Hillstrom K., Hillstrom L.C., Baker L.W. (ed.)

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ran out of ammunition. No longer

able to defend the fort, Anderson was

forced to surrender on April 13. The

defeat saddened Anderson, although

he took comfort in the knowledge

that none of his men had been killed

in the assault.

One day later, Anderson and

his troops assembled to evacuate the

fort as Fox’s fleet watched helplessly

from just outside the harbor. Beaure-

gard had agreed to let the Union sol-

diers give the tattered American flag

that they had defended a 100-gun

salute before lowering it and leaving

the fort. Midway through the salute,

however, one of the cannons explod-

ed. Private Daniel Hough died in the

explosion, and Private Edward Gal-

loway died a few days later from in-

juries suffered in the accident. Hough

and Galloway thus became the first

casualties in a war that would ulti-

mately claim more than 620,000

American lives.

Undecided states join the

Confederacy

The battle for Fort Sumter

marked the beginning of the Ameri-

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 81

The Confederate flag flies following the South’s victory over the North at Fort Sumter on April

4, 1861. (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.)

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 81

sand soldiers in order to stop the se-

cessionist rebellion.

Lincoln’s April 15 announce-

ment was immensely popular in the

free states of the North. News of the

Confederate attack on Fort Sumter

had enraged Northerners, and thou-

sands of volunteers eagerly rushed to

join the Federal army. Reaction to

Lincoln’s call to arms was far different

in the slave states that sat between

the North and the states of the Con-

federacy, however. Although they had

been unwilling to secede over the

issue of slavery, these so-called “bor-

can Civil War. The Confederate attack

on Union forces convinced Lincoln

and his cabinet—which had previous-

ly been deeply divided over how to

deal with the secessionist states—that

such aggression could not go unpun-

ished, and that the Confederate states

could only be brought back into the

Union through the use of force. Lin-

coln subsequently announced to the

nation that “combinations too power-

ful to be suppressed” by peaceful ef-

forts now controlled the Deep South,

and he called on the remaining states

of the Union to provide the Federal

government with seventy-five thou-

American Civil War: Almanac82

As the following newspaper ac-

counts show, reaction to the assault on Major

Robert Anderson’s troops at Fort Sumter in

Charleston, South Carolina, was far different

in the North than it was in the South:

The perspective of the North, as

editorialized in the New York Times, April

15, 1861—

The reverberations from Charles-

ton Harbor have brought about what

months of logic would have been impo-

tent to effect—the rapid condensation of

public sentiment in the Free States. The

North is now [united]. . . . In entering

upon this struggle [against the South], the

great community of Free States does so,

prepared to bring to bear on the vindica-

tion [justification] of its national honor in-

exhaustible material resources. . . . As to

moral force, it panoplies [armors] the Re-

public as with a wall of fire. She enters the

contest with that triple arming which jus-

tice gives to a cause. The moral con-

science of the world is on her side. . . . The

[Lincoln] Administration is not brought

face to face with a Revolution. This is not

the attitude. It has to deal with a plot, a

conspiracy. There will be no ‘fraternal

blood’ shed, unless it be the blood of

men who are willfully and persistently in

the position of traitors. . . . That Treason

should be claimed as a right—that anar-

chy [complete absence of government]

should rule—it is this which thrills with in-

dignant amazement. How profound has

been the humiliation, how hot the indig-

nation, are shown in the tumultuous

surgings of passion that are now baptis-

ing with one common sentiment of con-

stitutional unity and patriotic devotion

every loyal American heart.

Perspectives on the Battle for Fort Sumter

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 82

der” states quickly decided to stand

with their Southern neighbors once it

became clear that war was imminent.

On April 17, the state of Virginia an-

nounced that it was leaving the Unit-

ed States to join the Confederacy, and

Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Car-

olina joined the Confederate cause a

few weeks later (although much of

eastern Tennessee remained loyal to

the Union throughout the war). The

Confederacy promptly made arrange-

ments to transfer its capital from

Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond,

Virginia, thus creating a situation in

which the Union and Confederate

capitals sat only one hundred miles

from one another.

