 After making the decision to send supplies to Ford Sumter, Lincoln had to decide on a plan for how this could be accomplished. For that, he turned to Gustavus Fox. Fox was a Navy man who had spent 15 years on the ocean. By 1861, he had moved on from this life, marrying a woman in 1856 and working in the textile industry. When he learned about the incident with the Star of the West, he figured he understood the problem with the original plan. They were trying to fit too large of a vessel through a narrow channel in the harbor. So Fox came up with his own plan. First, they would bypass the channels entirely using steam tugs with light boats that can move in shallow water so they could slip over the bar. Then they could enter the harbor at night, bringing provisions and reinforcements. Protecting them would be a powerful naval fleet, watching their backs as they moved. Fox believed that the land-based artillery would be of little use against the small, fast-moving boats. Fox sent his plan to his brother-in-law, Montgomery Blair, who passed the idea on to Winfield Scott. Scott spoke to Fox about this plan on February 5th, and was impressed enough that he brought him to see the Secretary of War. The position was held by Joseph Holt at this time as John Floyd had resigned and Lincoln had yet to take office, so he was only in the position for a short time. When Lincoln took office, Montgomery Blair was made Lincoln's postmaster general, and he brought Fox to speak with the new president. On March 15th, when Lincoln held the Cabinet meeting to poll his Cabinet members about their opinions on Sumter, you might remember that Montgomery Blair was the only person who forcefully believed that Lincoln should resupply the fort. Augustavis Fox, his brother-in-law, was in the room during this meeting. Not long after, Lincoln told Fox to start preparing his plan. On March 21st, Fox visited Fort Sumter. Anderson briefed Fox about the Garrison's provisions and what they would need if resupplied. Anderson also carefully explained the absurdity of any attempt to resupply the fort. On April 4th, Lincoln gave Fox the order to ready his plan, and Fox rushed to New York to secure the ships he needed. There were three such rigs in the New York Harbor, the Baltic, a large steamer, to carry the supplies and 200 men to reinforce the Garrison. Protecting the Baltic would be three Navy ships, the Harriet Lane, the Pocahontas, and the Pawnee, but all three of these ships were too big to reach the harbor, so Fox also secured three tugs, the Freeborn, the Yankee, and the Uncle Ben. But none of these three tugs would arrive in time, and Fox's plan depended on them. But the plan moved forward anyway, and I wouldn't it. As I argued at the end of the previous episode, resupplying Fort Sumter I believe was never really Lincoln's goal. None of his military advisors believed that it could be successfully done, but to provoke the Confederacy, the Baltic and the Naval vessels would serve that purpose just fine. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. In the last episode, I told the story of the crisis at Fort Sumter just prior to the attack. Today we will cover the bombardment of Fort Sumter, which essentially marks the official starting point of the American Civil War. So here we are on the cusp of a conflict that would launch a war, and up comes Captain Joseph Martz, skipper of the merchant vessel, Rhoda A. Shannon, from Boston. Martz probably wasn't exactly a Rhodes scholar. He had heard something about some kind of conflict going on in Charleston, but he didn't pay much attention to the news. He was vaguely aware, he would later say, that some new Confederacy had been formed, but it didn't seem to affect him. So he was on his way to Georgia from Boston, just as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. With the winter ending, Martz was carrying out a contract to ship a large load of ice. But Martz, in addition to not being very well informed about things going on in the South, did not know the geography very well. So on April 3rd, he saw the Charleston harbor through his spyglass, and he thought it was Savannah, which was his destination. He didn't know the waters well, so he sailed into the harbor. He told one of the members of his crew to hoist the American flag to let them know he was a friendly ship. Captain Martz figured that once somebody saw the American flag, a guide would be sent to help guide his ship into the harbor. So Martz was confused when nobody seemed to be coming to help him. Oh well, they just have to bring the ship into the harbor themselves. He started moving across the bar to Sullivan's Island, where Fort Moultrie had a garrison of soldiers who were ready with artillery to send fire to any hostile ships. The minute Moultrie assumed that this was the reinforcements they were prepared for, and they opened fire on the merchant ship. At Fort Sumter, Major Anderson didn't know what to do. He was still pretty much in the dark about what was going on in Washington, and he and his men were pretty much waiting for orders to evacuate. When a sergeant of the guard burst into the mess hall to inform the officers that Fort Moultrie was firing on a ship, waving