January 13, 1861

Before he became the governor of South Carolina and started threatening war with the United States, Francis Pickens had been the U.S. Minister to Russia.  On Sunday, January 13, 1861, Pickens submitted a bill to the U.S. government for $3000 in travel expenses he had incurred in the performance of his duties.  Washington sent him a draft (a check) drawn on the Treasury office in Charleston, which had already been taken over by the state.

January 12, 1861

On Saturday, January 12, 1861, in Florida, state authorities demanded the surrender of Fort Pickens at Pensacola, but were refused.  State troops took over the other forts and the Navy Yard at Pensacola with no resistance.

Also on this date, the State of Mississippi recalled its representatives from the U. S. House. 

In New York, the Star of the West arrived from Charleston with the supplies and troops for Fort Sumter still aboard.

January 11, 1861

On Friday, January 11, 1861, a state convention in Alabama voted for secession 61 to 39 with most of the opposition coming from the northern part of the state.

In Louisiana, state forces occupied the United States Marine Hospital near New Orleans.

January 10, 1861

On Thursday, January 10, 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.  A state convention voted for secession 62 to 7.

At Pensacola, the Federal troops under Lieutenant A. G. Slemmer abandoned Fort Barrancas and moved to Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island.

In Louisiana, Braxton Bragg and the state militia seized Forts Jackson and St. Philip and the arsenal at Baton Rouge.  William Tecumseh Sherman, then the head of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy (later Louisiana State University), called Bragg's actions "an act of war and a breach of common decency."  He resigned his post in protest but agreed to stay on until he could turn the school over to a successor.

In one of the more comic episodes of these final prewar days, the citizens of Smithville and Wilmington, North Carolina came down with secession fever and seized Forts Johnson and Caswell.  A few days later Governor John W. Ellis ordered the forts returned; North Carolina had not seceded and was not really even considering it.  The two caretakers, who had demanded receipts for the property, told the citizens they would take the forts back "if there was none of it broken, or none of the ammunition expended."

January 9, 1861: War Is Narrowly Averted

The Civil War almost began on Wednesday, January 9, 1861, when the Star of the West was fired upon in Charleston harbor.

The Star of the West, a merchant steamer full of supplies and reinforcements for Fort Sumter which had set sail from New York on January 5, arrived at the entrance to Charleston harbor around midnight.  As soon as there was enough light to see, the ship headed into the harbor.

Gunners on Morris Island, cadets from the Citadel, began firing at the ship.  One shot smashed into the side of the Star of the West.  A steamer flying the U.S. flag and carrying U.S. troops had been fired upon and hit.

The commander at Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson, didn't know what was going on.  He was unaware that a relief ship was even on the way, but he and his men could see that the Charlestonians were preparing for something.  The War Department had sent a telegraph explaining the situation and giving him orders to return fire "should a fire, likely to prove injurious, be opened upon any vessel bringing up re-enforcements or supplies, or upon row-boats within the reach of your guns."  The message never reached Anderson and now he held his fire and certainly averted a war.  With Fort Sumter's guns silent the Star of the West had no choice but to turn around and head back out to open sea.

The garrison at Fort Sumter was in an uproar.  The officers and men were furious that Anderson had not returned fire.  Anderson met with the officers and they agreed to write to Governor Francis Pickens.  If he had authorized the attack, Anderson might close down the harbor.

Pickens replied that South Carolina was an independent nation and that putting troops in Fort Sumter and then sending in reinforcements was an act of aggression.  The firing was justified.  If Anderson must now use his guns to close down the harbor, the responsibility was his own.

Pickens added, "Your position in this harbor has been tolerated by the the authorities of the State, and...it is not perceived how far the conduct which you propose to adopt can find a parallel in the history of any country, or be reconciled with any other purpose of your Government than that of imposing upon this State the condition of a conquered province.

Also on this date, Mississippi became the first state to follow South Carolina out of the Union.  A state convention in Mississippi voted for secession 84-to-15.

January 8, 1861

On Tuesday, January 8, 1861, Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson of Mississippi resigned.  He had been the last Southerner left in Buchanan's cabinet.  One of his last acts in Washington was to telegraph the authorities in Charleston to let them know that the Star of the West was coming with reinforcements and supplies for Fort Sumter.

