Harper’s Weekly, April 20, 1861
BEGINNING OF THE WAR.
On Friday, 12th, at 27 minutes past 4 A. M., General Beauregard, in accordance with instructions received on Wednesday from the Secretary of War of the Southern Confederacy, opened fire upon Fort Sumter. Forts Johnson and Moultrie, the iron battery at Cumming’s Point, and the Stevens Floating Battery, kept up an active cannonade during the entire day, and probably during the past night. The damage done to Fort Sumter is stated by the Confederate authorities to have been considerable. Guns had been dismounted, and a part of the parapet swept away.
General Pierre G.T. Beauregard
Fort Sumter viewed from Sullivan’s Island, site of Fort Moultrie
Major Anderson had replied vigorously to the fire which had been opened upon him, but the Charleston dispatches represent the injury inflicted by him to have been but small. The utmost bravery had been exhibited on both sides, and a large portion of the Charleston population, including five thousand ladies, were assembled upon the Battery to witness the conflict.
Major Robert Anderson
Down to our latest advices, the battle had been carried on solely by the batteries of the revolutionists and Fort Sumter. The Harriet Lane, Captain Faunce, the Pawnee, and another United States vessel, were said to be off the harbor, but had taken no part in the conflict. The Harriet Lane is said to have received a shot through her wheel-house.
The opinion prevailed in Charleston that an attempt would be made during the night to reinforce Fort Sumter by means of small boats from the three vessels seen in the offing.
No one had been killed by the fire of Major Anderson, and the casualties among the Confederate troops in the batteries were inconsiderable. There is, of course, no account of the loss, if any, among the garrison of Fort Sumter.
The First Gun Fired by Fort Moultrie Against Fort Sumpter.; THE BOMBARDMENT CONTINUED ALL DAY. Spirited Return from Major Anderson's Guns. The Firing from Fort Sumpter Ceased for the Night. Hostilities to Commence Again at Daylight. The Correspondence which Preceded the Bombardment. The Demand for a Surrender and Major Anderson's Refusal. THE RELIEF FLEET OFF THE HARBOR. How the News is Recieved in Washington.
Published: April 13, 1861
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.The ball has opened. War is inaugurated.
The batteries of Sullivan's Island, Morris Island, and other points, were opened on Fort Sumpter at 4 o'clock this morning.
OUR CHARLESTON DISPATCHES.
Fort Sumpter has returned the fire, and a brisk cannonading has been kept up. No information has been received from the seaboard yet.
The military are under arms, and the whole of our population are on the streets. Every available space facing the harbor is filled with anxious spectators.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
The firing has continued all day without intermission.
Two of Fort Sumpter's guns have been silenced, and it is reported that a breach has been made in the southeast wall.
The answer to Gen. BEAUREGARD'S demand by Major ANDERSON that he would surrender when his supplies were exhausted, that is, if he was not reinforced.
Not a casualty has yet happened to any of the forces.
Of the nineteen batteries in position only seven have opened fire on Fort Sumpter, the remainder are held in reserve for the expected fleet.
Two thousand men reached this city this morning and embarked for Morris Island and the neighborhood.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
The bombardment of Fort Sumpter continues.
The Floating Battery and Stephens Battery are operating freely, and Fort Sumpter is returning the fire.
It is reported that three war vessels are outside the bar.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
The firing has ceased for the night, but will be renewed at daylight in the morning, unless an attempt is made to reinforce, which ample arrangements have been made to repel.
The Pawnee, Harriet Lane, and a third steamer are reported off the bar.
Troops are arriving by every train.
LATER DISPATCHES -- HOSTILITIES STILL PRODEEDING.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
The bombardment is still going on every twenty minutes from our morters. It is supposed that Major ANDERSON is resting his ment for the night.
Three vessels-of-war are reported outside. They cannot get in. The sea is rough.
Nobody is hurt. The floating battery works well. Troops arrive hourly. Every inlet is guarded. There are lively times here.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
The firing on Fort Sumpter continues.
There are reviving times on the "Palmetto coast."
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12 -- 3 A.M.
