April 13, 1861 - Fort Sumter surrenders

[rangerrebew]

Apr 13
       
Civil War
1861
Fort Sumter surrenders
 
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fort-sumter-surrenders

After a 33-hour bombardment by Confederate cannons, Union forces surrender Fort Sumter in South Carolina’s Charleston Harbor. The first engagement of the war ended in Rebel victory.

The surrender concluded a standoff that began with South Carolina’s secession from the Union on December 20, 1860. When President Abraham Lincoln sent word to Charleston in early April that he planned to send food to the beleaguered garrison, the Confederates took action. They opened fire on Sumter in the predawn of April 12. Over the next day, nearly 4,000 rounds were hurled toward the black silhouette of Fort Sumter.

Inside Sumter was its commander, Major Robert Anderson, 9 officers, 68 enlisted men, 8 musicians, and 43 construction workers who were still putting the finishing touches on the fort. Union Captain Abner Doubleday, the man often inaccurately credited with inventing the game of baseball, returned fire nearly two hours after the barrage began. By the morning of April 13, the garrison in Sumter was in dire straits. The soldiers had sustained only minor injuries, but they could not hold out much longer. The fort was badly damaged, and the Confederate’s shots were becoming more precise. Around noon, the flagstaff was shot away. Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. senator from Texas, rowed out without permission to see if the garrison was trying to surrender. Anderson decided that further resistance was futile, and he ran a white flag up a makeshift flagpole.

The first engagement of the war was over, and the only casualty had been a Confederate horse. The Union force was allowed to leave for the north; before leaving, the soldiers fired a 100-gun salute. During the salute, one soldier was killed and another mortally wounded by a prematurely exploding cartridge. The Civil War had officially begun.

[Bigun]

And that should have been the end of it!

[rangerrebew]

And that should have been the end of it!

You obviously know, as I do, Ft. Sumter was just a catalyst Lincoln needed to begin the war on slavery with public support, though he didn't frame it that way.

[Bigun]

You obviously know, as I do, Ft. Sumter was just a catalyst Lincoln needed to begin the war on slavery with public support, though he didn't frame it that way.

Lincoln didn't give one hoot in hell about slaves and said so many times! He did care a LOT about his tariffs and who paid them!

[rangerrebew]

He hated slavery wherever it existed, no matter who the slave was.  But he felt black slaves were no different from brown slaves.

[sneakypete]

`\quote author=Bigun link=topic=202159.msg837154#msg837154 date=1460565217]
And that should have been the end of it!
[/quote]

What,and have the yankee industrialists and bankers lose all that money?

[sneakypete]

He hated slavery wherever it existed, no matter who the slave was.  But he felt black slaves were no different from brown slaves.

BullBush! He stated himself he didn't give a damn about slavery one way or another,and the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free a single slave in the north. It was a ploy to free the slaves in the south the north had no dominion over,and encourage them to start murdering and raping whites in the south so southern soldiers would desert to return home to protect their families.

General U.S.Grant and his family owned slaves until after the War of Northern Aggression ended. So did lots of other yankees.

[rangerrebew]

You've been reading the Nathan Bedford Forrest version of Lincoln's life, I see.  There is much, much more to the emancipation proclamation than just not freeing northern slaves which happened to be just the border states.  Granted the slavery would still exist in those states but not for long if it was banned north and south of them.  He was still dealing with the Constitution which did not deny the right to own slaves.

[MACVSOG68]

You've been reading the Nathan Bedford Forrest version of Lincoln's life, I see.  There is much, much more to the emancipation proclamation than just not freeing northern slaves which happened to be just the border states.  Granted the slavery would still exist in those states but not for long if it was banned north and south of them.  He was still dealing with the Constitution which did not deny the right to own slaves.

Very true.  Reading the Lincoln-Douglas debates from a contest Lincoln ultimately lost, he clearly stated his dislike of slavery, but continually referenced his support for the Constitution which did allow slavery.  And again while despising slavery, he recognized the rights of states to their own constitutions which would have allowed slaves.  His Emancipation Proclamation addressed slavery in those states in rebellion as he believed he had the power to use whatever means necessary to end the rebellion.  He did not believe he had the power to end slavery in the free states, but before his assassination signed a joint resolution of Congress sending the 13th Amendment to the states for ratification.

