraved by the coiner, A. H. M. Peterson. From this die four pieces only were struck on a screw press, the die being of such high relief that its use was impracticable. These four coins composed the entire coinage of the Confederate States. Its design, Obverse: Goddess of Liberty (same as United States coins) with arc of thirteen stars (representing original States), date, "1861." Reverse: American shield beneath a "Liberty Cap"; union of shield and seven stars (representing original seceded States), surrounded by a wreath, to the left (cotton in bloom), to the right (sugar cane). Legend: Confederate States of America," exergue, "Half Dol."-U. S. (Townsend), p. 427.

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