150 Years Ago -- Confederate Generals Confirmed

There had been few full generals in American history -- George Washington was a rare exception -- but on Saturday, August 31, 1861, the Confederate Congress confirmed five full generals who had been appointed by President Jefferson Davis.

The five, in order of seniority, were Samuel Cooper, Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert Edward Lee, Joseph Eggleston Johnston and Pierre Gustav Toutant Beauregard.

The appointments would cause some animosity between Davis and Joe Johnston.  Confederate law stated that generals of identical commissions would have seniority according to the rank they had held in the U.S. Army.  Johnston, who had held the rank of brigadier general in the old Army, was insulted to discover that he was now ranked fourth behind men who had been colonels in the U.S. Army.

In Davis's opinion, the determining factor was line commissions versus staff commissions.  Johnston had held a staff position.  Johnston was angered to discover that the three men who outranked him were all close friends of Davis.

Johnston, on September 12, would write a lengthy, passionate letter, "my earnest protest against the wrong which I conceive has been done me."  Davis dismissed it with a two-sentence reply:  "Sir:  I have just received and read your letter of the 12th instant.  Its language is, as you say, unusual; its arguments and its statements utterly one-sided, and its insinuations as unfounded as they are unbecoming."

150 Years Ago: The Battle of Bull Run

Image by BattlefieldPortraits.com via Flickr

Continued from yesterday's post...

On Sunday, July 21, 1861, the Battle of Bull Run took place in northern Virginia.  Union General Irvin McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia moved out of its Washington entrenchments and marched south to confront General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army just south of Centreville.

Because it was a Sunday, there was a big crowd of sightseers who had driven down from Washington for the day.  There were a few congressmen and senators in the crowd, and even some Union officers who had somehow gotten separated from their men.  They narrated the action for the civilians in attendance.


Beauregard's line stretched along the south side of a stream called Bull Run.  The left of the line guarded a stone bridge where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed the stream.  Far to the east, the right side of the line guarded the Orange and Alexandria Railroad bridge.  Here and there along the line, masses of men guarded the fords, the few places where you could get to the stream to cross it.

McDowell's plan was to move off to his right, to the west, and cross Bull Run upstream at Sudley Springs Ford, far to the left of the Confederate line.  He would then move back to the east and strike the Confederate left flank, hopefully rolling it up and smashing the Rebel army.

Unbeknownst to McDowell though was that General Joseph E. Johnston's army from the Shenandoah Valley had broken free of the Union army confronting it there and had hurried east to link up with Beauregard's army, evening up the odds.  Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah had been coming in for the past two days and was still coming in while the battle was raging.

One thing that was working in McDowell's favor was that Beauregard had planned an attack on the enemy's left flank as well.  To that end, he had the majority of his army on his right side, far away from McDowell's point of attack.

Union General Irvin McDowell had his army in motion by 2:30 a.m. on the 21st.  Some 5000 men were held in Centreville in reserve.  Some were sent to the fords and the stone bridge to make warlike moves, keeping the Confederates focused here instead of upstream where McDowell's main thrust, 14,000 men, would come.

The advance was as bad as the one that had put the army in Centreville, the one that took two and a half days to go 22 miles.  The green troops were still having trouble marching, and there was a lot of starting and stopping, missed directions, snarls and bottlenecks.  It took until 11 a.m. to get the entire flanking force across the stream.

Meanwhile, General Tyler's men moved up close to the stone bridge and opened fire with his artillery.  Historian Bruce Catton describes this as "a slow, desultory cannonade which did little more than announce that the Yankees had got up early."  One consequence of this action though was that a shell ripped through the tent where a young staff officer, Captain Edward Porter Alexander, was sleeping.  Alexander was up quickly and scouted around until he discovered McDowell's flanking attack.

Alexander notified Colonel Nathan "Shanks" Evans, who commanded the extreme left of the Confederate line.  Evans had two small regiments, some cavalry and artillery, about 1100 men in all.  He left four companies to watch the stone bridge and took the rest of his men north.  Around 9 a.m. they were waiting in an open field north of the bridge.  When the Federal column appeared, they opened fire and the battle was underway.

McDowell's officers could never quite get the attack going right.  Instead of a heavy blow, the attack was an uncoordinated series of light taps.  It was proving quite difficult to get the green soldiers from a long marching column of fours into a fighting line four regiments wide.  Evans was badly outnumbered, but holding his own.

But the Union attack gained some momentum.  McDowell finally had his entire flanking force across at Sudley Springs Ford and enough units were getting into the fight now to cut up Evans's regiments.  Evans sent back desperate appeals for help and Barnard Bee's brigade joined the fight.

McDowell sent word to Tyler at the stone bridge to make more of a fight there.  Tyler sent William Tecumah Sherman's brigade forward.  They waded across Bull Run north of the bridge and joined the attack against Evans and Bee and pushed them back south of the turnpike, across a muddy creek, and up an imposing hill.  It was named for the Henry family who had a farmhouse on the crest.
 
Over on the right, the Confederate commander, now Johnston who outranked Beauregard, recognized what was going on and began shuffling more troops to the left.  But it would take some effort for Johnston, even with Beauregard's help, to realign his entire army in the midst of the battle.

Wade Hampton and Francis Bartow added their men to the Confederate forces and the battle suddenly boiled down to a struggle for Henry House Hill.  Evans's brigade was shattered, Bee's was falling back, and Bartow was trying to rally his Georgians when he was shot dead.  Beauregard was suddenly there, rallying the line.  A shell exploded nearby, killing his horse, but he was unhurt.  They just had to hold on until Johnston could get fresh troops up.

Map:  Morning, July 21, 1861

Then, Thomas Jackson's brigade deployed in a line just past the crest of the Henry House Hill.  Jackson had found the perfect place for a defensive line.  His fresh troops waited for the Yankee onslaught.  Bee, his regiments now in almost complete disarray, rode back to Jackson and said, "General, they are beating us back."  Jackson replied, "Sir, we will give them the bayonet."  Bee rode back to what was left of his unit, gestured at Jackson's brigade, and yelled, "Look!  There is Jackson standing like a stone wall!  Rally behind the Virginians!"

