FORT SUMPTER FALLEN: The Fort on Fire and the Garrison Exhausted; NO ATTEMPT AT REINFORCEMENT; Call for Seventy-Five Thousand Militia (4/15/1861)

New York Times archives – Times Machine ^ | 4/15/1861

[Homer_J_Simpson]

CHARLESTON, Saturday, April 13 -- Evening.

Major ANDERSON has surrendered, after hard fighting, commencing at 4 1/2 o'clock yesterday morning, and continuing until five minutes to 1 to-day.

The American flag has given place to the Palmetto of South Carolina.

You have received my previous dispatches concerning the fire and the shooting away of the flagstaff. The latter event is due to Fort Moultrie, as well as the burning of the fort, which resulted from one of the hot shots fired in the morning.

During the conflagration, Gen. BEAUREGARD sent a boat to Major ANDERSON, with offers of assistance, the bearers being Colonels W.P. MILES, and ROGER PRYOR, of Virginia, and LEE. But before it reached him, a flag of truce had been raised. Another boat then put off, containing Ex-Gov. MANRING, Major D.R. JONES and Col. CHARLES ALLSTON, to arrange the terms of surrender, which were the same as those offered on the 11th inst. These were official. They stated that all proper facilities would be afforded for the removal of Major ANDERSON and his command, together with the company arms and property, and all private property, to any post in the United States he might elect. The terms were not, therefore, unconditional.

Major ANDERSON stated that he surrendered his sword to Gen. BEAUREGARD as the representative of the Confederate Government. Gen. BEAUREGARD said he would not receive it from so brave a man. He says Major ANDERSON made a staunch fight, and elevated himself in the estimation of every true Carolinian.

During the fire, when Major ANDERSON'S flagstaff was shot away, a boat put off from Morris Island, carrying another American flag for him to fight under -- a noteworthy instance of the honor and chivalry of South Carolina Seceders, and their admiration for a brave man.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1855-1860: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: Sometime in the future.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3950223/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

[KC_Lion]

There it is. 😥😥

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Fort Sumpter Fallen: Particulars of the Bombardment – 2
Fort Sumpter Evacuated – 2
The Latest Dispatches – 2-4
Fort Pickens and the Harbor of Pensacola – 3
The Times Correspondent Imprisoned – 4
Proclamation by the President: Seventy-Five Thousand Volunteers and an Extra Session of Congress – 4
Aid for the Government – 4
The Available Militia – 4
The News in Washington – 4-6
From Another Correspondent – 6-7
The News in the North – 7
The News in Army and Navy Circles – 7
Henry Ward Beecher on the Crisis – 7-9
The Union Volunteers – 9
Patriotic Mass-Meeting – 9
How it was Received in Albany – 9
How it was Received in Philadelphia – 9-10
How Received in Rhode Island – 10
How Received in Ohio – 10
How Received in Chicago – 10
The News in the South: How it was Received in Montgomery – 10
How Received in Baltimore – 10
How Received in Alexandria, Va. – 10
Important from Virginia: Proceedings of the State Convention – 10
Editorial: The Great Rebellion-The Beginning of the End – 10-11
Editorial: Major Anderson – 11
To All Whom It Concerns – 11
Editorial: The Fall of Sumpter – 11-12
The Southern Mails – 12
Editorial: The People and the Issue – 12-13
A Question a Good Many People are Asking – 13
Editorial: Fort Pickens – 13-14
A Little Too Soon – 14
Suicide of an Invalid – 14

[bigbob]

“the fact is, northern men are tired of having treason shoved down their throats...”

And there’s the difference between then and now.

[MattMusson]

Fun Fact - One of the Union Officers that occupied the Southern Fort in Charleston Harbor and Precipitated the Civil War was: ABNER DOUBLEDAY.

Yes. That Abner Doubleday.

[HereInTheHeartland]

This happened again?

[jeffersondem]

“During the fire, when Major ANDERSON'S flagstaff was shot away, a boat put off from Morris Island, carrying another American flag for him to fight under — a noteworthy instance of the honor and chivalry of South Carolina Seceders, and their admiration for a brave man.”

Difficult, if not impossible, to find fault with the gallant Southerners defending hearth and home.