When he took office, South Carolina and several other states had already seceded.  His first duty was to keep the Union together in spite of his personal distaste for slavery, thus his inaugural address, said he had no intention to interfere with the institution of slavery, but would do everything he could to hold together the Union, promising to respond to force with force.  He was untested; the South didn't believe him, and paid a heavy price for testing his resolve.

[Wingnut]

During the Lincoln Douglas debates, the second debate taking place in my hometown, it was Douglas who put forth the Freeport Docturne.  Douglas stated that slavery could legally be barred from the territories if the territorial legislatures simply refused to enact the type of police regulations necessary to make slavery work. Without a legal framework and enforcement officials, slavery would be excluded.
By answering Abraham Lincoln's questions on slavery, Basiclly disregarding the SC's Dred-Scott decission....Douglas was able to hold his Illinois followers and secure reelection to the Senate, but the extensive publicity the doctrine received killed his chance of Southern support for the presidency in 1860.

I attended and participated (dressed in period costume) in 2 of the the C-span recreated Lincoln Douglas debates.  One in Freeport and one in Charleston.  It was wonderful experience.

[sneakypete]

You've been reading the Nathan Bedford Forrest version of Lincoln's life, I see.  There is much, much more to the emancipation proclamation than just not freeing northern slaves which happened to be just the border states.  Granted the slavery would still exist in those states but not for long if it was banned north and south of them.  He was still dealing with the Constitution which did not deny the right to own slaves.

Actually,I was reading a book about Lincoln's diaries,that gave direct quotes from both his diaries as well as letters he wrote to others.

And Lincoln never worried much about the Constitution. When the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court wrote him a letter telling him he did not have the authority to prevent the southern (or any other) states from succeeding from a VOLUNTARY union,Lincoln's response was to send him a letter informing him that if he ever made such a statement public,that he would send US Marshals to the SC to arrest and hold them without trial in a military prison until the war ended.

ALL Lincoln cared about was maintaining the Union,and there were no laws he wasn't prepared to break and no number of lives he wasn't willing to see destroyed to make that happen.

I didn't read about Forrest until several years later. NONE of the history books in the US EVER gave an accurate description of the KKK origins or why they came in to existence,and you can bet your ass the truth was never even whispered in the public schools.

[sneakypete]

Very true.  Reading the Lincoln-Douglas debates from a contest Lincoln ultimately lost, he clearly stated his dislike of slavery, but continually referenced his support for the Constitution which did allow slavery.  And again while despising slavery, he recognized the rights of states to their own constitutions which would have allowed slaves.  His Emancipation Proclamation addressed slavery in those states in rebellion as he believed he had the power to use whatever means necessary to end the rebellion.  He did not believe he had the power to end slavery in the free states, but before his assassination signed a joint resolution of Congress sending the 13th Amendment to the states for ratification.

When he took office, South Carolina and several other states had already seceded.  His first duty was to keep the Union together in spite of his personal distaste for slavery, thus his inaugural address, said he had no intention to interfere with the institution of slavery, but would do everything he could to hold together the Union, promising to respond to force with force.  He was untested; the South didn't believe him, and paid a heavy price for testing his resolve.

A quick death was too good for him.

[Fishrrman]

 "I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race."

- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, "Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, September 18, 1858, Charleston, Illinois," in "Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings" (New York: Library of America, 1989), p. 636, and in Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, page 371

[MACVSOG68]

"I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race."

- Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, "Fourth Lincoln-Douglas Debate, September 18, 1858, Charleston, Illinois," in "Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings" (New York: Library of America, 1989), p. 636, and in Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume 5, page 371

If you're suggesting we had a long way to go, you're right.  It wasn't until 1967 that bans on interracial marriage were found to be unconstitutional.  And the racial divide that has already existed to some measure has been greatly exacerbated by this current president.  Having said that, Lincoln continued the steps taken by the northern states and ultimately signed both the Emancipation Proclamation and the joint resolution of Congress to end slavery via the 13th Amendment and send it to the states.  Would he have felt as strongly about the 14th and 15th Amendments?  Had he lived, yes I believe the transition would have taken place if not complete in his own mind.