That was it for Bee.  A bullet struck him in the abdomen, mortally wounding him, but the name would live on.  From then on, Jackson would be known as Stonewall and the men with him on Henry House Hill would be the Stonewall Brigade.

A mixup in uniforms affected the outcome of the battle.  McDowell sent two regular artillery batteries forward.  These commanders, Captains J. B. Ricketts and Charles Griffin, got ahead of the infantry and were exposed to deadly musket fire, but were blowing Jackson's line apart.  One of their shots went through the Henry house, killing 84-year-old Judith Henry, who was a helpless invalid in one of the bedrooms.  These gunners saw some men in blue approaching.  Thinking it was infantry help they had requested, they held their fire.  The men were from the 33rd Virginia of Jackson's brigade.  They opened fire and a Union officer who witnessed it from afar wrote later that "it seemed as though every man and horse of that battery just laid right down and died right off."

But as mid-afternoon approached, it seemed that the Union army might win the day.  The breakthrough was imminent.  Johnston and Beauregard had called in every available man.  But the Union attack had lost all cohesion -- the units had broken down with officers separated from the men and stragglers heading for the rear.

The turning point came around 4 p.m., when the last of the fresh Confederate troops plunged into the battle.  Jubal Early's brigade from the right and Edmund Kirby Smith's brigade, the last of Johnston's men from the Shenandoah Valley, fresh off the train joined Jackson's line.  Beauregard launched a counterattack.

The three-month men in McDowell's army decided they had had enough and began to fall back.  It was orderly at first with pockets of resistance, but suddenly the whole Federal army was in retreat, heading back across the bridges and fords of Bull Run.

The civilian onlookers got caught up in the retreat back to Centreville.  At a bridge over a creek called Cub Run, a Confederate shell arced in and wrecked a wagon, blocking the bridge and adding to the panic and confusion.

From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton...

"The bridge was blocked. Drivers on the Centreville side of it whipped up their horses to get out of danger, and the drivers on the Bull Run side incontinently did the same, getting guns and wagons and carriages into a complete tangle, with horses rearing and kicking, teamsters swearing, ladies from Washington beginning to scream, the press of civilian vehicles constantly feeding in new elements which killed any faint hope that this traffic jam could be resolved. Some carriages trundled down to the little stream, lurched up on the far side, and made off for Washington as fast as maddened horses could take them. Here and there a mounted officer took fire along with all the rest and tried to ride through everything at a bucketing gallop. People who were on foot began to run, cavalry was coming up to kill and maim -- and, all at once, utter panic descended on everybody in sight.

The great drifting mass of fugitive soldiers, already out from under what little discipline they had ever known, moved faster and faster and became a wild, frantic, scrambling mob which generated its own unendurable pressure. Teamsters cut their horses loose and scrambled on their backs to ride to safety, leaving guns, caissons, and military supplies for anyone who cared to pick them up. Ambulances carrying wounded men to hospitals were left by the roadside. Soldiers who had thought they were too exhausted to do more than put one heavy foot in front of another found they could run very nimbly, and they dropped whatever they were carrying -- muskets, haversacks, canteens, anything -- so that they could run even faster. It was gabbled up and down the wild rout that armed Rebels were close behind; for some odd reason, the pursuing Confederates, believed to be as ruthless as Cossacks, were all thought to be riding black horses and frightened men were forever shouting: "Black horse cavalry! Black horse cavalry!"

The 22-mile trip that had taken two and a half days one way took less than a day the other way. McDowell still had a reserve force in Centreville and hoped to form a line there. Around 6 p.m., he wired Washington to say that he had been driven from the battlefield and "we have now to hold Centreville until our men can get behind it." The men got behind Centreville and kept going. McDowell later wired to say, "The larger part of the men are a confused mob, entirely demoralized. It was the opinion of all the commanders that no stand could be made this side of the Potomac." Even later, after another attempt to regroup at Fairfax Court House failed, McDowell admitted, "Many of the volunteers did not wait for authority to proceed to the Potomac but left on their own decision."

Map:  July 21, 4 p.m. to dusk

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150 Years Ago: The Eve of the Big Battle

Image via Wikipedia

Saturday, July 20, 1861, was the eve of the largest battle to this point in the Civil War, the Battle of Bull Run.

The firing on Fort Sumter and President Lincoln's war proclamation was three months ago, in April, and so far there had not been a lot of action.  Many people, in the North and the South, thought this would be a short, limited war.  One decisive battle would show those damned Yankees (or Rebels, depending on your side) a thing or two, and then all this foolishness would be over.

It just seemed logical that the big battle would take place in northern Virginia between the two capitals, Washington and Richmond, and public opinion on both sides was pushing for the battle to happen soon.  "Forward to Richmond" screamed banner headlines in the North.  Now wasn't soon enough.  Many had hoped that Richmond could be taken by today, July 20, when the Confederate Congress would be convening in their new capital for the first time.

Union General Irvin McDowell had been pushed into this battle.  McDowell knew his army wasn't ready to fight.  The belief that the war would be a quick one had led Lincoln, when he proclaimed war and called for 75,000 militia immediately after Fort Sumter, to sign these initial recruits to three-month enlistments.  Now the three months was ending and the enlistments were expiring and many men in McDowell's army would be going home soon.

New recruits were pouring in to replace them, but it would take time to train them and organize them.  The three-month men weren't even trained properly.  Most of the officers, including McDowell himself, had never led troops in battle.

In late June, McDowell had submitted a plan of operations to the War Department.  He had stayed away from the grandiose plan of taking Richmond and concentrated on the Confederate army in his front.  He estimated that P. G. T. Beauregard had 25,000 men (he actually had closer to 20,000) amassed near Manassas Junction behind a stream called Bull Run, and that was as far as McDowell planned to go for the immediate future.

Two other armies, both called the Army of the Shenandoah, complicated the picture.  The Union Army of the Shenandoah, led by Robert Patterson, faced General Joseph E. Johnston's Confederate Army of the Shenandoah.  McDowell's plan called for Patterson to keep Johnston busy so that he could not rush to Beauregard's aid.

Map: July 1861 -- The Bull Run Campaign Overview

McDowell was ordered to begin his advance on July 9, but that wasn't much time and delays were inevitable.  And McDowell was pushing for more time, knowing that his army was not ready for a fight, until Lincoln finally told him, "You are green, it is true; but they are green, also; you are all green alike."  McDowell began his advance a week late.  

