Posted on 10/09/2003 12:00:20 AM PDT by SAMWolf
Sir: The government of the Confederate States has hitherto foreborne from any hostile demonstrations against Fort Sumter, in hope that the government of the United States, with a view to the amicable adjustment of all questions between the two governments, and to avert the calamities of war, would voluntarily evacuate it.
There was reason at one time to believe that such would be the course pursued by the government of the United States, and under that impression my government has refrained from making any demand for the surrender of the fort. But the Confederate States can no longer delay assuming actual possession of a fortification commanding the entrance of one of their harbors and necessary to its defense and security.
I am ordered by the government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. My aides, Colonel Chestnut and Captain Lee, are authorized to make such demand of you. All proper facilities will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command, together with company arms and property, and all private property, to any post in the United States which you may select. The flag which you have upheld so long and with so much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down. Colonel Chestnut and Captain Lee will, for a reasonable time, await your answer.
I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Brigadier-General Commanding.
Major Anderson replied as follows:
General: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding the evacuation of this fort, and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which I regret that my sense of honor, and of my obligations to my government, prevent my compliance. Thanking you for the fair, manly and courteous terms proposed, and for the high compliment paid me,
I am, General, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
ROBERT ANDERSON,
Major, First Artillery, Commanding.
Major Anderson, while conversing with the messengers of General Beauregard, having remarked that he would soon be starved into a surrender of the fort, or words to that effect, General Beauregard was induced to address him a second letter, in which he proposed that the major should fix a time at which he would agree to evacuate, and agree also not to use his guns against the Confederate forces unless they fired upon him, and so doing, he, General Beauregard, would abstain from hostilities. To this second letter Major Anderson replied, naming noon on the 15th, provided that no hostile act was committed by the Confederate forces, or any part of them, and provided, further, that he should not, meanwhile, receive from the government at Washington controlling instructions or additional supplies.
For over three months the troops stationed on the islands surrounding Fort Sumter had been constantly employed building batteries, mounting guns, and making every preparation for the defense of the harbor, and, if necessary, for an attack on the fort if the government at Washington persisted in its refusal to order its evacuation.
Lt. Col. R. S. Ripley, an able and energetic soldier, commanded the artillery on Sullivan's island, with his headquarters at Fort Moultrie, Brigadier-General Dunovant commanding the island. Under Ripley's direction, six 10-inch mortars and twenty guns bore on Sumter. The guns were 24, 32 and 42 pounders, 8-inch columbiads and one 9-inch Dahlgren. The supports to the batteries were the First regiment of rifles, Colonel Pettigrew; the regiment of infantry, South Carolina regulars, Col. Richard Anderson; the Charleston Light Dragoons, Capt. B. H. Rutledge, and the German Flying Artillery, the latter attached to Col. Pettigrew's command, stationed at the east end of the island. These commands, with Ripley's battalion of South Carolina regular artillery and Capt. Robert Martin's mortar battery on Mount Pleasant, made up the force under General Dunovant.
On Cummings point, six 10-inch mortars and six guns were placed. To the command and direction of these guns, Maj. P. F. Stevens was specially assigned. One of the batteries on the point was of unique structure, hitherto unknown in war. Three 8-inch columbiads were put in battery under a roofing of heavy timbers, laid at an angle of forty degrees, and covered with railroad T iron. Portholes were cut and these protected by heavy iron shutters, raised and lowered from the inside of the battery. This battery was devised and built by Col. Clement H. Stevens, of Charleston, afterward a briga-dier-general and mortally wounded in front of Atlanta, July 20, 1864, leading his brigade. "Stevens' iron battery," as it was called, was "the first ironclad fortification ever erected," and initiated the present system of armor-plated vessels. The three mortars in battery at Port Johnson were commanded by Capt. G. S. James. The batteries above referred to, including Fort Moultrie, contained fifteen 10-inch mortars and twenty-six guns of heavy caliber.