Also on this date, in Florida, U.S. troops at Fort Barrancas, guarding the entrance to Pensacola Harbor, fired upon and drove away a raiding party.  Fort Mason at St. Augustine had been seized the day before.

January 6, 1861: The Start of a Busy Week

On Sunday, January 6, 1861, in New York, Mayor Fernando Wood proposed that New York City should secede and become a free city, trading freely with both the North and South. Nothing ever became of the proposal.

It was the start of a busy week. On successive days -- Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- three states would follow South Carolina out of the Union.  On Wednesday, war would almost begin when the U. S. government attempted to reinforce and resupply the garrison at Fort Sumter in Charleston.

As states moved toward secession, state authorities acted quickly to seize the Federal property, especially the arsenals and the forts that guarded the harbors.  Florida would be the state to secede on Thursday, but on this date in 1861, the Sunday before, state troops seized the U.S. Arsenal at Apalachicola with no resistance.

January 5, 1861: The Star of the West Sets Sail

On Saturday, January 5, 1861, in New York, the Star of the West, a merchant vessel, sailed for Fort Sumter with supplies and 250 troops.

The original plan called for the Brooklyn to be used.  The Brooklyn, a 2000-ton, propeller-driven warship, boasted 22 9-inch Dahlgren smoothbores and two rifled pivot guns.  It could muscle its way into Charleston harbor if necessary.

But the plan changed.  The War Department decided to try speed and secrecy instead.

The Star of the West, a side-wheel merchant steamer normally on a New York-to-New Orleans run, was chartered for $1250 a day.  The soldiers and supplies were quietly loaded.  To the casual observer the steamer appeared to be leaving on its regular run.

Officials in Charleston got the news almost immediately.  By the time the Star of the West would arrive at Charleston harbor, Major Robert Anderson and the garrison at Fort Sumter would be the only ones who didn't know what was going on.

Also on this date, in Alabama, which hadn't yet left the Union, state authorities captured Forts Morgan and Gaines at Mobile Bay without resistance.

January 1, 1861: New Year's Day

 As the New Year of 1861 began, South Carolina had seceded from the Union and several Deep South states appeared ready to follow.  The only real questions were which state would be next and how many.  As the states seceded, the federal property in those states was quickly seized.  The Union would only contest the matter at Fort Sumter at Charleston harbor and Fort Pickens in Pensacola.  The situations were very similar, but Fort Sumter would be much more volatile, probably due to the difference in temperament between South Carolinians and Floridians.

"The New Year's reception at the White House looked very much the way New Year's receptions always looked.  There were flowers and gay music, with well-dressed people moving up to give President Buchanan a smile and a hand-shake, each one repeating the formal 'I wish you a happy New Year, Mister President'; and although the weather was bad, things seemed to be bright enough inside the mansion.  But neither the President nor his guests had any illusions about the happiness that 1861 was likely to bring to the people who occupied this building, and Mr. Buchanan looked tired and unhappy, as if he had had about all the strain he could take.  Mrs. Roger Pryor, wife of the fire-eating Congressman from Virginia, felt that 'a gloomy foreboding of impending disaster' oppressed everyone, and she reflected unhappily that the familiar social world of the capital was having the last of its old get-togethers.  So many people had already left for the far South, so many more would be leaving very soon:  no matter what happened, the group that met here on January 1, 1861, would never come together again."  -- Bruce Catton, The Coming Fury

December 26, 1860: Anderson Moves to Fort Sumter

On Wednesday, December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson moved his small garrison from Fort Moultrie to the unfinished Fort Sumter.

Anderson had been pressing the War Department for orders since taking command of the Charleston garrison in mid-November.  About all he had been told was that he could defend himself if attacked.  Anderson's main concern was Fort Sumter.  It sat on a man-made granite island in the middle of the mouth of Charleston harbor and was empty except for some civilian workmen.  It could be easily captured by South Carolina militia, and would give them complete control of the harbor, leaving Washington unable to send supplies and reinforcements to the garrison.

Finally, Secretary of War John B. Floyd sent Major Don Carlos Buell to Charleston to give Anderson some instruction.  The orders -- "a broad explanation of general policy rather than explicit orders" -- were given to Buell verbally.