The defections of these states

were a severe blow to Lincoln, who

had hoped that they would ultimately

fight to keep the Union intact. Con-

versely, the addition of these four

states greatly strengthened the Con-

federacy. Each possessed large popula-

tions of white men who could be

added to the still-forming Confederate

Army. Southern strategists recognized

that factories located in these states

could be used to manufacture ammu-

nition, clothing, and other supplies

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 83

The view from the South, as de-

scribed in Charleston Mercury, April 13,

1861—

The bombardment of Fort

Sumter, so long and anxiously expected,

has at length become a fact. . . . [At

dawn] the circle of batteries with which

the grim fortress of Fort Sumter is belea-

guered opened fire. The outline of this

great volcanic crater was illuminated with

a line of twinkling lights; the clustering

shells illuminated the sky above it; the

[cannon] balls clattered thick as hail upon

its sides; our citizens . . . rushed again to

the points of observation; and so, at the

break of day, amidst the bursting of

bombs, and the roaring of ordnance [ar-

tillery], and before thousands of specta-

tors, whose homes, and liberties, and

lives were at stake, was enacted this first

great scene in the opening drama of

what . . . will be a most momentous mili-

tary act. It may be a drama of but a sin-

gle act. The madness which inspires it

may depart with this single paroxysm

[sudden outburst]. It is certain that the

people of the North have rankling at

their hearts no sense of wrong to be

avenged; and exhibiting to those who

expect power to reconstruct the shat-

tered Union, its utter inadequacy to ac-

complish a single step in that direction,

the Administration of the old Govern-

ment may abandon at once and forever

its vain and visionary hope of forcible

control over the Confederate States. But

it may not be so; they may persist still

longer in assertions of their power, and if

so, they will arouse an independent spirit

in the South, which will exact a merciless

and fearful retribution [payback].

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 83

center of Confederate support. The ex-

tent of Baltimore’s sympathy to the

Confederate cause had become clear

on April 19, when the 6th Massachu-

setts militia—a Union regiment under

the command of Benjamin Butler

(1818–1893) that was traveling to

Washington, D.C.—came under attack

in the city from a secessionist mob. By

the time the clash ended, dozens of

injured people and dead bodies lit-

tered the city’s streets.

The Union eventually gained

control of Baltimore and the rest of

Maryland, but Lincoln was forced to

establish martial law to do so. Martial

law is a situation in which military

forces take over the responsibility of

administering and enforcing laws in a

city or region from civilian lawmakers.

Moreover, the president suspended a

piece of the Constitution known as

the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland

in order to quiet anti-Union voices.

The writ of habeas corpus was de-

signed to protect Americans from

being arrested and held in custody on

unreasonable charges or without

being charged with a crime. But Lin-

coln had decided that it would be very

difficult to control Maryland if the

state’s secessionist movement was not

neutralized.

Ignoring protests from a wide

range of people, including U.S.

Supreme Court chief justice Roger

Taney (1777–1864), Lincoln took ad-

vantage of his suspension of habeas

corpus to silence secessionists all

around the state. Over the course of

several weeks, Federal officials arrested

for its military. Finally, military leaders

on both sides recognized that Vir-

ginia’s decision to stand under the

Confederate flag posed a great threat

to the Union because the state was lo-

cated right next to Washington, D.C.,

the Union’s capital.

The Union fights to keep

other border states

After losing Virginia, Arkansas,

Tennessee, and North Carolina to the

Confederacy, Lincoln turned his atten-

tion to four border slave states—

Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and

Missouri—that had not yet an-

nounced their support for North or

South. Lincoln was certain that

Delaware would remain loyal to the

Union, but he knew that Confederate

sympathies were strong in the other

three states.

