by Bruce Catton
Curtis, Vol. II, 509; Mrs. Roger Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, 47, 56; letter of Buchanan to Bennett, Dec. 20,
1860, in the James Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Penn-
sylvania.
7. Memoirs of Henry Villard, Vol. I, 156: Harper's Weekly,
March 16, 165; Nicolay & Hay, Vol. JJJ, 371-72.
8. Harper's Weekly, p 166; Cincinnati Commercial, March 11,
1861. For a discussion of the credibility of this anecdote, see
Allan Nevins, "He Did Hold Lincoln's Hat," in American Heri-
tage, Vol. X, No. 2, 98-99.
9. It is interesting to note that in the first draft of this ad-
dress, written during January 1861, Lincoln made the more ag-
gressive statement: "All the power at my disposal will be used to
reclaim the public property and places which have fallen; to hold,
occupy and possess," etc, etc. (Basler, Vol. IV, 254.) In Decem-
ber he had written to Francis P. Blair, Sr., "According to my
present view if the forts shall be given up before the inaugera-
tion, the General must retake them afterward"; and to the former
Whig Congressman Peter H. Silvester of Springfield he had writ-
ten "If Mr. B. surrenders the forts, I think they must be retaken."
(Basler, Vol. IV, 157, 160.) At least partly on Seward's urging
he removed from the speech as finally delivered the pledge to
"reclaim" what had already been lost. Shortly after the inaugura-
tion Charles Francis Adams, Jr., wrote that Seward had talked to
him about the importance of his effort to get that one word taken
out. (Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., entry for March 11,
1861, in the Massachusetts Historical Society.)
Justice John A. Campbell wrote that Lincoln's address was "an incendiary message—one calculated to set the country in a blaze," but added that he believed its recommendations "will be allowed to slide." Campbell predicted that Major Anderson would soon be withdrawn from Fort Sumter and he hoped that in the end "a reunion may be affected or be permitted." (Letter of Justice Campbell to his mother, dated March 6, 1861, in the Alabama Department of Archives and History, at Montgomery.)
Isabel Wallace, Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace, 100-1; Diary of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., entry for March 4.
12. New York Herald, March 5 and 6, 1861; Diary of George
Templeton Strong, Vol. LTJ, 106; The Education of Henry Adams, 107; Martin J. Crawford to Robert Toombs, in the Robert Toombs Letterbook, South Caroliniana Library, from Allan Nevins' notes.
13. "Correspondence of Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb," 253;
O.R., I, 261; Montgomery Weekly Advertiser, March 5, 1861;
Charleston Mercury, March 5, 1861.
Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, 470, 472, 556, 757.
New York Herald, March 5, 1861.
Chapter Five: INTO THE UNKNOWN 1, Two Forts and Three Agents
O.R. Vol. I, 197, 198-205; memorandum dated March 4, 1861, in Buchanan's handwriting, in the James Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Jeremiah S. Black's report to Lincoln, March 5, 1861, in the J. S. Black Papers, Vol. 35, Library of Congress.
N.O.R., Vol. IV, 74. The situation at Fort Pickens during the winter and early spring is sketched by J. H. Gilman, "With Slem-mer in Pensacola Harbor," B. & L., Vol. I, 26-32.
Braxton Bragg to Mrs. Bragg, letter dated March 11, 1861, in the Braxton Bragg Papers, Missouri Historical Society.
5. N.O.R., Vol. IV, 90; O.R., Vol. 1, 196-205.
Springfield Republican, March 14, 1861, quoting the Washington correspondent of the Boston American; letter of E. M. Stanton to Buchanan, March 16, 1861, in the Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Crawford, 373; O.R., Vol. I, 196; Roman, Military Operations, Vol. I, 36.
Joseph Hawley to Gideon Welles, March 12, 1861, in the Goodyear Collection, Yale University Library.
O.R., Vol. I, 196-205; reports of Blair and Welles in the Goodyear Collection; letter of Chase to B. J. Lossing, dated Aug. 24, 1866, also in the Goodyear Collection.
Doubleday, Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie, 130. At the end of March, Doubleday was writing to his wife: "If government delays many days longer it will be very difficult to relieve us in time, for the men's provisions are going fast." (Letter of March 29, 1861, in the Robert Todd Lincoln Papers.)
Crawford, 371; N.O.R., Vol. IV, 247, giving Fox's report; O.R., Vol. I, 211; letter of Gustavus Fox to General Crawford, dated May 10, 1882, in the Goodyear Collection.
