A Gauntlet Tossed Upon Water

At Fort Sumter, Beauregard Took the Bait from Lincoln and the Civil War Was On

The Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter began at 4:26 in the morning of April 11, 1861. Amazingly, there were no casualties in 34 hours of continual bombardment.

The Setup

U.S. Army Major John Anderson and his garrison of Union soldiers were holed up in Fort Sumter, smack in the entrance to Charleston Harbor and about a mile from land. It was not a comfortable existence. South Carolina considered the fort to be its property and refused to allow the North to supply the men occupying it. Food was running low. The fort was still unfinished, not all of its cannons were in working order and poor old Anderson couldn’t get any direction from President Lincoln who was too busy setting a trap for the Confederates.

U.S. Army Major John Anderson (L) and Confederate General P.G.T Beauregard. Anderson cordially received Confederate officers on two occasions starting around midnight on April 10 and ending before dawn on the 11th. He refused to negotiate a surrender. Beauregard then ordered the fort to be “reduced”. That meant by cannon fire. Thus the South was charged with firing the first shot of the Civil War, exactly what President Lincoln wanted.

Then began one of the oddest events of the Civil War.

(Believe it or not, the following are their actual words)

April 11, 1861: Headquarters, Fort Sumter

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 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, United States Army, commanding

TO: Maj. Robert Anderson, Commanding

SIR: By authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding he Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour from this time. We have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servants.

JAMES CHESNUT JR. Aide de Camp

STEPHEN D. LEE, Captain, C.S. Army, Aide de Camp

Fort Sumter’s location at the entrance to Charleston Harbor (L) and a fanciful image from Harper’s Weekly of Confederates firing on the fort.

With those chivalrous, oh so polite and gentlemanly words the bloodiest and ugliest four-year orgy of murder, mayhem and destruction in America’s history was about to get started.

Did you find this out in school?

At 2:45 in the morning of April 11, three Confederate officers went out across a mile of dark water in an oarboat and landed on the ramp at Fort Sumter for the second time. Their mission there was to try a last-ditch effort of persuading Commander Robert Anderson to peacefully evacuate the garrison. They had taken with them two cases of claret, one case of whiskey and two boxes of cigars as gifts to the officers and men, hoping to gain favor sufficient for them to accept Beauregard’s ultimatum. But to no avail. Anderson respectfully declined.

(Ironically, Robert Anderson had been General Beauregard’s artillery instructor at West Point!)

The three Confederate officers who met with Major Anderson at the fort. From left: Colonel James Chesnut, Captain A. R. Chisolm and Captain Stephen D. Lee. They crossed the harbor twice in the wee, dark hours attempting to persuade Major Anderson to evacuate the fort.

After the second meeting, lighted by candles in a dark casemate, Anderson escorted them to the boat ramp and shook hands with each.”

“Gentlemen,” he said, “if we never meet in this world again may God grant that we may meet in the better one.”

The returning Confederates beached their boat on James Island as one of them, Colonel James Chesnut, gave the order to fire. It was 4.26 a.m. The flash was the same as lightning; blinding white and accompanied by a deafening concussion which shook the ground. The 105-pound ball of cast iron arched upward for just over a mile before falling back to earth. At a height of 150 feet above Fort Sumter it exploded, signalling cannon crews all around Charleston Harbor to open fire on the fort.

(L) Inside the main casemate at Fort Sumter before the bombardment and a scene of destruction during the battle. Many of the cannons in the fort could not be used and the casemates were situated for defense against approaches by sea not for attacking shore-based guns.

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