Final Salute Kills Soldier

Charleston, S.C., April 14 – The only casualties reported by either side in the artillery battle for Ft. Sumpter came, ironically, after the cease-fire order.

An accidental explosion of a powder magazine while U.S. troops were firing the 50-round salute before surrendering. took the life of Pvt. Daniel Hough.  Two other Federal soldiers were seriously injured.

No Confederate casualties have been reported.

CSA Needs Ships

Mongomery, AL April 17 – President Jefferson Davis has asked shipowners in the Confederacy to apply for letters for marque to operate as privateers on the high seas.  Davis, aware of the critical shortage of ships in the South, plans to build a large fleet of privately owned merchant ships to support the war effort.

Lee in C.S. Army

Arlington, VA, April 20 -Word has just been received that Col. Robert E. Lee, who last week was offered command of all U.S. forces, has today resigned his commission in the Federal army and cast his lot with his native state, Virginia.  It was Col. Lee and tropps of his command that subdued the fanatical John Brown and his followers two years ago at Harpers Ferry, VA.

The 54-year-old Lee, us a 36-year U.S. army veteran.  He is a considerable loss to the Union army.

Baltimore Mob Attack Angers Northern States

Baltimore, MD, April 21 – An angered North is rallying tonight to the Union cause.  The Baltimore riot has enraged the country north of the Potomac.  The governors of Vermont, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania immediately issued proclamations censuring the South and calling for more troops.

Counties in western Virginia have defied their state capital in Richmond.  Virginis’s governor, John Letcher, wired the mayor of Wheeling yesterday to “take possession of all public buildings and documents in the name of Virginia.” Mayor Andrew Sweeney answered, “I have taken possession of all public buildings and property in the name of the President of the United States, whose property they are.”

Scuttled Yard Falls to Rebels

Norfolk, VA, April 22 – Explosions shook this city shortly after midnight last night as Federal demolition crews systematically destroyed the U.S. Navy Yard before evacuating it to the Confederates.

Virginia troops have seized the yard.  All Union personnel escaped by ship to Ft. Monroe.  Several large U.S. warships were scuttled by the Federals before they departed.  Confederate authorities believe that a least one of these, the USS Merrimac, can be salvaged.

To Stay Neutral

Louisville, KY, April 27 – The Kentucky legislature has resolved to keep neutral in the war looming between North and South.  Factions for both the Union and Confederacy, however , are actively engaged in recruiting state regiments.

Most Promising

Washington DC, April 28 – President of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, George B. McClellan, has been named as commander of all Federal troops in the state of Ohio.  The 35-year-old McClellan is a West Point graduate and one of the most promising Union commanders now in uniform.

Lincoln Confers with General Scott

Washington, D.C., April 28 – President Lincoln and Army Chief of Staff Winfield Scott spent much of this week in conference discussing the Baltimore riot crisis and mobilization problems.  Gen. Benjamin F. Butler and his brigade of New York and Massachusetts regiments moved into Baltimore on Wednesday from Annapolis and placed the city under martial law.  No opposition has been made to the occupation force, and troop movements to Washington are proceeding on schedule.

The city is feeling the first effects of the mobilization.  Few arrangements had been made for their coming.  The lack of tents, rifles, and uniforms has left Washington’s streets crowded with aimless, wandering soldiers awaiting orders.  Hotel accommodations are next to impossible to get, and the bars from the Navy Yard to Tenth Street are filled. 

Despite the idleness on the streets, work the White House continues around the clock.  Courriers and staff officers gallop to and from the Presidential mansion at all hours of the day and night.  The strain of the past week has been too much for the 75-year-old Gen. Scott.  The aging chief of staff has been confined to his bed with gout since Thursday.

Across the Potomac on Arlington Heights all is quiet.  The stately mansion of Col. Robert E. Lee is deserted.  The colonel and his family left their home earlier in the week after his decision to side with the Confederacy.

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The Congress reconvened this morning for its second session facing the huge task of getting legislation under way for the new government.  The President’s message was read by congressional leader Howell Cobb because President Davis has been confined to his home with a severe cold for more than a week.

The first Confederate money appeared on Montgomery’s streets yesterday.  The Central Bank of Alabama released the first of this printed currency in $50, $100, $500, and $1000 denominations.

Attorney-General Judah Benjamin has started work on the formation of a Confederate Supreme Court.  However, despite his title of “brains of the Confederacy”, Benjamin is getting little cooperation on his court plan from Davis and the other cabinet members with so many pressing war problems to receive priority.

Volunteers Ease Threat to Capital

Washington DC, May 6 – An estimated 17,000 troops arrived here this past week to strengthen the capital garrison.  Regiments from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and as far away as Vermont have streamed into the city since Monday.