the American flag, Anderson was in a dilemma. On the one hand, his men felt it was their duty to return fire to protect their flag. On the other hand, Anderson had been given no such orders since Washington had pretty much been keeping him in the dark, and Anderson didn't want to start a war when he expected to receive evacuation orders any day now. Not to mention the fact that if Fort Sumter did open fire, they'd almost certainly be reduced to rubble. They didn't have the supplies to carry on an extended battle. Back on the merchant ship, Captain Marks thought the firing was the result of Fort Moultrie not knowing that this was an American ship, so he responded by having his men raise the American flag once again on the masthead where it couldn't be missed. This poor guy didn't know what he was doing. At Fort Moultrie, seeing the ship continue to move forward while being fired on and responding by waving the American flag, well this must be Union reinforcements. Captain Alexander Warley, who had served in the US Navy before joining the Confederacy, rushed into tears at the realization that he was opening fire on the very flag that he had fought for years to defend. Luckily, the artillery at Moultrie weren't very good with their equipment, and none of their shots hit the ship. Marks finally retreated a bit and set anchor out of range of the guns, though Moultrie continued to fire. Anderson sent two of his officers to speak to the ship, and when they got there, they were able to inform Captain Marks that he was actually not off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, and he should probably move on. At Fort Sumter, Anderson had avoided starting the war on April 3rd by holding his men at bay until he could gather all the facts. This really is a remarkable display of restraint on the part of Anderson, I think, and we should probably wonder about what our current military actions might look like if modern leaders waited until they had all the information to act on. But despite Anderson's sobriety under pressure, most of his men were furious at him for allowing the citizen sult to go by without response. The following day, Anderson called his officers to a meeting to explain himself. He was waiting on orders from Washington, but was getting nothing. His superiors were essentially throwing him under the bus and putting him in a position to potentially start the war for them, which Anderson was absolutely determined not to do as much as he could. He drafted a note to Washington about the incident and handed it to Theodore Talbot to deliver. But Anderson was embarrassed about the whole thing, and he was depressed, and he was frustrated, and he was running low on supplies, and he had no idea what was going on in the capital, and he had to keep all of this to himself to show leadership to his men. It was a tough situation. The anger among the men at Fort Sumter toward the Charlestonians only got worse when a couple of the men went into the city and purchased provisions, only to have the local police confiscate their provisions, leaving them now without money or food. And when they returned to the fort, the garrison simmered at the apparent injustice. Three days after this, Governor Pickens officially backed this decision by police and decreed that the men at Sumter would be allowed to receive mail, but not food. If they weren't going to leave, they would have to be starved out of their garrison. This was the situation a week before the bombardment. Three days before the merchant ships stumbled into Charleston Harbor, Anderson had written a letter to Washington telling him about the state of his provisions. On April 4th, Lincoln read the message from Major Anderson that had been sent on the 1st. And after reading the letter, Lincoln decided that it was time to set the plan in motion to send reinforcements to Fort Sumter. He sent his own letter to Anderson, which was signed by Secretary of War Cameron, though it seems to be well accepted that the letter was drafted by Lincoln himself. The letter read, Sir, your letter of the 1st occasioned some anxiety to the President. On the information of Captain Fox, he had supposed you could hold out until the 15th without any great inconvenience, and had prepared an expedition to relieve you before that period. Hoping still that you will be able to sustain yourself until the 11th or 12th, the expedition will go forward, and finding your flag flying will attempt to provision you and, in case the effort is resisted, will endeavor also to reinforce you. You will therefore hold out, if possible, till the arrival of the expedition. It is not, however, the intention of the President to subject your command to any danger or hardship beyond what, in your judgment, would be usual in military life, and he has entire confidence that you will act as becomes a patriot and a soldier under all circumstances. Whenever, if at all, in your judgment, to save yourself and command, a capitulation becomes a necessity, you are authorized to make it." It's worth noting that Lincoln has been criticized by historians, even those who are very generous to Lincoln, for his language and the context in the letter. After leaving Anderson in