Hurlbut's report to Lincoln, March 27, 1861, in the Robert Todd Lincoln Papers.
Ward Hill Lamon, Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865, 68-79; O.R., Vol. I, 237.
Nicolay & Hay, Vol. IV, 110; Gideon Welles, Diary, Vol. I, 29.
2. Memorandum from Mr. Seward
1. William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South, 20-27.
Nicolay & Hay, Vol. HI, 394-5; O.R., Vol. I, 200-1; Crawford, 365.
Nicolay & Hay, Vol. HI, 429-33. The cabinet members' replies are in the Robert Todd Lincoln Papers.
Diary of Charles Francis Adams, entries for March 28 and March 31, 1861, in the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Montgomery Meigs, "The Relations of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton to the Military Commanders in the Civil War," American Historical Review, Vol. XXVI, No. 2, 299-300.
Ibid, 300.
Nicolay & Hay, Vol. HI, 445-48; Basler, Vol. IV, 316.
David Mearns, The Lincoln Papers, Vol. I, 447-50.
Basler, Vol. IV, 316-17.
3. "If You Have No Doubt . . ."
1. Robert Toombs Letterbook, letter of Crawford dated March
6, 1861, in the Trescot Papers, South Caroliniana Library, Nevins'
Notes.
2. Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Documents, 47.
3. Undated notes by John A. Campbell in the Southern His-
torical Society Papers, New Series, Vol. IV, 31-37.
4. O.R., Vol. I, 277.
5. Campbell's notes, as cited in Note Three, above; Edward
Younger, ed., Inside the Confederate Government: the Diary of
Robert Garlick Hill Kean, Head of the Bureau of War, 112-13;
Dunbar Rowland, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, Vol. V, 95-
96. In the William H. Seward Collection of the Rush Rhees
Library, University of Rochester, there is a long letter which
Justice Campbell wrote to Seward on April 13, 1861, setting
forth his version of the long negotiations.
O.R., Vol. I, 284; N.O.R., Vol. TV, 256-57.
N.O.R., Vol. IV, 248-49; O.R., Vol. I, 235.
Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, Vol. I, 34-35.
Rhodes, Vol. IU, 345, 356; Nicolay & Hay, Vol. IV, 7, 11-13.
Anyone curious enough to trace the sequence of events in this situation can find a wealth of material. See Tyler Dennett, ed., Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay, 30; Rev. R. L. Dabney, "Memoir of a Narrative Received of Col. John R. Baldwin, of Staunton, Touching the Origin of the War," in Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. I, No. 6, 443-55; Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction at the First Session, 39th Congress, 102-5; New York Tribune, Nov. 6, 1862, quoting a speech by Charles S. Morehead, former governor of Kentucky, printed on Oct. 13 in the Liverpool Mercury; Allan B. Magruder, "A Piece of Secret History: President Lincoln and the Virginia Convention of 1861," Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXXV, April, 1875.
Letter of Gideon Welles to I. N. Arnold, Nov. 27, 1872, photostat in the Lincoln Collection, Chicago Historical Society; letter of Capt. Samuel Mercer to Welles, April 8, 1861, in the Goodyear Collection, Yale; undated letter of Montgomery Blair to S. L. M. Barlow, in the Barlow Papers, Huntington Library; Gideon Welles, "Fort Sumter: Facts in
Relation to the Expedition Ordered by the Administration of President Lincoln for the Relief of the Garrison in Fort Sumter," The Galaxy, Vol. X, No. 5, 620-21, 630-35.
Dunbar Rowland, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, Vol. V, 95-96; letter of Campbell to Seward, April 7, 1861, in the William H. Seward Papers, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester; Russell, My Diary North and South, 34.
Letter of Stanton to Buchanan, April 11, 1861, in the Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Basler, Vol. IV, 323-24.
O.R., Vol. I, 285.
Crawford, 421, quoting a letter from L. P. Walker, Confederate Secretary of War; Pleasant A. Stovall, Robert Toombs, 226.