Over in the Shenandoah Valley, Patterson was facing the same problem as McDowell with three-month men in his army whose enlistments were ending.  Patterson had also been given vague orders -- he wasn't sure if he was supposed to attack Johnston or just maneuver against him.  Johnston sent his cavalry, led by J. E. B. Stuart, to harass and confuse him, and Patterson maneuvered himself out of the campaign, settling in Charlestown, twenty miles away from the nearest Confederates, where he reported that "it would be ruinous to advance, or even to stay here, without immediate increase of force."  Johnston marched his men to the Manassas Gap Railroad line and began shuffling them east to Beauregard.

That would not have mattered if McDowell had advanced quickly.  He could have dealt with Beauregard's army before Johnston arrived, but his worst fears about his army were realized when they began to move.  The line of advance crept forward with the men spending more time standing around than marching.  Marching for miles with full packs in the hot July sun was beginning to seem much more complicated than marching around a parade ground.

When McDowell's army finally reached Centreville, just two or three miles from the Rebel position, they had eaten all their rations.  McDowell paused for two more days to get his wagon trains and the rest of his army up, and all the while, more and more of Johnston's army was linking up with Beauregard's.

McDowell and his officers had also been spending the time doing reconnaissance of the Confederate position.  Their line on the south side of Bull Run stretched from the stone bridge on the left where the Warrenton Turnpike crossed the stream to the Orange and Alexandria Railroad bridge on the right.  A reconnaissance-in-force on Blackburn's Ford in the center of the Confederate line was repulsed on July 18, convincing McDowell to try a flanking attack.  He would take a substantial part of his force to the right, around the Confederate left, crossing Bull Run upstream at Sudley Springs Ford.

Map:  July 18, 1861 -- The Confederate line, the Union army concentrating at Centreville, the recon and skirmish at Blackburn's Ford

In fact, both commanders would plan attacks on the other's left.  Beauregard had a grand Napoleonic plan to mass his men on his right and wheel them around to catch McDowell in the left flank.  The plan didn't have much hope of success with his green army, but it didn't matter.  McDowell would beat Beauregard to the punch and catch Beauregard with most of his men massed far away from the point of attack.

McDowell began getting his men into motion after dark.  They would all be moving by 2:30 a.m., July 21.

150 Years Ago: Movements and Proclamations

There would be a battle around Bull Run in the area around Manassas Junction soon, but on July 19, 1861, Union General Irvin McDowell was concerned about concentrating his army around Centreville, Virginia, and feeding them.

The Army of Northeastern Virginia had marched from the environs of Washington to within just a couple of miles of General P. G. T. Beauregard's position behind Bull Run, but the 22-mile march had taken two and a half days.  The green troops led by green commanders had marched so slowly that they had eaten all their rations and now McDowell was waiting for wagon trains to resupply them.  The line had also strung out through the north Virginia countryside, and McDowell would have to wait another couple of days for all the stragglers to catch up.

Out in the Shenandoah Valley, Union General Robert Patterson had maneuvered himself completely out of the action, leaving General Joe Johnston free to take his army out of the valley and link up with Beauregard's army at Manassas.  Johnston marched south, then took the Manassas Gap Railroad straight to Beauregard.  Some of his troops were already arriving at Manassas Junction, but some would still be arriving as the battle was raging on July 21.

After yesterday's reconnaissance-in-force at Blackburn's Ford had been repulsed, McDowell was considering a flanking move around the Confederate left.


Also on this date, in western Virginia, Union General George McClellan issued a proclamation praising his army for their recent victories:

Headquarters army of Occupation, Western Virginia, Beverly, Va., July 19, 1861.
soldiers of the army of the West:
I am more than satisfied with you. You have annihilated two armies, commanded by educated and experienced soldiers, intrenched in mountain fastnesses and fortified at their leisure. You have taken five guns, twelve colors, fifteen hundred stand of arms, one thousand prisoners, including more than forty officers. One of the second commanders of the rebels is a prisoner, the other lost his life on the field of battle. You have killed more than two hundred and fifty of the enemy, who has lost all his baggage and camp equipage. All this has been accomplished with the loss of twenty brave men killed and sixty wounded on your part.

You have proved that Union men, fighting for the preservation of our Government, are more than a match for our misguided and erring brothers. More than this, you have shown mercy to the vanquished. You have made long and arduous marches, with insufficient food, frequently exposed to the inclemency of the weather. I have not hesitated to demand this of you, feeling that I could rely on your endurance, patriotism, and courage. In the future I may have still greater demands to make upon you, still greater sacrifices for you to offer. It shall be my care to provide for you to the extent of my ability; but I know now that, by your valor and endurance, you will accomplish all that is asked.

Soldiers! I have confidence in you, and I trust you have learned to confide in me. Remember that discipline and subordination are qualities of equal value with courage. I am proud to say that you have gained the highest reward that American troops can receive — the thanks of Congress and the applause of your fellow-citizens.

Geo. B. Mcclellan, Major-General.

Union General John Pope issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of northern Missouri:

St. Charles, Mo., July 19, 1861.
To the People of North Missouri:
By virtue of proper authority, I have assumed the command in North Missouri. I appear among you with force strong enough to maintain the authority of the Government, and too strong to be resisted by any means in your possession usual in warfare. Upon your own assurances that you would respect the laws of the United States and preserve peace, no troops have hitherto been sent into your section of the country. The occurrences of the last ten days have plainly exhibited that you lack either the power or the inclination to fulfil your pledges, and the Government, has, therefore, found it necessary to occupy North Missouri with a force large enough to compel obedience to the laws. So soon as it is made manifest that you will respect its authority and put down unlawful combinations against it, you will be relieved of the presence of the forces under my command, but not till then.

I, therefore, warn all persons taken in arms against the Federal authority, who attempt to commit depredation upon public or private property, or who molest unoffending and peaceful citizens, that they will be dealt with in the most summary manner, without awaiting civil process.

Jno. Pope, Brigadier.General U. S. A., Commanding.