There is still a great lack of organization but the immediate threat to the capital has been removed.  If nothing else, the presence of these three-month volunteers has eased the tension in the city.  The fear of a Rebel army moving in the District of Columbia no longer shoes on the face of every city resident.

But if all is going well in Washington, the Union was receiving some hard blows i other quarters this week.  The governor of Missouri, Claiborne Jackson, in a letter to his state legislature has denounced Lincoln in no uncertain terms.  Jackson declared the President’s call for troops “an unconstitutional and illegal act”. He said Missouri’s interests were identical with those of the other slave-0holding states, and that a the “proper time” it was the state’s duty to follow the secessionists example.

This is a stinging political defeat for the Federal government whose leaders have hoped to keep Missouri neutral in this sectional fight.  The words of the Missouri governor have torn to shreds the famous David Wilmot paper, the Missouri Compromise.

Although it had been expected hourly, the wire to the White House yesterday from Nashville, Tenn., was another hard body blow to the Lincoln government.  The Tennessee legislature has passed an ordinance of secession and is not allied with the Confederacy,.  A White House spokesman said the wire was “particularly cutting” to the President.  Is referred to the ordinance as a “Declaration of Independence”.

Fire Zouaves Arrive

Among the many and varied uniformed troops arriving in the capital this week was the much publicized and gaudy regiment of New York Fire Zouaves.  This unit, under the command of dashing young Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth, is attired in a unirform of Sky-blue trousers bloused over white leggins, short red jackets topped by an Eqyptian fez complete with tassel for headgear.  The regiment is one of the best drilled outfits in the city today and is equipped with the new .58 cal. Sharps rifles.

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Federal soldiers are bivouacked tonight on the White House grounds.  Leroy P. Walker, Secretary of Ware in the newly formed Rebel government in Montgomery, AL announced that “the flag of the Southern Confederacy” will float in splendor over the capitol at Washington before the first day of May.

All this plus the seizing of the Federal arsenal in Fayetteville, NC and the U.S. Mint in Charlotte, NC, the capture of Ft. Smith, AR, by Rebel troops and the surrender of U.S. steamship Catawba in New Orleans has left the nation’s capital a tense and anxious city.

But an even greater threat came to Washington this week from the north.  Maryland, one of the states torn by inner conflict in this struggle  between North and South, openly defied the Federal government last Friday when mobs in Baltimore attacked troops enroute to Washington.  The 60th Massachusetts Infantry, one of the first units to answer Lincoln’s call for volunteers, arrived in Baltimore Friday morning by train.  They were an ill-clad outfit, many without uniforms or weapons.  It was expected they would be outfitted and armed on arrival here.

During the transfer from the Philadelphia station to the Washington station it is necessary for the cars of the train to be horse drawn through the streets of Baltimore.  It was at this part of the journey that the regiment was attacked.

A street mob, estimated at 7000, swarmed over the last two cars of the train as they were being drawn along Pratt Street.  The regiment attempted to form in the street but was battered and stoned by the mob.  Several of the troops lost their rifles in the melee and an open gun battle threatened between troops and rioters.

Capt. John Dike, of Stoneham, Mass., managed to form a line of troops who, with fixed bayonets, fought their way through the mob. During the street fighting Dike was shot down, more than a score of the soldiers were wounded and two privates – Luther Ladd and A.O. Whitney – were killed.  “Seven of the rioters were killed and many more wounded,” sain an eye-witness who arrived here today.

Tonight, all communications between Washington and the outside world have been severed.  Telegraph lines between here and Baltimore have been cut and there has been no liaison to the south since Virginia joined the growing list of Confederate states last Wednesday.

Lincoln Calls 75,000

Washington, D.C., April 14 – Word was received just prior to press time that President Lincoln will issue a call tomorrow for 75,000 troops to “restore the Union.” He reiterated a portion of his last month’s inaugural address to the people of the South.  Lincoln said: “In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine is the momentous issue of civil war.”

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Charleston, S.C., April 14 – The long awaited war is here!  The breach between the North and South has widened to a mighty canyon in the last 72 hours.  The Federal garrison at Ft. Sumter in Charleston harbor has surrendered and evacuated the U.S. fort to South Carolina troops.

For two days Charleston has shaken with the boom of heavy artillery.  More than 3000 Confederate shells have pounded the U.S. fort and its 85-man garrison.  Return fire from Ft. Sumter has been light, and little damage has been done to Southern batteries.

Townspeople thronged the roofs of buildings along the waterfront here today and cheered as the Stars and Stripes came down on the harbor installation of Ft. Sumter.

