There had been talk that, if a civil war began, it would begin at Fort Sumter. Sat in the harbor near Charleston, South Carolina, it was a fort that the United States held. Indeed, it was here that the first shots of the war would be fired. It was one thing to read about the events reported in the newspaper—focusing on the result: its surrender—but something else altogether to read an account from someone in the fort. Years later, Abner Doubleday wrote of his experience, in Fort Sumter, from the bombardment to its surrender on April 14, 1861.
(more…)Tag: Robert Anderson
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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…)
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The North’s Attempt at Salvation
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…)
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The Taking of Mexico City
Winfield Scott Entering Mexico City. By: Carl Nebel. Winfield Scott was “one of the greatest soldiers the United States Army has ever produced,” fighting in the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: Transformation of America, 1815-1848, 778.
Last Best Hope of Earth 