In article <fvtrem$n7r$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
Keith F. Lynch <kfl@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Nate Edel <archmage@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> ... and instead proceeded unilaterally to sieze federal property
>> before Lincoln was even inaugurated.
>
>The way I always heard it, the federal government had agreed to
>evacuate Fort Sumter, but then attempted to surreptitiously reinforce
>and resupply the fort. South Carolina's government took the attempt
>as evidence of bad faith, and opened fire to prevent the fort from
>being reinforced and resupplied.
Didn't we already go around on this one? ... To some extent, last
August. You've shifted your ground a little; before, we were talking
about the Star of the West; now the context is the seizure of Fort
Sumter on April 12, three months later.
You're conflating and mutating several things.
- The Star of the West, January 9, in Buchanan's administration, was
attempted to be a quiet resupply and reinforcement of Fort Sumter,
but it was repulsed.
- Secretary of State Seward's folly was to intimate that Sumter would
be evacuated, but Buchanan and Lincoln never promised it.
- For the next effort, in April, Lincoln informed the governor of
South Carolina in advance and promised that it would be provisions
only.
The first attempt, the Star of the West effort, was attempted to be
quiet:
<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/browse_thread/thread/b0d52fcf2dcd5ac3/f2f481f46ce6d3bb?hl=en&lnk=st&q=sumter+author%3Atmcd%40panix.com+%22star+of+the+west%22#f2f481f46ce6d3bb>
McPherson, p. 266: "In an effort to minimize publicity and
provocation, Scott sent the reinforcements (200 soldiers) and
supplies on the unarmed merchant vessel Star of the West.
Bungling marred the whole enterprise, however. Word of the
mission leaked to the press, while the War Department failed to
get notice of it to Anderson, so that the garrison at Sumter was
about the only interested party that lacked advance knowledge of
the Star of the West's arrival at the harbor entrance January 9."
Neither Buchanan nor Lincoln agreed to evacuate Fort Sumter.
<http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.fandom/browse_thread/thread/b0d52fcf2dcd5ac3/b26f53f289ba26da?hl=en&lnk=st&q=#b26f53f289ba26da>
That's far from the truth. The incident [firing on the ship Star
of the West, trying to supply Fort Sumter] was January 9, during
the Buchanan administration, about 2 months before Lincoln took
office. Buchanan had absolutely no wish to enforce anything, much
less provoke an incident. McPherson, p. 265:
One way to forestall a clash, of course, was to withdraw the
garrison. Though urged to do so by three southern members of
his cabinet, Buchanan refused to go this far. He did promise
South Carolina congressmen on December 10 not to send the
reinforcements Anderson had requested. In return, South
Carolina pledged not to attack Anderson while negotiations for
transfer of the forts were going on. The Carolinians also
understood Buchanan to have agreed not to change the military
status quo at Charleston in any way.
Anderson, "Interpreting an ambiguous order from the War Department
as giving him authority to move his command from weak Fort Moultie
to powerful Fort Sumter if ncessesary to deter an attack", did so
on December 26, which South Carolina interpreted as a "gross
breach of faith".
The harried Buchanan almost succumbed to southern insistance
that he must order the garrison back to Moultrie. ... A
cabinet reshuffle also stiffened Buchanan's backbone [when
Southerners resigned] ... Stanton and Black drafted for
Buchanan a reply to the South Carolina commissioners rejecting
their demand for Sumter. Buoyed by this new experience of
firmness, Buchanan went further -- he approved a proposal by
General-in-Chief Scott to reinforce Anderson.
But
<http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_History_of_the_Civil_War,_1861-1865/Chapter_I>
("This won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1918") has an assertion
new to me:
They attempted to secure Sumter by an indirect negotiation with
the Washington government and were encouraged by the assurances of
Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State and most trusted
counsellor. Had the President known of Seward's intimation, which
was almost a promise, that Sumter would be evacuated, he would
have been greatly perturbed and would have called a halt in the
negotiations to the end that the Southern commissioners be
undeceived.
<http://www.nps.gov/archive/fosu/5_Teachers/Ft.%20Sumter%20lesson%20plan2.pdf>
/
<http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:1wbAHCb38z0J:www.nps.gov/archive/fosu/5_Teachers/Ft.%2520Sumter%2520lesson%2520plan2.pdf>
says
On April 6, Lincoln sent word to the newly elected governor of
South Carolina, Francis W. Pickens, that Lincoln was going to send
a fleet to bring supplies to the men at Fort Sumter, but only
provisions. He would not send any men, ammunition or arms to the
fort as long as the fleet or the fort was not attacked. The
Confederate troops in Charleston had been put under the command of
General Pierre G. T Beauregard. Beauregard sent word to Major
Anderson on April 11, 1861, that Anderson must evacuate the
fort. Anderson replied that he would not, but added in his reply
that he and his men would be starved out soon if reinforcements
did not arrive. When asked by Beauregard when that would occur,
Major Anderson replied that they would have to leave the fort by
noon on the 15 th of April unless they received notice to the
contrary from Washington, DC. Beauregard, unable to wait that long
since the Federal supply ships were getting close, sent word at
3:20 am on April 12 that bombing would begin in an hour. At 4:30
am, the first shot was fired ...
--
Tim McDaniel, tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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