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posed constitutional amendments (re-

visions). One amendment would pro-

tect slavery in all of the states where it

already existed, and the other one

would provide for the extension of

slavery all the way to the Pacific Ocean

in American territory located south of

the old Missouri Compromise line.

The Crittenden Compromise

was studied by both sides, but in the end

it was rejected. The states that had al-

ready seceded were tired of compromis-

ing and arguing, and their leaders

showed little interest in resuming their

tense relationship with the North. Lin-

coln, meanwhile, was willing to consider

an amendment protecting slavery where

it currently existed. But he and his fellow

Republicans flatly rejected the proposal

that would have allowed the South to

expand slavery into new areas. “We have

just carried an election,” Lincoln wrote,

“on principles fairly stated to the people.

Now we are told in advance that the gov-

ernment shall be broken up unless we

surrender to those we have beaten, be-

fore we take the offices. . . . If we surren-

der, it is the end of us and the end of the

government.”

Formation of the Confederate

States of America

By early 1861, the North was

engaged in a bitter debate with itself

over the secessionist activities taking

place in the South. Some people ar-

gued that the United States should

allow South Carolina and the other se-

cessionist states to establish their own

country without any interference.

This sentiment was voiced in towns

and cities all across the North by citi-

zens and political leaders who were

weary of dealing with their stubborn

Southern neighbors. This feeling was

also strong in some abolitionist cir-

cles, since the departure of the seces-

sionist states meant that slavery might

be more easily stamped out in other

parts of the United States. But other

Northern communities called for the

Federal government to maintain the

Union by force if necessary. These

people ranged from farmers, who

wanted to make sure that they could

continue to transport goods down the

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 71

People to Know

Robert Anderson (1805–1871) Union

major who surrendered Fort Sumter to

Confederates in April 1861

Pierre G. T. Beauregard (1818–1893)

Confederate general who captured

Fort Sumter in April 1861; also served

at First Bull Run and Shiloh

James Buchanan (1791–1868) fifteenth

president of the United States, 1857–61

Jefferson Davis (1808–1889) president of

the Confederate States of America,

1861–65

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) sixteenth

president of the United States, 1861–65

William Seward (1801–1872) U.S. secre-

tary of state, 1861–69

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 71

business of forming a new govern-

ment. In February 1861, delegates

from each of the six states gathered in

Montgomery, Alabama, to draw up a

constitution for their new nation,

called the Confederate States of Amer-

ica. As it turned out, the Confederate

Constitution was very similar to the

U.S. Constitution in most respects.

But the document created in Mont-

gomery was different in two major

ways. First, it gave individual states

greater freedom to run their own af-

fairs while also putting significant re-

straints on the power of the central

government. Second, the Confederate

Constitution explicitly protected the

rights of slaveowners and confirmed

slavery’s importance to the states of

the Confederacy. After the Constitu-

tion was approved, newly elected

Confederate vice president Alexander

H. Stephens (1812–1883) of Georgia

rejoiced, saying that “the new consti-

tution has put at rest, forever, all the

agitating questions relating to our pe-

culiar institution—African slavery as it

exists among us. . . . [Our new govern-

ment’s] foundations are laid . . . upon

the great truth, that the negro is not

equal to the white man; that slavery—

subordination to the superior race—is

his natural and moral condition. This,

our new government, is the first, in

the history of the world, based upon

this great physical, philosophical, and

moral truth.”

The Confederacy selects its

first president

On February 9, 1861, delegates

of the Confederate States of America

Mississippi River, to Northern manu-

facturers and merchants, who worried

about the impact of Southern inde-

pendence on their business dealings.

The most important factor in the

North’s opposition to Southern seces-

sion, however, was the widespread

feeling that Southern selfishness was

threatening to destroy a growing na-

tion just when it was on the verge of

becoming a world power.

In the South, meanwhile, the

states that had seceded went about the

American Civil War: Almanac72

Kentucky senator John Crittenden’s proposed

series of compromises regarding slavery was

rejected by both the Union and Confederacy.

(Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 72

elected Jefferson Davis (1808–1889), a

wealthy slaveholding senator from

Mississippi, to be its first president.

Davis had served as the United States’

secretary of war in the mid-1850s

under President Franklin Pierce

(1804–1869). Dedicated to the princi-

ple of states’ rights and respected

throughout the South, Davis was seen

as a solid choice for the presidency,

even though he had expressed reserva-

tions about secession in the past.

Immediately after his February

18, 1861, inauguration, Davis began

the process of putting together his ad-

ministration and organizing a mili-

tary. Forming a new nation involved a

multitude of other tasks, from intro-

ducing new legal and government sys-

tems to developing new commerce

and banking systems that were inde-

pendent from the North. Davis and

other Confederate officials spent a

great deal of time and energy on these

issues. But although this process of na-

tion-building was complex and time-

consuming, it was helped along by a

number of different factors.

One major development was

the defection of another state to the

Confederate side. On February 23,

1861, the vast state of Texas formally

seceded from the United States over

the strong objections of its governor,

Mexican War hero Sam Houston

(1793–1863). The addition of Texas to

the Confederacy encouraged the white

populations of the other secessionist

states, some of whom continued to

harbor quiet doubts about the course

that they had taken.

Another factor that helped the

Confederacy develop quickly was the

undeniable excitement that many

Southerners felt upon beginning this

new chapter in their lives. Schools,

churches, and taverns throughout the

Deep South echoed with songs and

speeches touting the many fine quali-

ties of the Confederate states, and

pride in the region’s history and tradi-

tions became even stronger than it

had already been. All throughout the

Confederacy, the move to secede from

the Union was compared to the Amer-

ican Revolution of a century earlier,

when independent-minded people re-

Confederate vice president Alexander H.

Stephens. (Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 73

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 73

customs offices, financial institu-

tions, and other Federal offices were

taken over by state troops loyal to

the Confederacy in villages and

cities across the Deep South. With

each passing day, Confederate lead-

ers worked to erase all signs of their

previous membership in the Union.

By the time Lincoln took office in

March 1861, the only four military

institutions located on secessionist

soil that were still under Union con-

trol were three forts along the Flori-

da coastline and a lone fort, called

Fort Sumter, located in Charleston

Bay in South Carolina.

belled against the tyrannical orders of

a distant ruler.

Lincoln signals determination

to preserve the Union

President Lincoln and other

Northern political leaders watched

events unfold in the South with con-

siderable concern. After all, the Con-

federate states had gone about the

process of creating a recognizable

nation for themselves in energetic

fashion, and Federal authority in

those states was diminishing quickly.

Post offices, courts, military posts,

American Civil War: Almanac74

A breakdown of the Union and Confederate states/territories during the Civil War. (Illustration

by XNR Productions. Reproduced by permission of The Gale Group.)

Dakota

Territory

Oregon

Nevada

Terr.

Texas

Minn.

California

Utah

Territory

Colorado

Territory

Indian

Territory

Ark.

Kansas

Nebraska Territory

La.

Miss.

Ala.

Georgia

Missouri

Washington

Territory

S.C.

New Mexico

Territory

N.C.

Pa.

Md.

N.J.

Delaware

Mass.

Vt.

N.H.

Maine

Conn.

R.I.

New

York

W.Va.

(1863)

Tennessee

Kentucky

Virginia

Ill.

Ohio

Wis.

Ind.

Iowa

Gulf of M

exico

PACIFIC

OCEAN

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

CANADA

MEXICO

0 150 300 mi

0 150 300 km

Confederate states

Union states

Union territories

State/territorial

boundaries, 1861

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 74

Despite these developments,

however, Lincoln adopted a reasonable

tone in his March 4 inaugural address.

He made it clear that he was deter-

mined to preserve the Union, stating

that “the Union is unbroken, and to

the extent of my ability I shall take

care, as the Constitution itself express-

ly enjoins upon me, that the laws of

the Union be faithfully executed in all

of the states.” But he also declared that

he had no wish to go to war against his

countrymen. “There needs to be no

bloodshed or violence, and there shall

be none unless it be forced upon the

national authority,” he proclaimed. “In

your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-

countrymen, and not in mine, is the

momentous issue of civil war. The Gov-

ernment will not assail [attack] you.

