Election of 1860

• The United States presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil War. The nation had been divided throughout most of the 1850s on questions of states' rights and slavery in the territories. In 1860, this issue finally came to a head, fracturing the formerly dominant Democratic Party into Southern and Northern factions and bringing Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party to power without the support of a single Southern state

Candidates

Candidates

John C. Breckinridge

Stephen Douglas

Secessionists

• Young, slaveholding lawyers and planters Spearheaded secession. They came to political maturity in the 1850s at a time of intensifying sectional hostilities, and they turned to the Breckinridge movement for vindication of their rights and status against the onslaughts of the antislavery North. The Breckinridge demand for Federal protection of slavery in the territories was their answer to the Republican commitment to free soil. Their recently acquired wealth in land and slaves rested on a rickety structure of credit that required rising slave prices to keep from collapsing. Economic self-interest, as well as wounded pride, drove them to secession once Lincolns election threatened to limit Southern growth by ending the expansion of slavery

Fire-eaters• The most prominent

secessionists were known as the fire-eaters. In particular, William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama, Edmund Ruffin of Virginia, and Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr., of South Carolina had earned this label for their long and uncompromising devotion to the cause of Southern independence

Secession

• Lincoln’s victory prompted South Carolina to secede from the United States. They had been on the verge to secede and the outcome of the election was their last sting. When hearing the results, South Carolina declared "that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states under the name of the 'United States of America' is hereby dissolved."

• Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states, an agreement which each state could abandon without consultation. The Union government rejected secession as illegal.

Order of Secession During the American Civil War

State Date of Secession

South Carolina December 20, 1860

Mississippi January 9, 1861

Florida January 10, 1861

Alabama January 11, 1861

Georgia January 19, 1861

Louisiana January 26, 1861

Texas February 1, 1861

Virginia April 17, 1861

Arkansas May 6, 1861

North Carolina May 20, 1861

Tennessee June 8, 1861

• War became inevitable after several Southern states seceded from—or left—the Union. The first state to secede was South Carolina, on December 20, 1860. Ten other Southern states eventually seceded, joining with South Carolina to form the Confederate States of America. President James Buchanan (D, 1857-61) did not take action to stop the states from seceding; although he argued that secession was not legal, he also claimed that the federal government did not have the constitutional right to stop the South from doing so. However, he did declare that the government would retain its military facilities in the South.

Ft Sumter

• One of those facilities was Fort Sumter, a military post in South Carolina.

• Following declarations of secession by seven Southern states, South Carolina demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On December 26, 1860, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surreptitiously moved his small command from the indefensible Ft Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island to Fort Sumter, a substantial fortress controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor..

• An attempt by U.S. President James Buchanan to reinforce and re-supply Anderson, using the unarmed merchant ship Star of the West, failed when it was fired upon by shore batteries on January 9, 1861. South Carolina authorities then seized all Federal property in the Charleston area, except for Fort Sumter

• The Confederacy was formed in the Montgomery Convention February 1861 by state delegations sent from seven of the United States. Following Lincoln’s inauguration, four additional border states were represented, and subsequently two states and two territories gained seats in the Confederate Congress in accordance with their Secessionist resolves

The first secession state conventions from the Deep South sent representatives to meet at the Montgomery Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, on February 4, 1861. There the fundamental documents of government were promulgated, a provisional government was established, and a representative Congress met for the Confederate States of America.The new Confederate President Jefferson Davis,who had insisted on delaying secession until a united South could move together, issued a call for 100,000 states' militia to defend the newborn nation

• On April 12, 1861, Southern rebels fired their first shots on the fort, and on April 14, Union Major Robert Anderson surrendered it to the rebels

April 12, 1861 Ft Sumter South Carolina

Confederacy - PT Beauregard Union- Major Anderson

Fort Sumter, named after a South Carolina Revolutionary War hero, was designed as part of a defensive system for Charleston Harbor. Plans were drawn in 1827, and construction began twoyears later. Located on a man-made island of sea shells and granite from northern quarries, it was a pentagonal structure, fifty feet high, with walls eight to twelve feet thick.

As of Lincoln's election, the fort remained uncompleted and without readied armament. A crew of workmen directed by an army engineer was engaged in completing the fort under a recentcongressional appropriation act. After occupying the fort on December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson set troops and workmen to the task of strengthening his position.

• When Abraham Lincoln assumed office as President of the United States on March 4, 1861, he made it clear in a firm but conciliatory address that he would uphold the national authority. The Government, he said, would not assail anyone, but neither would it consent to a division of the

• Union. "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government." Lincoln plainly meant to hold Fort Sumter. Unfortunately circumstances were such that this could not be done without an overt act on his part.