Maj. Robert Anderson and his garrison of canoneers marched out of the fortress this morning under a white flag of surrender.  The surrender came after 34 hours of relentless shelling from the harbor batteries commanded by Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard.  Governor Pickets, who has been here throughout the bombardment said “The first blow for freedom has struck”

South Carolina is the first of the Southern States to contend its right to secede from the Union.  Word of pledged support from the Confederacy’s President Jefferson Davis, in Montgomery, Ala., indicates that the Southern states are solidly unified in their defiance of the Federal government.

Gen.  Beauregard is the toast of the South tonight.  The vivacious Mexican War hero will undoubtedly be called upon to lead the forces of the Southern Confederacy should the North and President Lincoln interfere with the secessionists.

The firing on Ft. Sumter is the climax to months of tension and angry messages between officials of the Southern states and the Lincoln government.  South Carolina demanded the evacuation of the fort by Federal troops.

Futile negotiations between Beauregard and Anderson have been going on for more than a week.  But last Friday morning at 4:30 a shell fired from a Southern battery at Ft.  Johnson arched across the sky and burst almost directly over Sumter.  The tension was broken and war looks inevitable.

Within minutes after the first shell exploded, 43 batteries around Charleston harbor were pouring fire into Sumpter.  The guns of the Federal-held island fort withheld fire until 7 a.m., then opened on the Rebel batteries.

All Charleston has been on hand these three days watching the duel.  King Street, the city’s main commercial artery, is deserted.  Battery Point, the dock, every steeple and cupoia in the city have been crowded with spectators.  Never before have such crowds of ladies without attendants visited the streets of Charleston.

As evening fell Friday the firing dwindled and finally ceased around 9 p.m.  The streets of the city, however, were alive with activity; troops moving to shore points, State Militia batteries hurrying into position.

Field glasses reveal extensive damage to the walls of Sumter.  On three separate occasions the barracks within the quadrangle have been seen in flames.

Guns from Sumter opened the firing early yesterday morning with increased vigor.  Militia-manned batteries at Ft. Moultrie and Cummings Point were soon to reply.  At mid-morning the Southerners’ fire increased and that from Fort Sumter slackened.  It was evident that the Federals’ ammunition was running low.

A shot from a rifled gun at Ft. Johnson struck the flagstaff at Sumter about 1:30 p.m. yesterday, bringing the Stars and Stripes to the ground.  Almost accidentally, this led to surrender.

A small party of Confederates left the shore and rowed to Sumter under a flag of truce when they saw the U.S. flag come down.  After a brief discussion, Maj.  Anderson accepted the terms of surrender presented by the truce party.    The terms allowed the removal of all private property and safe conduct for the garrison to Union ships waiting outside the harbor.  One stipulation of the terms which Anderson requested was the privilege of raising the Union flag for a final 50-gun salute before turning over the fort.  This, Beauregard granted.  The Confederate general also sent fire-fighting equipment to the island fort to extinguish the flames inside the bastion.

Maj.  Anderson and his Federal troops filed out of the fortress this morning amid the beating of drums and with colors flying.  They boarded ships and sailed out of the harbor as silent, Southern soldiers lined the beach with heads uncovered to watch the departing ships.

Events Leading to Today’s Attack

1860

• Dec. 20 – South Carolina secedes from United States.  First state to dissolve Union.
• Dec. 26 – Maj. Robert Anderson, fearing attack from hostile South Carolina citizens, evacuates ft. Moultrie at Charleston.  Removes U.S. garrison to island Ft. Sumpter with four months supplies.
• Dec. 27 – South Carolina volunteers occupy FT. Moultrie.  State demands surrender of all U.S. installations in Charleston Harbor.
• Dec.30 – Maj. Anderson refuses South Carolina demands

1861

• New Year’s Day – North exultant over Anderson’s stand.  Cities resound with artillery salutes for Maj. Anderson.
• Jan. 9 – Cadets from South Carolina Military Academy fire Cummings Point fun on U.S. merchant ship, Star of the West, enroute to re-supply Ft. Sumpter garrison.  Ship withdraws to outside harbor.
• Jan. 11 – Anderson refuses demand from South Carolina Governor Pickens for surrender of Ft. Sumpter.
• Jan 15-31 – Anderson strengthens fort with emplacement of heavy guns.
• Feb. 4 – Jefferson Davis elected President of Confederate States of America
• Mar. 3 – Gen. Pierre Gustav Toutant Beuregard takes command of Confederate troops in Charleston area.
• Mar. 4 – Abraham Lincoln inaugurated to Presidency of the United States in Washington.
• April 4 – Lincoln advises Anderson attempt will be made to re-supply fort.
• April 11 – Beauregard demands surrender of Ft. Sumpter, Anderson refuses.
• April 12 – 4:30 a.m. – First Confederate shell bursts over Ft. Sumpter.

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