On December 11, once he had visited the garrison and made his own appraisal, Buell put Anderson's orders in writing.  Anderson was not to do anything to provoke the people of Charleston, but, if attacked, he could move his men into whichever fort was the most defensible.  Buell went farther:  "You are also authorized to take similar steps whenever you have tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act."  As Charleston was a hotbed of "tangible evidence," Anderson, if he interpreted his orders liberally, now had permission to move to Fort Sumter whenever he thought necessary.

After dark on December 26, Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie.  The wives and children of the enlisted men were transported to Fort Johnson, on the south side of the harbor.  The two small companies of the garrison marched down to the wharf and boarded boats that took them to Fort Sumter.

Anderson's move touched off a major crisis.  After declaring its independence, South Carolina had sent a group of commissioners to Washington to negotiate for the Charleston forts and arsenal.  These commissioners reached Washington at about the same time as the news of Anderson's move.  The group was indignant, accusing President Buchanan of breaking the agreement he had reached earlier with the South Carolina congressmen.  They demanded that Anderson be ordered to return to Fort Moultie.  Buchanan almost capitulated, but a few cabinet meetings strengthened his resolve and he sent the commissioners on their way.  He even decided to reinforce Anderson.

South Carolina authorities quickly took possession of the now empty Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, the arsenal, the customs house and the post office.  Every Federal official in the state, from judges to postmaster, resigned.

"The row is fast and furious now.  They say if we had been left out in the cold alone, we might have sulked a while, but back we would have had to go, and would merely have fretted and fumed and quarreled among ourselves.  We needed a little wholesome neglect.  Anderson had blocked that game, but now our sister States have joined us and we are strong.  I give the condensed essence of the table talk:  'Anderson has united the Cotton States.  Now for Virginia!'  Those who want a row are in high glee.  Those who dread it are glum and thoughtful enough."  -- Mary Boykin Chesnut

December 20, 1860: Secession

So now the nation was in a period of transition.  Abraham Lincoln would be the next president of the United States, but would not take office until March 4, 1861.  President James Buchanan's term was coming to an end.  He was a lame duck just marking time.

Even before the election, fire-eaters (and even much more moderate men) in the South recognized what Lincoln's election would mean and began threatening secession if the election did not go as they wanted.  Before the election, such talk was dismissed as mere idle threats.  Now, with Lincoln's election an accomplished fact, the talk of secession was taken more seriously.

From The Coming Fury by Bruce Catton:

But there was still deep confusion and bewilderment, and in such times men of intense singleness of purpose can often drive through to their chosen goal and compel their fellows to trail along after them. The Southern men who, in November of 1860, proposed secession and the creation of a new nation had the advantage of knowing precisely what they wanted and of standing for immediate, emotion-releasing action. Those who counseled delay and full exploration of the possibilities of compromise were using the kind of talk that should have been (but was not) voiced in the presidential campaign; now it came too late, it had no force in it, and state and regional patriotism were generating a pressure that made it sound empty.

Lincoln had not advocated interfering with slavery in the states where it already existed. What put him at odds with the South was his stance on slavery in the territories. Lincoln vehemently opposed any expansion of slavery; if it could be contained where it was, it would eventually wither and die.  Some of those who wanted secession envisioned a new nation that stretched across the South and on into Cuba and Central and South America.

Also, to quote Alexander Stephens, Lincoln's election would "put the institutions of nearly half the states under the ban of public opinion and natural condemnation."  The mere existence of an administration hostile to slavery would spell eventual doom for the institution.

It had reached the point where Lincoln was already considering how to maintain the Union:  "My own impression is, at present (leaving myself room to modify the opinion, if upon a further investigation I should see fit to do so) that this government possesses both the authority and the power to maintain its own integrity.  That however is not the ugly point of the matter.  The ugly part is the necessity of keeping the government together by force, as ours should be a government of fraternity."

Secession threats were nothing new.  They had come at various times as different crises had arisen.  The last serious threat of secession had come in 1850 when the proposed admission of California and New Mexico to the Union as free states had caused regional strife.  Southern states sent delegates to a convention in Nashville.  It came to nothing, defused by the Compromise of 1850, but South Carolina delegates left Nashville convinced that cooperative action with other slave states was not the answer.  At the next crisis they would act alone and the other slave states would be forced to follow their lead.

This was the crisis and South Carolina was ready to act.  On October 12, 1860, Governor William H. Gist called the South Carolina legislature into special session.  This was all routine.  South Carolina was the only state whose people did not vote in presidential elections; the legislature decided where the state's electoral vote would go.  But Governor Gist advised the legislature to remain in session until the result of the election was known.  If Lincoln was elected, the legislature was advised to summon a state convention to consider secession.