Determined to prevent any

other states from joining the Confed-

eracy, Lincoln took drastic measures in

both Maryland and Missouri. Keeping

Maryland in Union hands was particu-

larly important because it was situated

north of Washington, D.C. This meant

that if the state joined the Confedera-

cy, then the U.S. capital would be cut

off from the rest of the Union and

would almost certainly fall to the Con-

federate Army. With these considera-

tions in mind, Lincoln acted swiftly.

Lincoln silences Maryland

secessionists

First, Lincoln decided to clamp

down on secessionist activities in Bal-

timore, a big city that had become a

American Civil War: Almanac84

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 84

the mayor and police chief of Balti-

more, thirty-one state legislators, and

a number of newspaper publishers and

editors, and threw them all in jail.

With his leading opponents out of the

way, Lincoln then made sure that

Maryland would remain in the Union

camp. In the fall of 1861, Federal

forces manipulated state elections so

that pro-Union legislators assumed

firm control.

The Union struggle to keep

Missouri and Kentucky

In Missouri, Federal military

units managed to establish some mea-

sure of control over most of the state

through the use of martial law. But de-

spite the sometimes ruthless measures

employed by Union authorities to

maintain control over the state, vio-

lent raids by Confederate supporters

tormented Missouri throughout the

war, and large numbers of Missouri

natives served in the Confederate

Army during the conflict.

In Kentucky—the birth state

of both Abraham Lincoln and Jeffer-

son Davis—the struggle for control of

the state basically ended in a draw.

After four months of official neutrality

(showing no support for either side) in

the conflict, separate Union and Con-

federate state governments were orga-

nized. Given this political deadlock, it

is not surprising that both the rebel

(Confederate) and Federal armies

eventually included large numbers of

Kentuckians.

The struggle in Kentucky

seemed to symbolize the larger divi-

sion that had taken place all across the

United States. With each passing day,

Kentuckians watched as long-time

neighbors and friends marched off in

opposite directions, perhaps to face

one another again on some future bat-

tlefield. Even the grandsons of Henry

Clay (1777–1852), the Kentucky sena-

tor who had crafted both the Missouri

Compromise and the Compromise of

1850 in an effort to ward off civil war,

were not immune to this sad phenom-

enon. As the American Civil War

dragged on, three of Clay’s grandsons

would fight on behalf of the Union,

while four others would march under

the Confederate flag.

1861: Creation of the Confederacy 85

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 85

s the military leaders of the North and the South pre-

pared their armies for the coming war, the politicians of

the Union and the Confederacy were also very busy. During

the spring of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

and Northern senators and representatives worked to provide

the Union Army with all of the resources it would need for

the upcoming conflict. Meanwhile, Confederate president Jef-

ferson Davis (1808–1889) and other Southern leaders scram-

bled to establish a whole new government while also prepar-

ing their people for war. But the men who led the Union and

Confederate governments also spent a great deal of time try-

ing to figure out what the European reaction to a civil war

might be.

Both sides knew that if a powerful country like Eng-

land or France decided that the Confederacy’s claim of inde-

pendence was legitimate, the South’s position would be greatly

strengthened. Davis and other Southerners realized that Eng-

lish or French support for the Confederacy might force the

Union to let the Southern states go or risk a disastrous trade

war with Europe. A trade war is a situation in which two coun-

Europe’s View of the War

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 87

diers to fight on the South’s behalf.

With these possibilities in mind,

Southern diplomats launched a major

effort to secure European allies, while

representatives of the Union tried to

convince England, France, and other

nations to stay out of the dispute.

European concerns about the

rebellion

England and France were,

along with the United States, the most

powerful countries in the world dur-

ing the mid-nineteenth century. As a

result, other countries watched with

great interest to see if either of the two

nations would help the Southern

states in their bid to secede from the

United States. But while the leaders of

those two European powers did not al-

ways agree with the actions or policies

of the United States, they were in no

hurry to see the country torn in two

by civil war.