For thirty-four hours they assaulted Sumter with an unceasing bombardment, before its gallant defenders consented to give it up, and not then until the condition of the fort made it impossible to continue the defense. Port Moultrie alone fired 2,490 shot and shell. Gen. S. W. Crawford, in his accurate and admirable book, previously quoted, thus describes the condition of Sumter when Anderson agreed to its surrender:
The spirit and language of General Beauregard in communicating with Major Anderson, and the replies of the latter, were alike honorable to those distinguished soldiers. The writer, who was on duty on Sullivan's island, as major of Pettigrew's regiment of rifles, recalls vividly the sense of admiration felt for Major Anderson and his faithful little command throughout the attack, and at the surrender of the fort. "While the barracks in Fort Sumter were in a blaze," wrote General Beauregard to the secretary of war at Montgomery, "and the interior of the work appeared untenable from the heat and from the fire of our batteries (at about which period I sent three of my aides to offer assistance), whenever the guns of Fort Sumter would fire upon Moultrie, the men occupying the Cummings point batteries (Palmetto Guard, Captain Cuthbert) at each shot would cheer Anderson for his gallantry, although themselves still firing upon him; and when on the 15th instant he left the harbor on the steamer Isabel, the soldiers of the batteries lined the beach, silent and uncovered, while Anderson and his command passed before them."
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Fort Sumter, surrounded by the waters of Charleston Harbor, with guns that frowned on the hrabour entrances, was like an irritating splinter in the eye of the Confederacy. Southern representatives went to Washington to negotiate with outgoing President Buchanan . . . slow to take action, Buchanan decided . . . to follow the advice of his commanding General, Windfield Scott and authorized supplies and reinforcements of some 250 troops to the garrison of Fort Sumter. . . they decided to use ships for the purpose and sent the merchant vessel, Star of the West, which arrived on January 5 off the bar of Cahrleston Harbor. As she made her way across the black waters, rockets and signal lights were fired off in front of her. Carolinian gunners dashed to their guns recently set up in Fort Moutrie. Untrained, they did little damage to the ship, although a richochet struck the ship's forechains. Yet, they managed to turn the ship back. On Fort Sumter, the commander and Kentuckian, Colonel Richard Anderson forebade his men from giving cover fire to the ship. He was determined not to fire the shot that would start the Civil War. He sent a protest to the governor of South Carolina who responded that the arrival of such a ship was to be considered a hostile act. On February 18 Jefferson Davis was inaugerated President of the Confederate States . . . and decided to send a diplomatic mission to Washington seeking removal of the annoying garrison at Fort Sumter. On March 1 he named General P. G. T. Beauregard cammander of the area. On March 4 Lincoln was sworn in and quickly decided to reinforce the fort. On hearing this, Confederate officials placed their men on alert. On April 11 they sent word to Ft Sumter commander Anderson a demand for surrender. He declined but he let it be known that he was short of supplies and might have to abandon the fort within days. Confederate officials wanted to know when he would leave. He told them no sooner than the 15th unless he was resupplied and that he would not fire unless fired upon. The Confederates responded with - leave by the 12th or suffer a barrage.At 4:30 am on the 12th, Southern batteries opened fire on the brick walls of Fort Sumter. A few hours later, Union cannon responded. So, in either case, the firing at the supply ship Star of the West or the Fort itself, the Confederates fired first. The Star of the West Monument is dedicated to the memory of the cadets who fired on the Star of the West in 1861 and to all Citadel graduates who have died in defense of their country. The granite monument was raised in the spring of 1961, 100 years after Citadel cadets fired on the federal supply ship from the northern point of Morris Island. A bronze plaque depicts the action. Cadets were chosen to man the 24-pound siege guns because they were the best-trained men in Charleston to fire the weapons. Inscribed on the monument are the names of those cadets who have won the Star of the West Medal for individual drill competition. The monument is located between Bond Hall and the central flagpole. |
It should be clear to all conservatives by now that the left intends to demonize us. They don't just disagree with us, they hate us. And worse, they want to get other people to hate us.
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I didn't do it, SAM?..Darksheare?... LOL.
We did have colorado tanker put cans for recycling (payment on history lessons) in Darksheare's foxhole last week.
I've got bandaids if you need them.;)
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