It is utterly impossible to reinforce Fort Shmpter, to-night, as a storm is now raging.
The morter batteries will be playing on Fort Sumpter all night.
FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12.
Civil war has at last begun. A terrible fight is at this moment going on between Fort Sumpter and the fortifications by which it is surrounded.
The issue was submitted to Major ANDERSON of surrendering as soon as his supplies were exhausted, or of having a fire opened on him within a certain time.
This he refused to do, and accordingly, at twenty-seven minutes past four o'clock this morning Fort Moultrie began the bombardment by firing two guns. To these Major ANDERSON replied with three of his barbette guns, after which the batteries on Mount Pleasant, Cummings' Point, and the Floating Battery opened a brisk fire of shot and shell.
Major ANDERSON did not reply except at long intervals, until between 7 and 8 o'clock, when he brought into action the two tier of guns looking towards Fort Moultrie and Stevens iron battery.
Up to this hour -- 3 o'clock -- they have failed to produce any serious effect.
Major ANDERSON has the greater part of the day been directing his fire principally, against Fort Moultrie, the Stevens and Floating Battery, these and Fort Johnson being the only five operating against him. The remainder of the batteries are held in reserve.
Major ANDERSON is at present using his lower tier of casemate ordnance.
The fight is going on with intense earnestness, and will continue all night.
The excitement in the community is indescribable. With the very first boom of the guns thousands rushed from their beds to the harbor front, and all day every available place has been thronged by ladies and gentlemen, viewing the spectacle through their glasses.
The brilliant and patriotic conduct of Major ANDERSON speaks for itself.
Business is entirely suspended. Only those stores open necessary to supply articles required by the Army.
Gov. PICKENS has all day been in the residence of a gentleman which commands a view of the whole scene -- a most interested observer. Gen. BEAUREGARD commands in person the entire operations.
It is reported that the Harriet Lane has received a shot through her wheelhouse. She is in the offing. No other Government ships in sight up to the present moment, but should they appear the entire range of batteries will open upon them.
Troops are pouring into the town by hundreds, but are held in reserve for the present, the force already on the island being ample. People are also arriving every moment on horseback, and by every other conveyance.
CHARLESTON, Friday, April 12 -- 6 P.M.
Capt. R.S. PARKER brings dispatches from the floating battery, stating that up to this time only two have been wounded on Sullivan's Island. He had to row through Major ANDERSON'S warmest fire in a small boat.
Senator WIGFALL in same manner bore dispatches to Morris Island, through the fire from Fort Sumpter.
Senator CHESNUT, another member of the staff of Gen. BEAUREGARD, fired a gun, by way of amusement, from Mount Pleasant, which made a large hole in the parapet.
Quite a number have been struck by spent pieces of shell and knocked down, but none hurt seriously. Many fragments of these missiles are already circulating in the city.
The range is more perfect than in the morning and every shot from the land tells.
Three ships are visible in the offing, and it is believed an attempt will be made to-night, to throw reinforcements into Fort Sumpter in small boats.
It is also thought, from the regular and frequent firing of Major ANDERSON, that he has a much larger force of men than was supposed. At any rate, he is fighting bravely.
There have been two rain storms during the day, but without effect upon the battle.
Everybody is in a ferment. Some of those fighting are stripped to the waist.
It will be seen that, under the military compulsion of the immense fiset and army which the Black Republican President has sent to subjugate Charleston, the Carolina forces have been forced, in self-defence, to attempt the reduction of that fort which so long has menaced their homes and firesides, and which Lincoln had formally notified them he was about to supply with provisions,--"peaceably if he can, forcibly if he must,"--a notification which, backed up by an immense naval and military force, was of course a declaration of war.