 

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Armies: The Army of the Potomac (CSA)

The Confederate Army of the Potomac was short-lived.  It merged with the Army of the Shenandoah during the First Battle of Bull Run, and eventually became the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.

The army began as state troops mobilized along an "Alexandria line," a long front stretching across northern Virginia from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake bay.  These troops were organized and Brigadier General Milledge Bonham was placed in command.  He was soon replaced with General P. G. T. Beauregard, who was tasked with organizing and training the raw troops from throughout the South and planning a response to the Northern invasion around Alexandria.

In July 1861, Beauregard had some 20,000 troops massed around Manassas Junction behind a sluggish stream called Bull Run.  They were organized into eight brigades with artillery and cavalry support.  The brigades were commanded by Bonham, Richard Ewell, David Jones, James Longstreet, Philip St. George Cocke, Jubal Early, and Nathan Evans.  Theophilus Holmes commanded the reserve brigade. 

Union General Irvin McDowell was advancing with some 35,000 troops, the Army of Northeastern Virginia.  Beauregard needed General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Shenandoah, some 12,000 men, to even up the odds with McDowell.

Johnston slipped away from the Shenandoah Valley and joined up with Beauregard.  The two armies linked up on the Bull Run battlefield, with some of Johnston's army arriving as the battle was raging.  Johnston outranked Beauregard, but mostly deferred to Beauregard's arrangements and plans for the upcoming battle.  After the Confederate victory, the merger of the two armies was made permanent.

On October 22, 1861, the Department of Northern Virginia was created with Johnston commanding.  It combined the District of the Potomac (Beauregard), the Valley District (Jackson), and the Aquia District (Holmes), and officially ended the Army of the Potomac.  Beauregard's original army would comprise the First Corps of this new army, which would eventually become known as the Army of Northern Virginia.  Johnson commanded until he was seriously wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, and was replaced by General Robert E. Lee.

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150 Years Ago: Developments in the Bull Run Campaign

On July 17, 1861, the advance guard of Union General Irvin McDowell's Army of Northeastern Virginia occupied Fairfax Court House, Virginia, on its way toward its encounter with P. G. T. Beauregard's Army of the Potomac at Manassas.  Meanwhile, over in the Shenandoah Valley, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston began to move away from the Union army in his front, that of General Robert Patterson, to make his way to Manassas to link up with Beauregard.

At Fairfax Court House, advance elements of McDowell's army occupied the town without incident.  The Confederates, the advance units of Beauregard's army, evacuated the town just prior to the Federals arrival, leaving behind a quantity of supplies, and settled in just south of the town.  Federal cavalry ran them off, but the infantry was too tired to take up the chase.

Beauregard had asked for help.  He needed Johnston's army in the Shenandoah Valley to join up with him to even up the odds against McDowell for the impending battle at Manassas.  Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered Johnston to move over to Manassas, and Johnston began on this day.

Johnston had to break away from Patterson's Union army in his front, but that was no problem.  J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry was keeping Patterson busy, and Patterson, in violation of his vague orders to contain Johnston, had moved over to Charles Town instead of advancing directly on the Confederate position.  Johnston moved his troops to the nearest railhead and began moving them to Manassas Junction.

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150 Years Ago: The Bull Run Campaign

Image of Irvin McDowell via Wikipedia

On July 16, 1861, the Bull Run campaign began when Union General Irvin McDowell moved his Army of Northeastern Virginia out of Washington area, southeast into Virginia toward General P. G. T. Beauregard's Confederate Army of the Potomac.  The advance would lead to the first major battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run, on July 21.

McDowell's army was the largest ever assembled in American history to that point, some 35,000 men.  Facing him, Beauregard had 20,000 encamped at Manassas Junction behind a small stream called Bull Run.

Two other armies complicated the campaign.  Union General Robert Patterson's Army of the Shenandoah had crossed the Potomac and moved south to confront General Joseph E. Johnston's army, also known as the Army of the Shenandoah.  Patterson's vague orders called for him to keep Johnston busy in the Shenandoah Valley and prevent him from moving east and reinforcing Beauregard.  If Joe Johnston could reach Beauregard with his 12,000 men, the odds would be a lot more even.

McDowell was being pushed into a battle that he didn't think his army was ready for.  He wanted more time to organize and train them, but he was under intense time constraints.  Almost everyone, North and South, thought this would be a short war.  The Northern public especially was clamoring for an advance on Richmond and a decisive battle that would win the war.

Another time constraint:  McDowell's army (and Patterson's too) would soon be unraveling.  A product of the belief in a short war, the first wave of Union volunteers after the firing on Fort Sumter were signed to three-month enlistments.  Now the three months was almost up.  If McDowell was going to use this army, he would have to do it soon.

McDowell wanted more time, expressing the need for more training for this still green army.  Lincoln had tried to reassure him, saying, "You are green, it is true, but they are green also; you are all green alike."  This was true enough, but the Confederates weren't having to make a grueling march to get to the battle.  Lincoln had directed McDowell to move out by July 9.  Arrangements had taken longer than expected, but McDowell was finally on the road a week late.

And as McDowell was beginning to move, Johnston was parrying with Patterson in the valley, sending J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry against Patterson's advance units and forcing the old general to sit this one out.  Johnson would soon slip away, but would not reach Beauregard until July 20-21.

McDowell should have had enough time to reach Beauregard and give battle before Johnston showed up, but his misgivings about his army would be realized as soon as they were on the move.

The advance was a mess.  The men had never marched in formation for hours in July heat with full gear, and officers had never led men in a long march.  It was a vastly different experience than marching for an hour or so around a parade ground.  Bottlenecks and long halts quickly developed.  By the evening of the 16th, McDowell's advance was in Fairfax Court House, where they drove off enemy skirmishers and made camp.  The next day, the troops were exhausted and could only cover six miles.  It took until July 18 for the advance to reach Centreville, close to the Confederate position, and would take another two days for McDowell to get the rest of his army up.  He would finally be ready for an attack on July 21.

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150 Years Ago: McDowell's Plan

Image via Wikipedia

On June 29, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln called his cabinet and military advisers to the White House to evaluate the plan General Irvin McDowell had recently submitted to the War Department for attacking the Confederate army at Manassas Junction.