At the time of the American

Civil War, both France and England

were ruled by monarchies, a system of

government in which a single person

holds complete power over everyone

else in the country. Napoleon III

(1808–1873) was the ruler of France,

and Queen Victoria (1819–1901) sat

on the throne in England. Both

monarchies, supported by a small

number of rich and powerful families

and individuals, saw the South’s deci-

sion to secede from the Union as a

form of revolt against established gov-

ernmental rule. This view of the con-

flict did not help the South, because

the leaders of both France and Eng-

tries or regions use measures like price

increases or trade laws to punish the

other side for its position on one issue

or another. Trade wars often have a

negative economic impact on the citi-

zens of both countries, so most govern-

ments try to avoid them at all costs.

Some Southern leaders also be-

lieved that formal recognition from

France or England might even help

them on the field of battle. They spec-

ulated that if England or France decid-

ed that their claim of independence

was legitimate, the governments of

one or both nations might send sol-

American Civil War: Almanac88

Words to Know

Blockade the act of surrounding a harbor

with ships in order to prevent other

vessels from entering or exiting the

harbor; also the act of ships or other

military forces surrounding and isolat-

ing a city, region, or country

Confederacy eleven Southern states that

seceded from the United States in

1860 and 1861

Emancipation the act of freeing people

from slavery or oppression

Federal national or central government;

also refers to the North or Union, as

opposed to the South or Confederacy

Union Northern states that remained

loyal to the United States during the

Civil War

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 88

land were always worried that such re-

bellions might erupt in their own na-

tions and threaten their own systems

of government. Some officials in

France and England even feared that

their own citizens would follow the

South’s example if its efforts to make a

new government were successful.

Another factor that made it

much more difficult for the South to

obtain support from France or England

was its reliance on slavery. The institu-

tion of slavery had been outlawed in

England and all of its colonies in 1833,

and France had taken the same action

in 1844. Most people in Europe realized

that the practice was a terrible and sav-

age one that should be abolished wher-

ever it existed. French and English lead-

ers knew that any efforts to help the

South would spark a great deal of anger

and unrest in their own countries if cit-

izens believed that such aid served to

advance the practice of slavery.

The South hopes for support

Despite these considerations,

however, the leaders of the Confedera-

cy believed that other factors might

convince France or England to sup-

port them. For example, in the

months leading up to and immediate-

ly following the start of the war, Presi-

dent Lincoln and other Federal leaders

continued to insist that they entered

the war solely to restore the Union,

not to eliminate slavery. Some South-

ern and European diplomats argued

that since the North itself claimed

that the war was not about slavery,

any assistance provided to the Con-

federacy by England or France would

not necessarily be regarded as a de-

fense of slavery.

Another factor that favored

the South was Europe’s interest in see-

ing the United States divide itself in

two. Both England and France were

used to getting their way in world af-

fairs, but the leaders of both nations

worried that the United States was be-

coming too powerful. For example,

Napoleon III wanted to establish a

French presence in Mexico, but he

held back because of concerns about

how the Americans might react. The

French ruler knew that it would be

easier for his country to assume power

in Mexico, America’s southern neigh-

bor, if the military force of the United

States was divided in two.

In addition, many members of

the English and French aristocracy

(privileged noblemen who wielded

Europe’s View of the War 89

People to Know

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

Napoleon III (1808-1873) emperor of

France, 1852-71

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) queen of

Great Britain, 1837-1901

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 89

clothing and other materials. The cli-

mate in those countries made it im-

possible for them to grow large quan-

tities of cotton themselves. Southern

legislators reasoned that if European

mills began to experience severe short-

ages of cotton and other goods that

they were used to getting from the

South, French or British leaders might

ask the North to call off the war and

negotiate a treaty that would recog-

nize the Confederacy. With this in

mind, Southern leaders stopped ship-

ments of cotton to Europe in hopes of

pressuring England and France into

supporting their bid for indepen-

dence. But the strategy ended up back-

firing, with severe consequences for

the South.