You can have no conflict without being

yourselves the aggressors.” Lincoln

then concluded his address with an ap-

peal for reconciliation, saying that “we

must not be enemies. Though passion

may have strained it must not break

our bonds of affection. The mystic

chords of memory, stretching from

every battlefield and patriot grave to

every living heart and hearthstone 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.”

Lincoln’s speech reflected his

belief that there was still a chance to

preserve the Union without resorting

to warfare, provided that he did not of-

fend the eight other slaveholding states

in the Mid- and Upper South that re-

mained undecided about whether to

stay in the Union or join the Confeder-

acy. He also knew that some people in

the Confederate states remained doubt-

ful of the wisdom of secession, and he

thought that the rebels might eventu-

ally return to the Union of their own

free will. As a result, he did his best to

avoid violent confrontation with the

rebel states throughout his first month

in office in hopes of keeping Virginia,

Maryland, North Carolina, and other

Mid-South states from bolting from the

already tattered Union.

On April 12, 1861, though,

Lincoln’s hopes of restoring the Union

Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South

Carolina. (Illustration by XNR Productions.

Reproduced by permission of The Gale Group.)

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 75

North

Carolina

South

Carolina

Georgia

Virginia

Ohio

Pennsylvania

N.J.

Del.

Kentucky

Tenn.

Md.

ATLANTIC

OCEAN

Chesapeake

Bay

Charleston

New York

Richmond

(Confederate capital)

Savannah

Atlanta

Washington, D.C.

(Union capital)

Washington, D.C.

(Union capital)

Fort Sumter

April 12, 1861: South Carolina troops launch

an artillery assault on the Union garrison at

Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War.

0 50 100 mi

0 50 100 km

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 75

the command of Major Robert Ander-

son (1805–1871). A five-sided brick

building that stood guard over the port

of the largest city in South Carolina, it

remained in Union hands throughout

the first few months of 1861, even as

the Confederacy took control of most

other Federal military outposts and of-

fices in the Deep South.

The continued occupation of

Fort Sumter by Union troops quickly

developed into a major point of dis-

agreement between North and South.

In the aftermath of secession, the peo-

ple of South Carolina and the rest of

the Confederacy regarded the Union

garrison at Fort Sumter as a foreign

military presence that should not be

permitted to operate in their territory,

especially since it was located right in

the middle of one of the Confederacy’s

most important harbors. With each

passing week, the sight of the Ameri-

can flag flying over the fort further in-

furiated the people in Charleston and

other Confederate communities.

Confederate representatives

made a number of efforts to convince

the Union to hand over the fort to

South Carolina troops peacefully dur-

ing the first few months of 1861, but all

of these attempts failed. First, Confeder-

ate officials tried to convince President

Buchanan to give up the fort before he

left office in March. Buchanan had

withdrawn Federal troops from other

locations in the Confederacy because of

his strong desire to finish his term be-

fore war erupted. But Buchanan refused

to abandon Fort Sumter, which had

come to be regarded throughout the

without bloodshed were shattered. It

was on that night that South Carolina

troops launched an artillery assault on

the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, and

the awful civil war that had threat-

ened to envelop the United States for

years and years finally began.

The controversy over Fort

Sumter

Located at the entrance to

Charleston Harbor in South Carolina,

Fort Sumter was manned by approxi-

mately sixty-eight U.S. soldiers under

American Civil War: Almanac76

Major Robert Anderson. (Photograph by

George Cook. Courtesy of the Library of

Congress.)