McDowell commanded the Department of Northeastern Virginia, with headquarters at Arlington in what had until recently been the home of Robert E. Lee.  Although he was a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Army, McDowell had never led troops in combat.

McDowell worried that his army of green troops was not ready for battle, but he was beginning to feel enormous political pressure.  "Forward to Richmond" would soon be a ceaseless refrain; the people of the North were ready for action.  There was also a time constraint.  When Lincoln had called for 75,000 militia after Fort Sumter, most Americans -- North and South -- had envisioned a very short war.  The initial wave of recruits had been signed to three-month enlistments and they would soon begin expiring.

McDowell came up with a very solid plan.  With 30,000 men and another 10,000 in reserve, he would move south to confront General P. G. T. Beauregard's 24,000-man army at Manassas.  The key was to keep Beauregard from being reinforced by General Joseph E. Johnston's 11,000-man army in the Shenandoah Valley.  The Federal army along the upper Potomac, led by General Robert Patterson, would move south and engage with Johnston, keeping them busy while McDowell took care of Beauregard.

General-in-Chief Winfield Scott was the main dissenting voice.  He told Lincoln he "did not believe in a little war by piece-meal."  His plan for dealing with the rebellion, derisively labeled "the Anaconda Plan," involved blockading the Confederate coast and mounting a campaign down the Mississippi to cut the Confederacy in half.

But Scott's plan would take too long.  Much time would be needed to build up the naval forces and train the troops.  The president, the cabinet, and the public wanted action now.  Scott eventually withdrew his opposition and McDowell's plan was approved.  He was told to begin his advance on July 9.

150 Years Ago: Beauregard's Proclamation.

On Wednesday, June 5, 1861, General P. G. T. Beauregard, who was then concentrating his Army of Northern Virginia around Manassas, issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of the region:

HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF ALEXANDRIA,

CAMP PICKENS, June 5, 1861.

To the good people of the Counties of Lowtown, Fairfax and Prince William:

A reckless and unprincipled tyrant has invaded your soil ABRAHAM LINCOLN, regardless of all moral, legal and constitutional restraints, has thrown his Abolitionists among you, who are murdering and imprisoning your citizens, confiscating and destroying your property, and committing other acts of violence and out age too shocking and revolting to humanity to be enumerated. All rules of civilized warfare are abandoned, and they proclaim by their acts, if not on their banners, that their war-cry is "beauty and booty." All that is dear to man -- your honor, and that of your wives and daughters, your fortunes and your lives, are involved in this momentous contest.

In the name, therefore of the constituted authorities of the Confederate States -- in the sacred cause of constitutional liberty and self-government, for which we are contending -- in behalf of civilization and humanity itself. I, G.T. BEAUREGARD, Brigadier-General of the Confederate States, commanding at Camp Pickens, Manassas Junction, do make this my proclamation, and invite and enjoin you, by every consideration dear to the hearts of freemen and patriots, by the name and memory of your revolutionary fathers, and by the purity and sanctity of your domestic firesides, to rally to the standard of your State and country, and by every means in your power, compatible with honorable warfare, to drive back and excel the invaders from your land. I conjure you to be true and loyal to your country, and her legal and constitutional authorities, and especially to be vigilant of the movements and acts of the enemy, so as to enable you to give the earliest authentic information to those head-quarters, or to the officers under my command.

I desire to assure you that the utmost protection in my power will be extended to you all.

G.T. BEAUREGARD,

Brig.-Gen. Commanding.

150 Years Ago: Friday, May 31, 1861

On May 31, 1861, The Confederacy gave General P. G. T. Beauregard command of the "Alexandria Line," which includes all of northern Virginia.  He would be charged with defending the territory against invasion.  He would soon be fending off General Irwin McDowell's army at Manassas.

Out west, in Missouri, General Nathaniel Lyon was given command of all the Union troops in the state, replacing General William Harney.

Even further west, the Union evacuated some of the forts in the Indian Territory.  Most of those troops arrived in Leavenworth, Kansas, on this date.  The path they took would later be known as the Chisholm Trail, named after one of their guides, Jesse Chisholm.  After the war western ranchers would use the trail to get their cattle to the eastern markets.

150 Years Ago: A Final Ceremony at Fort Sumter

On Sunday, April 14, 1861, Major Robert Anderson's garrison evacuated Fort Sumter, relinquishing control of the fort to the Confederate authorities.  As per the terms of the surrender agreement made the previous day, Anderson was allowed to salute the U.S. flag and take his men and their personal property back to New York.

One of the large guns on the barbette began firing a 100-gun salute.  A burning ember landed on a pile of cartridges behind the piece causing a huge explosion.  During the 34-hour bombardment of the fort, some 4000 shells had been fired by both sides with no loss of life.  Now, during the surrender ceremony, Private Daniel Hough was killed and five others were wounded.  One of these, Private Edward Gallway, died a few days later in a Charleston hospital.  They were the first of over 600,000 men who would die during the war.  The salute was stopped at 50 shots.

Private Hough was buried at the fort with a company of South Carolina volunteers presenting arms and a Confederate naval chaplain conducting the service.

The U.S. flag was lowered and presented to Anderson.  Four years to the day later, on April 14, 1865, Anderson, then a major general but in ill health and in retired status, would return to the fort and hoist the same flag in a victory ceremony.

With the band playing "Yankee Doodle," the U.S. Army garrison marched to the wharf where they boarded transports that would take them to the U.S.S. Baltic, still outside the harbor, that would take them to New York.  Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard, South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens and other dignitaries made a formal inspection of the fort they had just captured.  They found it heavily damaged and estimated that it would cost at least $350,000 to make repairs.

In Washington, President Abraham Lincoln learned of the surrender of Fort Sumter and met with his cabinet and military advisers.  He also met with his political rival Stephen Douglas, and read to him the proclamation of war he would issue in the morning.  Douglas wholehearted approved of the proclamation and promised his full support, but advised him to call out 200,000 militia.  The Democratic Party would support the war.

From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton:

Dining with three cabinet members not long after the fall of Fort Sumter, Winfield Scott expressed complete confidence in Northern victory, but doubted that there would be an early end to the nation's troubles. For a long time to come, he said, it would require the exercise of all of the powers of government "to restrain the fury of the noncombatants."

