Page 370 - American Stories, A History of the United States

temporary disruption of commerce was better than the permanent loss of the South as
a market and source of raw materials. 15.1
In his inaugural address, Lincoln called for a cautious use of force. He would defend
federal forts not yet in Confederate hands but would not attempt to recapture the
ones already taken. He thus tried to shift the burden for beginning hostilities to 15.2
the Confederacy, which would have to attack before it would be attacked.
As Lincoln spoke, U.S. forces held only four military installations within the
seceded states. Two in the remote Florida Keys attracted little attention. The others 15.3
were Fort Pickens on an island outside Pensacola in northwest Florida and Fort Sumter
inside Charleston Harbor. Attention focused on Sumter because the Confederacy,
egged on by South Carolina, was demanding the surrender of a garrison that was within 15.4
easy reach of shore batteries and running low on supplies. Shortly after taking office,
Lincoln was informed that Sumter could not hold out much longer and that he would
have to decide whether to reinforce it or let it fall.
Initially, Lincoln’s cabinet opposed reinforcing or provisioning Sumter, on the
grounds that it was indefensible. Secretary of State Seward was so certain this would
be the decision that he so advised Confederate representatives. But on April 4, Lincoln
ordered that the beleaguered troops in Charleston Harbor be resupplied. Two days later,
he notified the governor of South Carolina that a relief expedition was being sent.
The expedition sailed on April 8 and 9, but before it arrived, Confederate authorities
decided that sending supplies was a hostile act and attacked the fort. On the morning of
April 12, shore batteries opened fire; the bombardment continued for 40 hours without loss
of life but with heavy damage to the fort. Finally, on April 13, the Union forces under Major
Robert Anderson surrendered, and the Confederate flag was raised over Fort Sumter. The
South had won a victory but had also assumed responsibility for firing the first shot.
On April 15, Lincoln proclaimed that an insurrection against federal authority existed
in the Deep South and called on the militia of the loyal states to provide 75,000 troops for
short-term service to put it down. Two days later, a Virginia convention that had rejected
secession in February voted to join the Confederacy. Within five weeks, Arkansas, Ten-
nessee, and North Carolina followed suit. These slave states of the upper South had been
unwilling to secede just because Lincoln was elected, but when he called on them to pro-
vide troops to “coerce” other southern states, they had to choose sides. Believing that seces-
sion was a constitutional right, they cut their ties with a government that opted to use force
to maintain the Union and asked them to join the effort (See Map 15.1).

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA
(CANADA) N.H.
VT. MAINE
DAKOTA MINN. Great Lakes MASS.
OREGON TERRITORY N.Y.
WIS.
MICH. R.I.
CONN.
PA. N.J.
WASHINGTON TERR.
NEBRASKA TERRITORY IOWA OHIO
NEVADA IND. W.VA. DEL.
TERR. UTAH ILL. (Statehood D.C. MD.
TERRITORY COLORADO 1863)
TERRITORY MO. VA.
CALIF. KANSAS KY.
N.C.
INDIAN TENN.
NEW MEXICO TERRITORY ARK. S.C.
TERRITORY (UNORGANIZED) GA. Ft. Sumter
MISS. ALA.
ATLANTIC
PACIFIC TEXAS LA. OCEAN
OCEAN FLA.
0 250 500 miles
MEXICO Gulf of Mexico
0 250 500 kilometers
Slave states Slave states Slave states Free
seceding before seceding after loyal to the territories
the fall of Ft. Sumter, the fall of Ft. Sumter, Union
April 1861 April 1861 MaP 15.1 secession the fall of
Free states Fort Sumter was a watershed for the
secessionist movement.
337