Jefferson Davis to Franklin Pierce, January 20, 1861

“Mississippi, not as a matter of choice but of necessity, has resolved to enter on the trial of secession.  Those who have driven her to this alternative threaten to deprive her of the right to require that her government shall rest on the consent of the governed, to substitute foreign force for domestic support, to reduce a state to the condition from which the colony arose.  In the attempt to avoid the issue which has been joined by the country, the present administration has complicated and precipitated the question.  Even now if the duty ‘to preserve the public property’ was rationally regarded, the probable collision at Charleston would be avoided.  Security far better than any which the federal troops can give might be obtained in consideration of the little garrison at Fort Sumter.  If the disavowal of any purpose to coerce So. Ca. be sincere, the possession of a work to command the harbor is worse than useless.” [Jefferson Davis to Franklin Pierce, “Some Papers of Franklin Pierce, 1852-1662,” American Historical Review 10 (1909): 366]

Anderson Moved His Command to Fort Sumter

Major Robert Anderson, commander of United States forces in Charleston Harbor, moved his entire command, under cover of twilight darkness to Fort Sumter, 150 years ago tonight.  There, he hoped, he could keep his command secure from the growing Charlestonian mobs.  

He thought, hoped, and prayed this move might also give the entire country some breathing room.

Had President Buchanan supported Anderson fully, Civil War might very well have been averted.  

Such, of course, was not the case.

At a little after 8pm, Major Anderson wrote to his wife: “Thanks be to God.  I give them with my whole heart for His having given me the will, and shewn me the way to bring my command to this Fort.  I can now breathe freely.  The whole force of S. Carolina would not venture to attack us.  Our crossing was accomplished between six and eight o’clock.  I am satisfied that there was no suspicion of what we were going to do.  I have no doubt that the news of what I have done will be telegraphed to New York this night.  We saw the signal rockets thrown up all around just as our last boat came over.  I have not time to write more—as I must make my report to the Ad. Genl. . . . Praise be to God for His merciful kindness to us.  I think that the whole country North and South should thank Him for this step.” [quoted in Lawton, Major Robert Anderson (1911), 8-9]

Doubleday Concerned

One hundred fifty years ago today, New Yorker and Army Captain, Abner Doubleday, sat concerned in Charleston, South Carolina.  


Only three days earlier, South Carolina had declared itself independent from the American Union.  One could find federal property throughout and around the city (forts, treasuries, armories, etc.), and Doubleday wondered what the hapless Pennsylvania Democrat and dough face occupying the White House might do about it.


The declaration of independence and secession was clear enough.

AN ORDINANCE to dissolve the union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled "The Constitution of the United States of America." We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the ordinance adopted by us in convention on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified, and also all acts and parts of acts of the General Assembly of this State ratifying amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the "United States of America," is hereby dissolved.  Done at Charleston the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty. 

Simple enough to state; extremely difficult to make real.


As Doubleday recorded in his memoirs, writing as a Unionist and self-proclaimed "Black Republican," in the heart of secession, “This dallying with treason in the Cabinet was one of the most discouraging signs of the times. . . . It was plain enough, from demonstrations already made, that . . . the rebels would seize the fort, and turn its powerful armament upon us.  There was no one there to resist them.” [D-day, Reminiscences, 57]