This fury was an elemental force that swept through North and South in precisely the same way, and it was going across the land like a flame. It did not look like fury at first; it was wild, laughing, extravagant, armed with flags and music and the power of speech, groping insistently for heavier weapons. The coming of war had released it. Something unendurable had ended; the uncertainty and the doubt were gone, along with the need to examine mind and heart for unattainable answers, and a Boston merchant looked about him at the crowds, the waving banners, and the general jubilation and wrote: "The heather is on fire. I never before knew what a popular excitement can be." The London Times's Mr. Russell, stopping in North Carolina on his way to Charleston, saw the same thing -- "flushed faces, wild eyes, screaming mouths," with men shouting so stridently for Jefferson Davis and the Southern Confederacy (to which North Carolina had not yet attached itself) that the bands playing "Dixie" could not be heard. Men slapped strangers on the backs, women tossed bunches of flowers from windows, and in Richmond a crowd paraded to the Tredegar Iron Works under a Confederate flag, dragged a cannon to the steps of the state Capitol, and fired a salute. Some fundamental emotion had slipped the leash; it would control both President Lincoln and President Davis, and yet at the same time it was a force which the two men themselves would have to control in order to make war.

Dazzled by the overwhelming public response to the news that one flag had gone down and another had gone up, ordinarily sensible men gave way to uncritical vaporing. Youthful John Hay, the somewhat condescending ornament of the White House secretariat, looked at a company of untried Northern militia and wrote: "When men like these leave their horses, their women and their wine, harden their hands, eat crackers for dinner, wear a shirt for a week and never black their shoes -- all for a principle -- it is hard to set any bounds to the possibilities of such an army." Hard indeed; particularly so since exactly the same sort of men were doing exactly the same things in the South for a diametrically opposed principle, creating boundless possibilities of their own. Leroy Pope Walker, the Confederate Secretary of War, told a serenading crowd in Montgomery that the Confederate flag "will, before the first of May, float over the dome of the old capitol in Washington," and he went on to say that if Southern chivalry were pushed too far, the flag might eventually rise over Faneuil Hall in Boston. The eminent German-American Carl Schurz wrote admiringly that "millionaires' sons rushed to the colors by the side of laborers," and correspondent Russell noted that barefooted poor whites in the deepest South were whooping it up for Confederate independence as loyally as the wealthiest planters.

Through the fall and winter, events had seemed to move slowly, as if fate wanted to give men a chance to have second thoughts about what was being done. Now everything began to go with a rush, and what was done would be done for keeps.

Related articles

• 150 Years Ago: A Demand for Surrender (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)
• 150 Years Ago: WAR! (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)
• 150 Years Ago: Fort Sumter Surrenders (civilwarmeanderings.blogspot.com)

150 Years Ago: Fort Sumter Surrenders

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At 2:30 p.m., on Saturday, April 13, 1861, Major Robert Anderson, commanding the Union garrison at Fort Sumter, surrendered to Confederate officials, ending a 34-hour bombardment.

The attack on Fort Sumter began the previous day, April 12, at 4:30 a.m.  With a relief expedition on the way to the fort -- some of the ships were already hovering just outside the harbor -- General P. G. T. Beauregard demanded the surrender of the fort.  There were some exchanges back and forth, but, in the end, the Civil War would begin here with Beauregard demanding a surrender that Anderson could not give without a fight.

A signal gun was fired at 4:30 a.m. and then the Confederates batteries that surrounded Sumter began their bombardment.  The puzzling thing to them was that the Union garrison was not firing back.  Anderson kept his men under cover, out of harm's way until daylight.  Even then, there was not much that he could do.

Fort Sumter sat on a man-made granite island in the middle of Charleston harbor.  Its walls were forty feet high and five feet thick.  It was designed to hold three tiers of guns.  The lower two tiers were in casements -- each gun was fully protected by thick masonry and fired through a small gunport, an embrasure.  The third tier was around the top of the fort on the barbette, completely in the open.

Unfortunately for Anderson, only 48 guns had been mounted in the unfinished fort.  The second tier was empty.  The casement guns in the lower tier, though fully protected, were the weakest.  These were 32-pounders and 42-pounders that could only fire solid shot which was ineffective against any of the Confederate batteries that were firing at the fort.  Anderson's strongest guns, Columbiads and eight-inch howitzers, were those that were most exposed.

Anderson's garrison was woefully undermanned.  He had 128 men, including 43 civilians, and he couldn't afford to lose any of them.  His biggest worry then was that Beauregard might attempt to send out the infantry and try to storm the fort after dark.  Manning the guns on the barbette was out of the question.  Anderson's men hunkered down and stuck to the ineffective casement guns.

The barbette guns were loaded though and were used in two incidents.  First, a sergeant crept up to the barbette and fired every gun that was aimed at Fort Moultrie, then hurried back downstairs.  Later, two sergeants went up top and fired a ten-inch Columbiad at Cummings Point.  It was a near miss, so they reloaded and tried another shot even though they couldn't move the 7.5-ton gun back into the proper firing position.  The recoil blew the huge gun in a backward somersault and sent it crashing down the stairs.

An English Whitworth gun on Morris Island blew big hunks out of the southeast corner of the fort before it finally ran out of ammunition.  Shell and red-hot shot set the wooden barracks on fire, and fire-fighting details worked furiously in the choking smoke with shells bursting above them.

Just outside the harbor, Captain Gustavus Fox, the mastermind of the relief expedition, had arrived.  He was going to supply the fort and wanted an escort.  Commander Stephen Rowan of the Pawnee refused.  He had orders to wait for the Powhatan and didn't want to risk starting a war.  No one knew that the war had already begun or that the Powhatan was on its way to Pensacola.  When it finally became evident that the battle had begun, the decision was made to wait on the Powhatan, then force their way in.  In the end, the absence of the ship did not matter; the seas were too rough to enter the harbor.

That night, the Confederate bombardment slowed.  They lobbed a shell at the fort every few minutes though just to keep everyone on their toes.  When daylight came on the 13th, the Confederate bombardment increased again, and the situation in the fort quickly went from bad to worse.  Supplies were already low.  Now they were short of water.  The officers' quarters were destroyed.  Fires broke out again and the casements filled with smoke.