Fort Sumter

Other Names: None

Location: Charleston County

Campaign: Operations in Charleston Harbor (April 1861)

Date(s): April 12-14, 1861

Principal Commanders: Maj. Robert Anderson [US]; Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard [CS]

Forces Engaged: Regiments: 580 total (US 80; CS est. 500)

By April 4 Lincoln believed that a relief expedition was feasible and ordered merchant steamers, protected by ships of war, to carry "subsistence and other supplies" to Anderson. He also notifiedGovernor Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina that an attempt would be made to resupply the fort. After debate -- and some disagreement -- the Confederate cabinet telegraphed Beauregard on April 10 to fire on Sumter if absolutely necessary to prevent reinforcement.

Anderson was asked to surrender, his response of not until orders or reinforcements would he do anything. At 3:20 a.m., on April 12, they informed Anderson that their batteries would open fire in one hour. At ten minutes past the allotted hour, Capt. George S.James, commanding Fort Johnson's east mortar battery, ordered the firing of a signal shell. Within moments Edmund Ruffin of Virginia, firebrand and hero of the secessionist movement, touched off a gun in the ironclad battery at Cummings Point. By daybreak batteries at Forts Johnson andMoultrie, Cummings Point, and elsewhere were assailing Sumter.

Major Anderson withheld his fire until 7 o'clock. Though some 60 guns stood ready for action, most never got into the fight. Nine or ten casemate guns returned the fire, but by noon only six remained in action. At no time during the battle did the guns of Fort Sumter greatly damageConfederate positions. And, sheltered in Sumter's brick caverns, only five Federal soldiers suffered injuries. The cannonade continued throughout the night. The next morning a hot shot from Fort Moultrie set fire to the officers’ quarters. In early afternoon the flagstaff was shot away (to see the original Union flag from Ft. Sumter, click here). About 2 p.m.,Anderson agreed to a truce. That evening he surrendered his garrison. Miraculously, no one on either side had been killed during the engagement.

. Although there were no casualties during the bombardment, one Union artillerist was killed and three wounded (one mortally) when a cannon exploded prematurely while firing a salute during the evacuation on April 14.

STEAMSHIP BALTIC, OFF SANDY HOOK, April 18, 1861--10.30 a. m.--via New York.

Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, Iaccepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.

ROBERT ANDERSON, Major, First Artillery, Commanding

As the reality of civil war quickly took hold in the days following April 12, the dramatic saga of Anderson's garrison at Fort Sumter faded into the background. Montgomery Blair remarked that "events of such magnitude" rapidly crowded on the country and President Lincoln, that "Sumter and Anderson are not thought of for the moment."

Fort Sumter, of course, was not forgotten, and the story of the fort and its small garrison holds a prominent place in American history. Sumter's fame has little to do with its military aspects. In strictly military terms, the battle between Union and Confederate forces at Fort Sumter scarcely merits attention. After a relatively brief bombardment, the small Union garrison surrendered a position of questionable military value to either side. Not a single human life was lost during the fighting, as compared to the massive, momentous, and bloody engagements at Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, or at Cold Harbor during the Wilderness Campaign where in a brief period of no more than half an hour, Union forces suffered some 7,000 casualties.

It is Sumter's association with the Civil War, one of the great shaping events of the American experience, which gives it a symbolic dimension far outweighing its military significance. The attack on Sumter was the first notable clash of arms between the newly formed Confederacy and the Union. The battle marked a transition from the period of precarious peace that accompanied the initial secession of seven deep South states from the Union to the four protracted years of bloodshed and devastation of the Civil War.

Group portrait of the Confederate cabinet including President Jefferson Davis, Vice President Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Attorney General Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of the Navy Stephen M. Mallory, Secretary of the Treasury C.G.Memminger, Secretary of War Leroy Pope Walker, Postmaster John H. Reagan, and Secretary of State Robert Toombs, seated and standing around table

Questions for review

1.Why was the fort left to defend itself without aid from Lincoln?

2.What was the significance of the attack on Ft. Sumter?

3.By what right did the south believe Major Anderson should give up the fort?

4.How did the victory at Ft.Sumter give the south a false sense of security by winning so handily?

Quiz

• What party was formed in 1854 that in 1860 would elect Lincoln as president?

• Who were the other candidates running against Lincoln?

• How did multiple candidates help Lincoln win?

• How did southern states respond to his election?

• What was the response by President Buchanan to the south’s action?

• In which Southern state did fighting break out?