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 76

North as a symbol of Union strength

and pride. “If I withdraw [Major] An-

derson from Sumter, I can travel home

to Wheatland [after leaving office] by

the light of my own burning effigies,”

said Buchanan, referring to his home in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The South had no better luck

with Lincoln after he took office, de-

spite the secret activities of William Se-

ward (1801–1872), Lincoln’s secretary

of state. Seward was a talented and dis-

tinguished politician who ranked as

one of the most powerful figures in the

Republican Party. But despite Lincoln’s

decision to select him for the impor-

tant position of secretary of state, Se-

ward remained bitter about the party’s

decision to nominate Lincoln instead

of himself as its presidential candidate

in the 1860 elections. In fact, Seward

did not hold a high opinion of the

new president, and he believed that he

would be able to shape Lincoln’s poli-

cies to his own liking from his position

as secretary of state.

Seward thought that if the

United States avoided angering the

Confederate states, they would even-

tually return to the Union. He thus be-

lieved that U.S. forces should vacate

Fort Sumter and leave it to the citizens

of South Carolina. Acting on this con-

viction—and on his belief that he

could manipulate Lincoln—Seward of-

fered secret assurances to the Confed-

eracy that the Union would soon

abandon Fort Sumter. But as the days

passed by, it became clear that Seward

had underestimated the will of his

new president.

Lincoln attempts to send

supplies

Almost as soon as he took of-

fice, Lincoln found out that the situa-

tion in Fort Sumter was even more se-

rious than he had previously believed.

A day after delivering his inaugural

address, he was informed that Major

Anderson and his men had only

enough food and supplies to remain at

the fort until about April 15. If the

Union proved unable to resupply An-

derson before then, he and his men

would have to surrender the fort or

face starvation. Moreover, Lincoln was

told that on March 3, South Carolina

military troops under the command of

General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beau-

regard (1818–1893) had taken up posi-

tions all around the harbor, their can-

nons poised to fire upon Fort Sumter

at any time.

After consulting with his cabi-

net to review his options, Lincoln de-

cided that he would attempt to resup-

ply Anderson’s troops at Fort Sumter.

He knew that any attempt to send

food and other provisions to the fort

was risky. The Union had attempted

to transport supplies and reinforce-

ments to the fort two months earlier

via a ship called the Star of the West,

only to be turned away by a hail of ar-

tillery fire from South Carolina can-

nons. Despite that earlier clash,

though, Lincoln was unwilling to

abandon the fort. He knew that if Fed-

eral control of Fort Sumter was relin-

quished, Northern morale would suf-

fer, and Southern confidence in the

Confederacy’s ability to break away

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 77

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 77

attempt to increase Federal troop

strength at Sumter might be interpret-

ed as an aggressive action by the Con-

federate military and the remaining

slave states in the Union, and that

such a step would increase the likeli-

hood of a violent clash between An-

derson’s troops and the forces under

Beauregard’s command.

from the Union permanently would

increase.

On March 29, 1861, Lincoln

ordered the U.S. military to send ships

bearing food and supplies to the sur-

rounded outpost, but he declined to

send reinforcements to help Anderson

defend the fort. He believed that any

American Civil War: Almanac78

James Buchanan was president of

the United States from 1857 until 1861,

when Abraham Lincoln took his place. Born

in Pennsylvania, Buchanan established a

thriving law practice before turning to poli-

tics. He spent ten years (1821–31) as a

member of Pennsylvania’s U.S. House dele-

gation, then moved over to the Senate,

where he represented his home state from

1834 to 1845. A Democrat, he left the Sen-

ate in 1845 to serve as secretary of state for

President James K. Polk (1795–1849). Dur-

ing his four-year stint in that position,

Buchanan helped prosecute the Mexican

War (1846–48), which ultimately gave the

United States huge expanses of new terri-

tory in the West.

After serving as minister to Great

Britain in the administration of President

Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1856,

Buchanan won the 1856 presidential elec-

tion as the nominee of the Democratic

Party. Soon after assuming office, however,

he found that the slavery issue made it al-

most impossible for his administration to

get anything done. Indeed, he was assum-

ing leadership of the country at a time

when Northern and Southern positions on

slavery and states’ rights were hardening.

As these two sides battled in the legislature

and the nation’s newspapers, the

Buchanan administration’s fumbling at-

tempts to resolve these issues did little to

bridge the widening gap between Ameri-

ca’s Northern and Southern regions.