O.R., Vol. I, 297. One week before this, President Davis wrote a revealing letter to Braxton Bragg, commanding Confederate forces at Pensacola, giving his views on the matter of the forts: "It is scarcely to be doubted that for political reasons the U.S. govt, will avoid making an attack so long as the hope of retaining the border states remains. 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. The case of Pensacola then is reduced to the more palpable elements of a military problem, and your measures may without disturbing views be directed to the capture of Fort Pickins and the defense of the harbor." (Letter of Davis to Bragg, April 3, 1861, marked "unofficial"; in the Palmer Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society.) This letter is especially interesting in view of the charge that Lincoln plotted darkly to "provoke" the Confederacy into starting a war which it otherwise would not have fought
4. The Circle of Fire
1. Letter of Chesley D. Evans to Mrs. Evans, March 31, 1861,
in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Caro-
lina.
2. B. & L., Vol. I, 56; O.R., Vol. I, 237-38, 273.
Benson J. Lossing, "Mem. of Visit of Mrs. Anderson to Fort Sumter," in the Goodyear Collection at Yale.
Letter of Anderson to Beauregard, March 26, 1861, in the Goodyear Collection.
Unsigned article, "Charleston Under Arms," in the Atlantic Monthly for January 1861, 488-96.
Fox to Gen. Crawford, May 10, 1882, in the Goodyear Collection.
7. O.R., Vol. I, 294.
Letter of Beauregard to Maj. J. G. Barnard, March 18, 1861, in Letterbook No. 3, the Beauregard Papers, Library of Congress.
Edward McPherson, The Political History of the United States of America During the Great Rebellion, 112; Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Diary, 21-22.
10. O.R., Vol. I, 13; Crawford, 422.
11. O.R., loc cit; Crawford, 423-24. In the Houghton Library
at Harvard University, in the papers of the Massachusetts Com-
mandery, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United
States, there are three notebooks bearing the penciled record of
hearings held in the fall of 1865 on Major Anderson's illness and
retirement. They contain Anderson's testimony on the bombard-
ment of Fort Sumter, and have been consulted extensively in the
preparation of this chapter. Anderson testifies here that he made the remark about being starved out "jocosely."
12. O.R., Vol. I, 299, 301.
The text of Major Anderson's reply is in O.R., Vol. I, 14. There is a copy of the report of Col. A. R. Chisholm in the Palmer Collection of the Western Reserve Historical Society. In his testimony before the retirement board, Major Anderson said he suspected that Beauregard "wanted to tie my hands" by stipulating that the major should not open fire prior to the evacuation of the fort. It may be worth noting that Major Anderson's reply, and the decision to open fire, were not referred to the Confederate government. On April 12, after the bombardment had been going on for hours, Secretary of War Walker wired Beauregard: "What was Major Anderson's reply to the proposition in my dispatch of last night?" Beauregard wired back. "He would not consent. I write today." (O.R., Vol. I, 305.)
Stephen D. Lee, The First Step in the War, B. & L., Vol. I, 76. A typed booklet containing portions of his diary bearing on the events of this night is in the Stephen Dill Lee Papers, Southern Historical Collection. At the retirement hearing Major Anderson said he carefully checked his watch with the watches of the Confederates and told them: "Well, Gentlemen, at half past four you will open your fire upon me. Good morning."
B. & L., Vol. I, 76; Martin Abbott, The First Shot at Fort Sumter, Civil War History, Vol. HI, No. I; Robert Lebby, The First Shot on Fort Sumter, The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Review, Vol. XII, No. 3, 143-45; D. Augustus Dickert, History of Kershaw's Brigade, 24; Mrs. Chesnut's Diary, 35.
5. White Flag on a Sword
Wilmot Gibbes De Saussure, Order Book, in the Southern Historical Collection.
Diaries of Edmund Ruffln, Vol. IV, 797-98; Avery Craven, Edmund Ruffin, Southerner, 215-17, 219; Dickert, History of Kershaw's Brigade, 29.
3. Dickert, 17-21.
Major Anderson's testimony before the retirement board in the Massachusetts Commandery papers, Houghton Library.
The figures for the Fort Sumter garrison are Major Anderson's; a return dated April 4, 1861, in the Anderson Papers, Library of Congress. Accuracy in regard to the Confederate figures is impossible. The Charleston Mercury on May 14, 1861, used the figure of 7000; Gov. Pickens, shortly before the battle, estimated Beauregard's strength at 6000 (O.R., Vol. I, 292); Rhodes, Vol. Ill, 355, quotes Russell of the London Times as putting the total at 7025. For a good description of Fort Sumter, see John Johnson. The Defense of Charleston Harbor, Including Fort Sumter and the Adjacent Islands, 17. The fort's guns are listed in the report of Capt. J. G. Foster, O.R., Vol. I, 18-19. See also B, & L., Vol. I, 58-60.