The convention was called to order on December 17 in the state capital, Columbia.  Smallpox was rampant in the city at the time and the delegates voted to reconvene in Charleston and adjourned.  They arrived in Charleston the following afternoon. On Thursday, December 20, 1860, the convention heard the report from the Committee to Prepare an Ordinance of Secession:

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 of 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 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.

There was no debate. The motion was put to a vote and passed 169-0.

As predicted, the other Deep South states followed South Carolina's lead. Mississippi seceded on January 9, 1861. Florida seceded the following day, and Alabama the day after that. Georgia seceded on January 19, Louisiana on January 26 and Texas on February 1.

December 8, 1860: Maintaining the Status Quo

On Saturday, December 8, 1860, most of South Carolina's Congressional delegation met with President James Buchanan.  They worked out an agreement to keep the federal military presence in the state as it was, that the garrison at Fort Moultrie in Charleston would be neither reinforced nor attacked.

The agreement was put in writing the next day in a letter from the South Carolina Congressmen to Buchanan:

"In compliance with our statement to you yesterday, we now express to you our strong convictions that neither the constituted authorities nor any body of the people of the State of South Carolina will either attack or molest the U.S. Forts in the harbor of Charleston previously to the action of the convention, and we hope & believe not until an offer has been made through an accredited Representative to negotiate for an amicable arrangement of all matters between the State and the Federal government, provided that no reinforcements shall be sent into these Forts & their relative military status remains as at present."

November 15, 1860: Anderson Takes Command in Charleston

On Thursday, November 15, 1860, Major Robert Anderson took command of the small garrison at Charleston, South Carolina.  Anderson replaced Colonel John L. Gardner of Massachusetts.

The Charleston garrison -- 10 officers and 64 enlisted men of Companies E and H of the U.S. First Artillery and the regimental band -- were all at Fort Moultrie, then the only active military base in the harbor.  The other forts were either obsolete or unfinished.

South Carolina state authorities put their secession plans in motion early in November of 1860, almost immediately upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, and the federal property in the state, everything from the forts that guarded Charleston harbor to the courthouses and post offices, quickly became a major issue.  The state's leaders wanted the United States to vacate the property or at least negotiate a sale price. 

The Buchanan War Department was trying to placate the Charlestonians by replacing Gardner with Anderson, a Kentuckian.  Gardner had started a major row by attempting to move a supply of arms from the Federal arsenal in the town to Fort Moultrie.  On November 7, he sent an officer ashore with a boat to move the arms, but a large crowd gathered at the wharf to prevent the transfer.  Soon, most of Charleston was protesting to Washington.

Anderson, 56, was a 35-year veteran of the army.  He graduated from West Point in 1825, 15th in his class.  He fought in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars, then in the Mexican War where he was wounded at Molino Del Rey.  In peace time, he served on War Department boards and translated several French texts on artillery into West Point instruction manuals.  He had a reputation as an industrious and energetic officer. 

November 6, 1860: Election Day

Tuesday, November 6, 1861, was Election Day, and Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln won 180 electoral votes, much more than the minimum 152 needed.

Lincoln won only 40% of the national popular vote, but handily defeated his three challengers. He won the election with a strong sweep of the northern states; he won 60% of the vote in the North while losing just two dozen counties.

Of the eleven states that would eventually secede, Lincoln appeared on the ballot only in Virginia. He finished fourth there with just 1.1% of the vote. In the four slave states that did not secede Lincoln came in fourth in Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland, and finished third in Delaware.

Constitutional Unionist candidate John Bell won Virginia, Kentucky and his native Tennessee for 39 electoral votes.

Southern Democratic candidate John Breckenridge won the rest of the south, eleven of the 15 slave states, for 72 electoral votes. He won 45% of the section's popular votes to Bell's 39%.

Northern Democratic candidate Stephen Douglas won 5-15% of the popular vote in most slave states and higher percentages in Northern states where he was Lincoln's main opponent.  In all, he finished second in the popular vote with 29.5%, but with his votes so scattered around the country he was able to win only 12 electoral votes, finishing last in that category.  He won the state of Missouri, and picked up three of New Jersey's seven electoral votes.