The war thus inaugurated by the Executive representative of the irrepressible conflict, South Carolina and the Confederate States have sought, by every honorable means, to avoid. As long as Major Anderson remained in Fort Moultrie, in accordance with the understanding between the Carolina and Federal authorities that the military status of the harbor was not be changed, not a Carolina hand was laid upon a single fort in the harbor. Fort Sumter was well known to be the key of the whole position, yet, though the Carolinians might easily have seised, at any time, this undefended stronghold, they stood rigidly by their pledge, until availing himself of the darkness of night, and in utter disregard of the compact between the two Governments, Major Anderson seized, occupied and possessed Fort Sumter, spiking the guns and burring the gun-carriages of Fort Moultrie, an act of war, recognized as such by all military authorities as well as by common sense, and the first act of war in that irrepressible conflict which Abraham Lincoln has now fully inaugurated. It was only when this first act of hostilities had been perpetrated that the volunteers of Charleston took possession of Fort Moultrie and commenced the erection of defensive fortifications in the harbor. But, even then, instead of resorting to an immediate bombardment of the fort, as they would have been justified in doing, and which Maj. Anderson did not then possess the means of returning with effect, they sent Commissioners to Washington earnestly. soliciting the Federal Government to restore peacefully the former state of things and place Maj.Anderson once more in Fort Moultrie. We all know how utterly fruitless was this respectful and fraternal invocation. Instead of the "bread" of peace which they asked, the Government gave them a "stone," in the Star of the West, crowded with armed men and death-dealing instruments of war. Not satisfied with these efforts for a pacific solution of the difficulty, the Confederate States also sent Commissioners to Washington, who for more than a mouth have been endeavoring to persuade the Administration peacefully to abandon Fort Sumter. These appeals the Administration have artfully pretended to heed, and a month ago caused it to be given out that Fort Sumter was to be abandoned; whereas, it now appears that all the time they were energetically preparing men and munitions of war for its reinforcement. In the meantime. the people of Charleston have been actually supplying Major Anderson and his officers with provisions, exhibiting a spirit of forbearance and generosity unprecedented in the annals of war. In the midst of the negotiations a fleet, larger than England keeps up in the Channel, an army of three thousand soldiers, with an immense amount of munitions of war, has been suddenly sent by the Government to attack Morris' Island, and force provisions, and probably men, into Fort Sumter. Simultaneously with this most menacing movement, the Southern Commissioners have been cavalierly dismissed from Washington, and a formal notification sent by Lincoln to Gov. Pickens that he was about to provision Fort Sumter, peaceably, if he could; forcibly, if he must.
Even then, with this thunderbolt suspended over their heads, the Confederate Government gave Major Anderson an opportunity for a peaceable evacuation of the fortress.--But their call for a surrender he refused, intimating that he might be compelled by starvation to evacuate in a few days, whereas it was that very necessity which Lincoln's fleet and army had been sent to prevent, a fact of which Major Anderson may have been ignorant, but which was none the less operative upon the Confederate States in requiring his surrender. Still, however, determined if possible to secure a peaceable surrender of the fort, the Confederate Government proposed to Major Anderson not to bombard Fort Sumter, if Major Anderson would state the time at which, as indicated by him, he would evacuate, and agree that, in the meantime, he would not use his guns against the Confederate Army, unless theirs should be employed against Sumter, adding that this proposition was made to avoid the effusion of blood. If Major Anderson really expected to be "starved out in a few days," he could have had no reasonable objection to compliance with this just and humane request. But he refused this proposition also, and thereby compelled the return-blow for the first act of hostility, which he himself committed in spiking the guns of Fort Moultrie, and seizing Fort Sumter, and which has been withheld for three months and a half, in order to exhaust every possible means for a peaceful solution of the difficulty. Nor was it until the appearance of an immense fleet and army in the neighborhood of Charleston harbor, intended to slaughter and destroy their people, and to clothe the whole Southern clime in sackcloth and ashes, that the citizen soldiers of the South have made at last when no other resource was left them, a solemn appeal to the God of Battles.
In that appeal they will be sustained by the whole civilized world. May the God of Battles fire the hearts, nerve the arms, and give victory to the banners of those patriots struggling for their firesides and their altars ! The time of forbearance and conciliation has passed, The hour of just and long-delayed vengeance has come. The "irrepressible conflict" which has been forced upon the peaceful homes and the unoffending citizens of the South, will be met by a people who will drench their native soil with the blood of their invaders, or perish, to the last man, in vindication of all that man holds dear.
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