B. & L., Vol. I, 67-68.
Ibid, 69-70.
8. Major Anderson's testimony, Massachusetts Commandery pa-
pers, Houghton Library; B. & L., Vol. I, 71.
9. Fox's report, N.O.R., Vol. IV, 249.
10. Ibid, 249-50.
Major Anderson gives a graphic account of all of this— with due emphasis on the role of Sergeant Hart—in his testimony in the Massachusetts Commandery papers.
Diary in the Stephen Dill Lee Papers, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
Report of Capt. J. G. Foster, O.R., Vol. I, 22-24; Crawford, 441-42; B. & L., Vol. I, 71-73. Russell gives a fine picture of the ineffable Wigfall in My Diary North and South, 46.
Crawford, 446-47; diary in the Stephen Dill Lee Papers; Charleston Daily Courier, April 15, 1861; Miss A. Fletcher, Within Fort Sumter, 64-66.
6. The Coming of the Fury
Letter of W. S. Rosecrans to Gen. Marcus J. Wright, March 1, 1892, in the Eldridge Collection, Huntington Library.
George Ticknor, Life, Letters and Journals of George Tick-nor, Vol. II, 433; John B. McMaster, A History of the People of the United States During Lincoln's Administration, 35; Russell, My Diary North and South, 41-42.
John Hay, Lincoln and the Civil War, 14; McPherson, Political History of the United States, 114; Carl Schurz, The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, Vol. II, 223; Russell, 42.
Nicolay & Hay, Vol. TV, 71; Basler, Vol. IV, 330.
Basler, Vol. IV, 331-32.
6. Nicolay & Hay, Vol. IV, 80-84; letter of Congressman George
Ashmun to Isaac N. Arnold, printed in the Cincinnati Daily Com-
mercial, Oct. 28, 1864. Ashmun was present when Lincoln and
Douglas had their talk, and he wrote a clear and complete ac-
count of it.
7. Mrs. D. Geraud Wright, A Southern Girl in '61, 52-53. The
author, a daughter of Senator WigfaU, quotes from a letter writ-
ten by a friend in Providence, R.I.
8. McMaster, Lincoln, op cit, 35.
9. For the replies of the governors, see O.R., Series Three, Vol.
Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, 735; Moore's Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Documents, 70; letter of W. C. Rives to Robert C. Winthrop, April 19, 1861, in the Robert C. Winthrop Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
O.R., Vol. II, 3-4; John D. Imboden, Jackson at Harper's Ferry in 1861, in B. & L., Vol. I, 111-18; Charlotte Judd Fair-barn, "Historic Harpers Ferry," pamphlet, 41-42.
Douglas Southall Freeman, Robert E. Lee, in D.A.B., Vol. XI, 122; diary of Cornelius Walker, D.D., entry for April 15, 1861, in the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, Richmond.
Capt. Robert E. Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, 24-28; letter of Mrs. Lee to Mrs. G. W. Peter, written apparently in April, 1861, on deposit in the Maryland Historical Society. Lee's account of his talks with Blair and Scott is set forth in memoranda by Col. William Allan, who discussed the matter with Lee in 1868 and 1870, in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina.
14. Ticknor, op cit, 434.
Chapter Six: THE WAY OF REVOLUTION 1. Homemade War
Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, Vol. I, 89, 93, 114-15; N.O.R., Series Two, Vol. IH, 191-95; R. Barnwell Rhett, The Confederate Government at Montgomery, B. & L., Vol. I, 109-10.
Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, Vol. I, 160-69.
Varina Howell Davis, Jefferson Davis: a Memoir, Vol. n, 80; Basler, Vol. JV, 345.
O.R., Series Three, Vol. I, 79-80; Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1861, 444.
5. Nicolay & Hay, Vol. IV, 105; O.R., Vol. II, 577; George
William Brown, Baltimore and the Nineteenth of April, 1861, 43.
Brown was mayor of Baltimore at the time and he says that
notice of the coming of the troops was "purposely withheld" from
the city authorities. Two days before the Baltimore riot, General
Scott and Secretary of War Cameron sent an unidentified agent
north to speed the dispatch of troops and to take measures to
safeguard Washington's railroad connections, which, the agent