The end was a little farcical.  Sometime around noon the flagstaff was shot down.  Lieutenant G. W. Snyder and Sergeant Peter Hart improvised a new one and mounted it to a gun carriage on the barbette.  The Confederates saw the flag go down, and Beauregard sent an aide to the fort under a flag of truce to offer assistance.  This was a tactful way of suggesting that it might be time to surrender.  The aide, Captain Stephen Lee, accompanied by two civilians, Porcher Miles and Roger Pryor, set out for the fort.  When they saw the flag hoisted again, they turned to go back to the shore.  Then the flag was lowered and a white flag was hoisted in its place.  They hurried to the fort to see what was going on.

From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton:

"During the height of the contest, while Lieutenant Snyder and Sergeant Hart struggled to get the flag flying, and the gun crews stumbled through the smoke to maintain some sort of fire, a cannoneer in a lower-tier casement, going to the muzzle of his piece to reload, saw a strange fellow looking in the embrasure -- a burly civilian with a swarthy, piratical face, red sash and sword belt incongruously belted about his middle, a naked sword with white flag knotted about the blade gripped in one hand -- altogether a wholly improbable-looking figure.  This man announced that he was Colonel Wigfall, recently United States Senator from Texas, now an aide to General Beauregard; he wanted to see Major Anderson, and he wanted even more to get safely inside the fort because he was at the moment squarely in the line of Confederate fire -- 'Damn it, they are firing at me from Fort Moultrie.'  After a certain amount of discussion he was led to Major Anderson...Colonel Wigfall addressed the Federal commander with bluff heartiness:

"'Major Anderson, I come from General Beauregard. It is time to put a stop to this, sir. The flames are raging all around you and you have defended your flag gallantly. Will you evacuate, sir?'

"The major was ready to call it quits...Anderson said he would surrender on the terms originally proposed -- that he be allowed to salute his flag and then, with all the honors of war, take his men and their personal property back to New York. Wigfall said that this was a deal: 'Lower your flag, and the firing will cease. I will see General Beauregard and you military men will arrange all the terms.'...Down came the United States flag, and up went the white flag of surrender.

At this point Captain Lee and his two civilian companions got to the fort. Presented to Major Anderson, Lee said that Beauregard had sent them to offer assistance, if assistance happened to be needed, and to find out what all of this raising and lowering of flags meant. Anderson, puzzled, explained that he had just surrendered to Colonel Wigfall, whereupon his three visitors exchanged baffled looks; then they explained that although Wigfall did belong to Beauregard's staff, he had not seen the general for two days and had come to the fort strictly on his own hook. Anderson muttered: 'Gentlemen, this is a very awkward business,' which stated the case accurately; he had just surrendered to a man who had no authority either to demand or to receive a surrender. Anderson ordered the white flag hauled down and the national flag raised; the fighting would be resumed."

But it all worked out in the end.  Lee suggested a ceasefire until he could get in touch with Beauregard.  Anderson wrote out his understanding of the surrender terms he had made with Wigfall, and Lee hurried off to see Beauregard.  He returned a couple of hours later and the surrender was official.  The fighting was over, at least here in Charleston harbor.

150 Years Ago: WAR!

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At 4:30 a.m. on Friday, April 12, 1861, the Civil War began in the harbor at Charleston, South Carolina, when Confederate artillery opened fire on Fort Sumter.  The long, chaotic, bloody Civil War started in a very civilized, formal process.

Major Robert Anderson commanded a small garrison of U.S.Army troops at Fort Sumter, a tiny speck of federal authority in a state that had seceded and proclaimed itself a new republic.  Anderson's garrison was short of supplies, but they were on the way.  President Abraham Lincoln had finally decided to resupply the fort.

But first, Lincoln had written to South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens to inform him that he was sending provisions to the fort.  If the Confederates wanted to start a war by opposing the resupply expedition that was up to them.  Captain Gustavus Fox remarked later that it had seemed important to Lincoln that South Carolina should "should stand before the civilized world as having fired upon bread."

With the relief expedition on the way, orders went down the chain of command from the Confederate government in Montgomery, Alabama, to General P. G. T. Beauregard, the commander of the artillery forces arrayed against Fort Sumter.  Beauregard was to demand the fort's surrender; if refused, he was to reduce it.

On April 11, the previous day, Beauregard had written his demand for the fort's surrender and sent three aides by boat out to the middle of the harbor to present it to Anderson.  Anderson refused, writing out his own reply to give to Beauregard.  As the aides were leaving Fort Sumter, Anderson made the remark that he would be starved out within days.  Perhaps both sides could work something out to avert a war.  The aides included the remark in their report back to Beauregard.

The whole business went up the chain to Montgomery and back down to Beauregard again.  Could he get some assurance from Anderson as to when he might surrender.  The trio of aides, joined this time by Virginia Congressman Roger Pryor, went back out to the fort.  They arrived there just after midnight on April 12.  They met with Anderson, but did not get the unequivocal reply they needed.

Anderson would evacuate the fort on April 15 if the Confederates did not open fire sooner, or if they did not seem about to commit some hostile act, or if Anderson did not receive provisions or new instructions from his government.  The trio did not feel the need to go back to Beauregard to get his decision.  They conferred, and, within minutes, gave a formal reply to Anderson:

"By authority of Brigadier General Beauregard, commanding the 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."

It was just then 3:20 a.m.

Anderson walked the Southerners back out to the wharf, shook hands with them, and said, "If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next."

At 4:30 a.m., a few minutes late, a gun was fired at Fort Johnson, signaling the forts that ringed Charleston harbor to begin the bombardment of Fort Sumter.  There was much postwar argument about who had fired the first shot of the war, and if this signal gun shot counted.  Edmund Ruffin, one of the key leaders of the secession movement, fired one of the first shots of the war and sentimentally was credited with the honor by most.  Charleston residents turned out to watch the show and cheered as the fort was battered.  The bombardment would continue throughout the day and into the next one.  The Civil War had begun.

Also on this date, at Pensacola, Florida, U.S. troops aboard the Brooklyn were finally landed to reinforce Fort Pickens.  Braxton Bragg, commanding the Confederate forces there, could do nothing to stop the landings.  The fort was now safely in Union hands and would remain that way throughout the war.