South uses cotton as a

weapon

On April 12, 1861, Confeder-

ate troops opened fire on the Union

garrison at Fort Sumter in South Car-

olina, an action that marked the be-

ginning of the American Civil War.

Around this same time, the South sus-

pended shipments of cotton to Europe

in hopes of convincing Queen Victo-

ria or Napoleon III to announce their

support for the Confederacy.

But England, France, and most

other countries believed that since the

North enjoyed big advantages in

weaponry and army size over the

South, the war would be over in a few

short months, with the Union victori-

ous. Their political leaders did not

want to anger Lincoln and other

Northern leaders, so they decided to

great power and influence over their

neighbors) recognized that the culture

of the South was similar to their own,

with a relatively small number of peo-

ple serving as the region’s primary de-

cision makers. Moreover, the wealthy

plantation owners in the American

South cultivated an image of style and

old-fashioned elegance that appealed

to the ruling classes in England and

France, who instinctively identified

with the Southerners’ desire to protect

their way of life.

Finally, the leaders of the

South knew that both England and

France bought huge quantities of cot-

ton from their plantations to make

American Civil War: Almanac90

French ruler Napoleon III.

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 90

stay on the sidelines. On May 13,

1861, Queen Victoria announced

British neutrality (showing favoritism

to neither side), although she noted

that the Confederacy was free to pur-

chase arms from England and other

neutral nations. Napoleon III made a

similar announcement of French neu-

Europe’s View of the War 91

The Union’s military superiority

helped it maintain control over much of

America’s waters during the Civil War. Presi-

dent Abraham Lincoln was able to establish

a largely effective blockade of the Confeder-

ate coastline with the Union’s naval forces,

and the North, using its greater manufac-

turing capacity, dramatically widened its ad-

vantage in fleet size during the war.

The South did not surrender the

seas without a fight, however. By mid-1862,

Confederate ships known as commerce

raiders were prowling the North Atlantic in

search of Union merchant vessels traveling

along the Northern coastline or trading with

Europe. These raiders seized millions of dol-

lars in Union goods, and they destroyed or

captured hundreds of vessels (the Confeder-

ate raider Alabama alone burned fifty-five

American ships valued at more than $4.5

million). These rebel cruisers did not “alter

the outcome of the war,” wrote James M.

McPherson in Battle Cry of Freedom, but

“they diverted numerous Union navy ships

from the blockade, drove insurance rates for

American vessels to astronomical heights,

forced these vessels to remain in port or con-

vert to foreign registry [the raiders concen-

trated their attacks on ships flying the Ameri-

can flag], and helped topple the American

merchant-marine from its once-dominant

position, which it never regained.”

The best-known Confederate

raiders were the Florida and the Alabama.

Both of these vessels had been built in Eng-

lish shipyards and sold to the rebels (Con-

federates) by shipbuilders who managed to

find loopholes in Great Britain’s declaration

of noninvolvement in the American conflict.

The Florida destroyed thirty-eight American

ships before the Union Navy captured it in

October 1864. The Alabama was even more

deadly to Northern ship commerce. The

rebel cruiser, under the command of Cap-

tain Raphael Semmes (1809–1877), raided

294 ships, capturing or destroying 64 of

them, before the U.S.S. Kearsarge sank it in

a battle off the coast of France in June 1864.

After the Civil War was over, the

United States demanded payment from

Great Britain for the destructive activities of

the British-built Confederate cruisers. At

first, England refused to acknowledge the

American claims. In 1872, though, an inter-

national court in Geneva, Switzerland, or-

dered England to pay the United States

$15.5 million for damage caused by the Al-

abama, the Florida, and a third British-built

raider called the Shenandoah.

Confederate Commerce Raiders

Civil War Almanac MB 10/7/03 4:01 PM Page 91

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

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