The split in the Democratic Party and the addition of the Constitutional Unionists don't appear to be big factors in Lincoln's win.  If all the opposition votes had gone to a single candidate in every free state, Lincoln would have lost only New Jersey, California and Oregon, and still would have won with 169 electoral votes.  In several states the opposition did try to unite behind fusion candidates, but there was too much animosity between the competing interests for much success.

The election of 1860 saw the second-highest turnout in United States history with 81.2% of the eligible voters casting ballots.  In 1876, 81.8% of the voters went to the polls.

October 5, 1860: Governor Gist Writes to Other Southern Governors

As Election Day 1860 approached, it became more and more apparent that Abraham Lincoln was going to be elected president.  The young Republican Party still needed to sweep most of the Northern states, to win all the states they won in 1856 plus a couple more.  They had their sights set on Pennsylvania and Indiana.  Those states held elections for state offices in October and Republicans won handily, virtually guaranteeing that the states would also go to Lincoln in November.

On Friday, October 5, 1860, Governor William Henry Gist of South Carolina drafted letters to the governors of the cotton states.  In the letters, he virtually guaranteed that South Carolina would secede and wanted to know what their states would do.  He proposed "concert of action, which is so essential to success."  He declared that if any other state seceded, South Carolina would join them.  If not, South Carolina would go it alone if he could be assured that other states would follow.  The letters were delivered by his much younger cousin, States' Rights Gist.

From Bruce Catton's The Coming Fury:

The governors were by no means unrestrained in their enthusiasm when they wrote their replies.  As political veterans they could not get very far ahead of local sentiment, and local sentiment had not yet hardened.  Governor John W. Ellis, of North Carolina, wrote that the people of his state simply had not made up their minds what to do in case Lincoln should be elected:  "Some favor submission, some resistance, and others would await the course of events that might follow."  They probably would not think a Republican victory, in itself, proper cause for leaving the Union, although they would never support "the monstrous doctrine of coercion."  From Louisiana came similar words.  Governor Thomas O. Moore would need more than "the deplorable event" of a Republican victory to make him advise secession, and he believed most people in Louisiana felt the same way.  He did think that Louisiana should meet with other slave states to "endeavor to effect a complete harmony of action," but he feared this harmony would be hard to get.  To be sure, if the Federal government tried coercion, the case would be different; meanwhile, Louisiana was totally unprepared "for any warlike measures," and her arsenals were empty.

Mississippi was a different case. Governor John J. Pettus felt that his people would do anything in their power to keep the state "from passing under the Black Republican yoke," but Mississippi could not go it alone. He would call a special session of the legislature as soon as it was known that Lincoln had won the election, and he believed Mississippi would ask a council of the slave states; if such a council advised secession, Mississippi would probably go along. In Georgia, Governor Joseph E. Brown believed that a convention of the people, meeting sometime between election day and March 4, would determine the state's course of action. In his opinion the people would "wait for an overt act" rather than vote to go out of the Union, regardless of what other states might do, simply because Lincoln was elected. Still, "events not yet foreseen" might lead to more immediate action. Governor Andrew B. Moore, of Alabama, favored consultation among cotton-state executives. He did not think Alabama would secede alone, but "if two or more states will cooperate with her she will secede with them; or if South Carolina or any other Southern State should go out alone and the Federal Government should attempt to use force against her, Alabama will immediately rally to her rescue." Governor M. S. Perry, of Florida, felt that Florida could not take the lead in secession, "but will most assuredly cooperate with or follow the lead of any single Cotton State which may secede." A state convention would be called as soon as Lincoln's election became a fact; meanwhile, "if there is sufficient manliness at the South to strike for our rights, honor and safety, in God's name let it be done before the inauguration of Lincoln."

Presumably these men knew how the people in their states were thinking, and it is clear that even in the heart of the cotton belt a majority was not yet ready to secede and would not consider Lincoln's election adequate reason for secession. But the majority by now was at the mercy of events. It had been brought -- by fear, by suspicion, and by anger -- to a point just one step short of the final act; the smallest accident, the most casual misstep by some politician in Washington, might compel it to take that last step. Nor would it be necessary for the majority in all of the Southern states to be won over. The sense of regional solidarity had immense power, and where one state led, other states might well follow.

South Carolina would lead. Governor Gist would see to it.