150 Years Ago: A Demand for Surrender

On the morning of Thursday, April 11, 1860, the formal ritual to start the war got underway.

Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard had his orders.  He was to demand that Fort Sumter be evacuated.  If refused, he was to reduce it.  He composed his formal demand for the surrender of the fort and was finished by noon.  Three aides, Colonel James Chesnut, Captain Stephen D. Lee, and Lieutenant Colonel James A. Chisholm, were sent by boat to the fort to present it to Major Robert Anderson.

Beauregard's demand for surrender:

Sir: the Government of the Confederate States has hitherto foreborne from any hostile demonstration against Fort Sumter, in the 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 Chesnut 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 much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down.

Anderson kept the Southern officials waiting for about an hour while he called his officers together to confer. He then drafted a reply to Beauregard:

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.

Anderson walked Beauregard's messengers back to their boat and asked in Beauregard would open fire at once, without giving further notice. Chesnut replied, "No, I can say to you that he will not, without giving you further notice." Anderson said that he would take no action until he was fired upon, then made a casual remark that changed things, "If you do not batter us to pieces we will be starved out in a few days."

As the Confederate officers got into their boat, the remark finally registered with Chesnut. If Anderson was serious, there might be no need to open fire on the fort. Chesnut asked Anderson to repeat the remark, then asked for permission to include it in his report to Beauregard. Anderson was hesitant about the chance remark being put in an official report, but said that he had stated a fact and that Chesnut could do as he liked with it.

Beauregard telegraphed Anderson's written response and his remark to Chesnut to the Confederate Secretary of War. Secretary Leroy Walker (and Jefferson Davis) wanted it in writing.

Beauregard wrote another letter to Anderson and the three aides got into their boat again and headed back to Fort Sumter. They reached the fort just after midnight.

Fort Sumter now had everyone's attention, but other events were happening in the country that day. 

The three Confederate commissioners finally left Washington.  They had been sent to negotiate with the Federal government for recognition.  They had been unable to gain an audience with anyone of importance in the government; Lincoln had not wanted it to seem like he was negotiating with a foreign power.  But through intermediaries, they had been in contact with Secretary of State William Seward, who had assured them that Fort Sumter would be surrendered.  Now, with a relief expedition on the way to Sumter, the commissioners thought Seward had dishonest in his dealings with them.

Meanwhile, Abraham Lincoln was meeting with Maryland Governor Thomas Hicks to discuss ways to keep the state in the Union.  Maryland was a slave state with mixed loyalties.  With the expectation that Virginia would secede if war started, it was vital to keep Maryland in the Union.  Without it, the capitol would be cut off from the rest of the country.

Commander James Alden reported to the Gosport Navy Yard at Norfolk, Virginia, to take command of the U.S.S. Merrimack, which was still under construction.

150 Years Ago: The Confederate Decision

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The bloody Civil War started very politely, a very formal ritual with messages back and forth.

Union Major Robert Anderson and his small garrison were at Fort Sumter.  The unit was undermanned and the fort was unfinished, but it sat on a man-made granite island in the middle of Charleston harbor and commanded the whole scene.  Anderson was running out of supplies and Washington was sending them.  They had informed the rebels of that, and were leaving up to them to start the war if they wanted. 

But neither side was backing down.  It was as important for Jefferson Davis to take the fort as it was for Abraham Lincoln to keep it.  General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard commanded the Confederate defenses, the artillery that ringed the harbor.

On April 10, 1861, with the relief expedition on the way, the Confederate government decided to fight.  Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Walker sent Beauregard his orders:

"If you have no doubt of the authorized character of the agent who communicated to you the intention of the Washington Government to supply Fort Sumter by force you will at once demand its evacuation, and if this is refused proceed, in such manner as you may determine to reduce it."

Roger Pryor, until recently a U.S. congressman from Virginia, stood on the balcony of his hotel in Charleston and addressed a crowd gathered below. What would it take for Virginia to join with the other seceded states?

"I will tell you, gentlemen, what will put her in the Southern Confederacy in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock -- strike a blow! The very moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will make common cause with her sisters of the South."

From Hampton Roads, Virginia, another ship, the U.S.S. Pawnee, departed to join the Fort Sumter fleet.

The snafu at Pensacola was finally resolved.  New orders finally arrived for Captain H. A. Adams, commanding him to get the reinforcements aboard the Brooklyn into Fort Pickens.

150 Years Ago: More Tensions

On Monday, April 8, 1861, R. S. Chew, Lincoln's emissary from the State Department, arrived in Charleston and fulfilled his mission, informing South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens that a relief expedition was coming to Fort Sumter.  Pickens informed General P. G. T. Beauregard, who placed all Confederate forces in the harbor on alert.  The supplies for the fort left New York harbor on this day aboard the Harriet Lane.

Meanwhile, Confederate Secretary of War Leroy Walker approved General Braxton Bragg's request to open fire if an attempt were made to reinforce Fort Pickens at Pensacola.

William T. Sherman had been offered a job in the War Department.  On this date he had turned it down, leading many to believe that he planned to join the Confederate Army.

March 3, 1861: Beauregard Takes Command

On Sunday, March 3, 1861, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, to assume command of the troops there.  He went straight to work perfecting the placement of the guns around the harbor.  Beauregard's strategy was mainly defensive, not to pile on the guns aimed at Fort Sumter, but to seal off the harbor so that the tiny garrison could not be reinforced.

March 1, 1861: P. G. T. Beauregard

On Friday, March 1, 1861, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard accepted a position as brigadier general in the Confederate Army and was assigned to command in Charleston, South Carolina.

Beauregard was born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on May 28, 1818.  He graduated second in his class at West Point in 1838.  During the Mexican War, he was wounded twice and received two brevets for gallantry while serving as an engineer in General Winfield Scott's army.  He spent most of his postwar military career constructing coastal defenses, but served as the superintendent at West Point for a few days in January 1861 before being removed because of his outspoken Southern views.  After Louisiana left the Union, Beauregard followed, resigning his U.S. Army commission on February 20. 

During Beauregard's time as a cadet at West Point, Robert Anderson, who now commanded the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, had been an artillery instructor.  Beauregard had shown such talent that Anderson made him an assistant instructor.