Buchanan’s personal views of slav-

ery were mixed. On the one hand, he

thought that slavery was morally wrong.

But he also believed that the South’s claims

that slavery was not unconstitutional were

correct, and that the region would never

accept the abolishment of slavery. This

conviction, combined with his knowledge

that the Democratic Party owed much of

its national power to support in the South,

made Buchanan fairly sympathetic to

Southern demands.

President James Buchanan

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 78

Determined to avoid a

bloody clash if possible, Lincoln no-

tified South Carolina governor Fran-

cis Pickens (1805–1869) on April 8

of his plan to send ships carrying

food and other supplies to Fort

Sumter. Two days later, a small fleet

of Union ships headed by Captain

Gustavus Fox (1821–1883) set out

for the fort from New York to deliver

the provisions.

Upon learning of the Union

plan to resupply Fort Sumter, Confed-

erate president Jefferson Davis called

his cabinet together to discuss their

options. The letter that Pickens had

received from Lincoln made it clear

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 79

After Lincoln won the November

1860 presidential election and Southern

threats of secession exploded, Buchanan

was faced with the task of holding the na-

tion together until the Republican formally

took office in March 1861. Buchanan re-

fused to support one side or the other dur-

ing this period, for while Buchanan did not

believe that states had the right to secede

from the Union, he also did not believe

that the Federal government had the right

to force them to stay. During his last

months of power, Buchanan adopted a

cautious position designed to ensure that

he would not preside over the beginning of

a civil war.

In March 1861, Abraham Lincoln

was sworn in as America’s sixteenth presi-

dent, and Buchanan left the White House,

relieved that he had managed to get out be-

fore hostilities exploded between the na-

tion’s two angry sections. Within a few

weeks of his departure, Buchanan’s worst

fears were realized, as a battle for control of

Fort Sumter in South Carolina ignited the

Civil War. For years, Buchanan, who died in

1868, was often viewed as a key reason why

the Civil War occurred. In recent years, how-

ever, historians have judged Buchanan’s

policies more kindly.

James Buchanan. (Courtesy of the Library of

Congress.)

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 79

fort will inaugurate a civil war greater

than any the world has yet seen,”

warned Confederate secretary of state

Robert Toombs (1810–1885). “You will

wantonly strike a hornet’s nest which

extends from mountains to ocean,

and legions now quiet will swarm out

and sting us to death.” But Davis and

many other leaders believed that the

Confederacy needed to take a strong

stand. On April 10, Beauregard was or-

dered to take the fort by force if he

could not convince Anderson to sur-

render willingly.

Southern forces attack Fort

Sumter

Over the next few days, Beau-

regard tried to convince Anderson to

surrender. But Anderson, who had

been one of Beauregard’s instructors at

the U.S. Military Academy at West

Point in New York, refused to give in.

The Confederate assault on Fort

Sumter was launched early in the

morning of April 12, 1861. All day

long, Confederate guns under Beaure-

gard’s command rained fire on the

fort held by the rebel commander’s

former teacher. As the onslaught con-

tinued, pockets of flame and smoke

erupted around the outpost, a sight

that delighted the many Charleston

citizens watching the battle unfold

from their rooftops. Anderson and his

men put up a brave defense in hopes

of holding their foes off until help ar-

rived, but rough seas and indecision

slowed Fox’s fleet, and they were

never able to lend a hand. Finally,

after enduring more than thirty-four

hours of cannonfire, the Union troops

that Seward’s secret assurances of an

impending federal departure from the

outpost could no longer be believed.

Davis and his cabinet were thus left

with two choices: permit Fox’s fleet to

carry out its mission to Fort Sumter,

which would allow Anderson’s troops

to man the outpost for several more

months; or attack the garrison before

the supplies could be delivered and

risk triggering an all-out war with the

Union.

Some Confederate leaders cau-

tioned against launching any attack

on Fort Sumter. “The firing on that

American Civil War: Almanac80

Abraham Lincoln. (Painting by Douglas Volk.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.)

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 80

Hillstrom K., Hillstrom L.C., Baker L.W. (ed.) - American Civil War. Almanac

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