[Hebrews 11:6]

WAR!!!

[C19fan]

Gotta admire the chivalry of Charleston when they sent over a US flag to Sumter when one was shot up.
I did notice the notice the SS Great Eastern is leaving New York for Liverpool. That ship was a monster. It length and weight would no be surpassed until 1899. It was designed by the engineering genius Isambard Brunel. I would have love to see the real thing.

[jeffersondem]

“the fact is, northern men are tired of having treason shoved down their throats...”

It was Lincoln that used the Navy to engineer the Gulf of Tonkin Incident; I meant to say the Fort Sumter Incident.

It was Lincoln who used the military to levy war against the states.

That much is not in dispute. We may never know the reason why.

[Bull Snipe]

Fort Pillow, Andersonville?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

“During the fire, when Major ANDERSON'S flagstaff was shot away, a boat put off from Morris Island, carrying another American flag for him to fight under — a noteworthy instance of the honor and chivalry of South Carolina Seceders, and their admiration for a brave man.”

The part about the replacement flag may be fake news from the NYT. The historical accounts I posted this week say the Sumter flag was shot away but they jury rigged it back up again. Louis Wigfall just had a white flag of truce on his sword when he was rowed to the island to consult with Anderson.

[jmacusa]

It was the South that organized the Confederacy and undertook a violent secession and launched the bloodiest war in American history. Get it right.

[BroJoeK]

"Difficult, if not impossible, to find fault with the gallant Southerners defending hearth and home."

Except, of course, the flag story is fake news, and those "gallant Southerners" weren't defending anything -- they were assaulting Union troops in a Union fort -- a fort which so far had posed no threat to anybody.

[BroJoeK]

jeffersondem: "It was Lincoln that used the Navy to engineer the Gulf of Tonkin Incident; I meant to say the Fort Sumter Incident."

Fort Sumter had a similar effect as Pearl Harbor and 9/11, both of which conspiracy theorists have also claimed were "engineered".
But Jefferson Davis fully understood what was happening, and decided on war anyway, because:

"There would be to us an advantage in so placing them that an attack by them would be a necessity, but when we are ready to relieve our territory and jurisdiction of the presence of a foreign garrison that advantage is overbalanced by other considerations."
Davis to Bragg, April 3, 1861

And those "other considerations" were so powerful they made Davis ignore the very accurate warning from his own Secretary of State Toombs:

"Mr. President, at this time it is suicide, murder, and will lose us every friend at the North.
You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountain to ocean, and legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death.
It is unnecessary; it puts us in the wrong; it is fatal."[19]"
Toombs to Davis, April 9, 1861.

That much is not in dispute. We may never know the reason why.

Well... actually, those "other considerations" are pretty easy to understand, and powerful reasons begin with Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee & Arkansas.

[jeffersondem]

“It was the South that organized the Confederacy and undertook a violent secession. . .”

There was no violence when the states seceded. The votes to secede were peaceful.

A number of states left the Union before Lincoln was even inaugurated. No violence; not even from the US.

For the most part the shooting started after Lincoln used the Navy to engineer the Gulf of Tonkin Incident.

I mean the Fort Sumter Incident.

[jeffersondem]

“Fort Pillow”

There were claims and counter-claims about the conduct of soldiers on each side of the battle. The truth may never be fully known.

To my knowledge Generals Grant and Sherman never found evidence that justified punitive action after the war when victorious Union forces were in total control of everything including their enemies and the judiciary.

That said, I would be surprised if you were to provide me with gas-tight evidence showing no Confederate soldier in four years of war ever treated an enemy unkindly.

There is a dark side of combat that finds its way into even the most wholesome causes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7dmcHoODZI

[Bull Snipe]

Thought they hanged the Wertz for his conduct at Andersonville.

[jeffersondem]

“Fort Sumter had a similar effect as Pearl Harbor and 9/11 . . .”

I'd have to look it up but for some reason I think it was you that published a Castro-length post some seasons back drawing an equivalency between the casualties of Fort Sumter and Pearl Harbor.

Brings to mind a recent, succinct, non-pernicious comment made on another thread by one of my favorite northern commentators: “Never have I seen more long winded bs in all my life.”