Last Best Hope of Earth

Tag: Fort Sumter

  • The Civil War: William Howard Russell: from My Diary North and South

    April 17, 1861

    In the weeks and months leading up to the fall of Fort Sumter, the South had been brimming with excitement for the future. Charleston, South Carolina—with newly taken Fort Sumter in its harbor—was leading the South into that future both through its rhetoric and through its actions. Enthusiasm was abound for what had happened and what was to come. Three days after the southerners chased the northerners out of that fort, Charleston was bubbling over with joy. The city—the South, for that matter—was ebullient.

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  • The Civil War: George Templeton Strong: Diary, April 13-16, 1861

    The Civil War: George Templeton Strong: Diary, April 13-16, 1861

    Throughout the months leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter, there was widespread wonder about how the country would react to such a provocation; it was bound to be a cleave dividing the country and also its communities. Generations later—with the accordion of events neatly folded and the result of the war known—it would seem obvious that a swell of patriotism came rose when the rebels fired the first shot in Charleston’s harbor. But in New York, an attorney and diarist, George Templeton Strong, documented that the swell of patriotism in his city was not immediate nor universal—but it was pronounced.

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  • The First Battle of Bull Run

    Three months after the firing on Fort Sumter, the Confederacy and Union had produced armies capable of fighting and mobilized to northern Virginia; roughly halfway between Washington and Richmond. There, near a “sluggish, tree-choked river” known as Bull Run, the first major battle following the secession of the South would occur.[i]  (more…)

  • On to Richmond

    On to Richmond

    Although the Confederacy had awakened the North’s spirit by initiating hostilities at Fort Sumter, both sides could have still hoped for reconciliation. While some advocated for immediate peace, others wished for a full prosecution of war against the South, viewing its expanding secession as nothing short of treason. By the end of spring 1861, there was a decisive answer to the question of whether there would soon be peace. (more…)

  • The Awakened Giant

    The Awakened Giant

    The news from Fort Sumter spread throughout the country, and its coming awakened a restless energy in the North. That energy ignited patriotism and a new sense of collectivism throughout northern cities and states that would lead to a then-unparalleled war effort directed against the Confederacy. (more…)

  • The Outbreak of the Civil War

    The Outbreak of the Civil War

    Within a matter of weeks of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency beginning, the gravest crisis of perhaps any president confronted him and the nation: civil war. (more…)

  • The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

    The Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln

    From the time of the Election of 1860 to the beginning of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, there was uncertainty as to how Lincoln and his administration would handle the growing Confederacy and existential crisis facing the country.  (more…)

  • The North’s Attempt at Salvation

    washington-dc
    Aerial Perspective of Washington DC in 1861.

    The Deep South’s animating of a Second American Revolution, by seceding from the Union and laying the foundation for an operational Confederate government, forced the North to either suppress the South’s uprising or craft a resolution. The likelihood of war would deter any widespread northern suppression, leaving the question: What compromise could the North propose that appeased the South and put both sections of the country on a path of coexistence? While variations of this question had been posed in the years leading up to 1860, at no prior point were states seceding from the Union en masse to form a rival government. (more…)

  • The Role of Slavery in Splitting America

    underground_railroad
    The Underground Railroad. By: Charles T. Webber.

    Since the outbreak of the Civil War and continuing to the present day, the role of slavery in splitting America has been hotly debated. One may wonder whether there was merely a correlation between slavery and the Civil War or whether slavery was the cause. Investigating the nuances of the issue of slavery reveals that the Civil War resulted from sectionalism and slavery, which were practically synonymous.

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