the dark for weeks, the President was essentially putting him in a position to start the war, a war that Anderson had been trying hard to avoid. You will act as becomes a patriot and a soldier under all circumstances. The letter read, Anderson received the letter on April 7th, after he had sent two other notes to Washington that had yet to be read, and after the incident with the merchant ship, and Anderson was appalled by the letter. He had no doubt that any relief expedition would result in fighting. He himself had been among the many people advocating the evacuation of the fort. He and his men were not in a position to carry out extended fighting, and they were already tired, hungry, and cold from their lack of supplies, and they were frustrated by the absence of orders from Washington. Now Anderson is told to act as becomes a patriot and a soldier. It was an infuriating letter. This mindset is vital in understanding Anderson's actions following this. The day after receiving this letter, he wrote a letter of his own to his friend Lorenzo Thomas, who worked in the Adjutant General's office in Washington. In it, Anderson finally abandoned his forced calm, the soldierly and professional demeanor that he had been carrying on despite being ordered to take over the command at Charleston, only to be abandoned by his commanders. In the letter, Anderson poured his heart out. Anderson admitted that he was shocked by Lincoln's decision to send a relief expedition. He wrote, quote, I fear that its results cannot fail to be disastrous to all concerned, end quote. He informed Thomas of the poor state of supplies. He lacked enough oil to keep a single lantern lit for one night. How would the boats be able to see their way into the harbor when he couldn't even light a lamp? Anderson said that he should have been informed about the expedition when it was being planned, rather than kept in the dark about matters that concerned his men. He also said, quote, I frankly say that my heart is not in the war, which I see is to be commenced, end quote. Anderson wasn't asking for help. He just needed to vent his frustrations with somebody who could empathize with him. He asked Lorenzo Thomas to destroy the letter as soon as he was done reading it. But the letter never made it to Washington. It was intercepted in Charleston. The Confederate leaders published Anderson's private letter. They wanted the public to see what the Union government was putting this military hero through. Anderson was revered by people in both the north and the south. This decision was quite clearly an attempt to turn public sentiment against Lincoln and his administration. But instead, it just embarrassed Major Anderson, who would be criticized for sharing his thoughts, particularly regarding the line about his heart not being in the coming war. But Anderson had bigger issues to worry about for the next week. The minute Sumter had been reduced to half-rations, then their bread rations were reduced to two crackers a day, then less. They had just enough salt pork left in their supplies to keep them alive. But they were literally starving while they waited for the ships to arrive, knowing that they were supposed to somehow put up a fight when the day came. Anderson genuinely felt like the President had set his men up to be slaughtered. He decided that if he used the Barbette guns to fire over the Fort's parapets, the men manning these guns would be easy pickings for the Moultrie soldiers. Anderson was hardly a coward. He had seen many battles, unlike the majority of his men. But he knew futility when he sought. He ordered his men to stay in the casemates at the bottom of the Fort when the firing came. They'd still be in danger. But at least they'd be less exposed than they would be on the parapets. Fort's pickings in Pensacola was dealing with a similar standoff, trying not to start the war. Reinforcements had been sent to Fort Pickings, but Captain Adams, who was in charge of the ships carrying the troops, refused to drop them off. The Confederacy had already been sending volunteers to Pensacola to prevent any resupply of pickings under the command of Braxton Bragg, though Davis had sent him instructions to avoid initiating any military conflict. Lincoln would have to fire the first shot of this war. Davis hoped. But if Lincoln did fire the first shot, it wasn't literal. It came in the form of a letter sent to Charleston that arrived on April 8th. It was delivered by Theodore Talbot who'd been at Fort Sumter until he was sent to deliver the April 1st message to Lincoln. And Robert Chu, who was a clerk at the State Department, they met with Governor Pickings, bowed, and handed him their note from President Lincoln. Lincoln's note informed Governor Pickings that supplies were being sent from Washington to Fort Sumter and would be arriving soon. Should no attempt be made to prevent the ships from resupplying the fort, food would be the only thing unloaded. The weapons and soldiers on board the ship would only be unloaded if any attempt was made to block the delivery. But as Confederate leaders, this was an unequivocal threat of aggression. They had already informed Washington that any attempt to supply the fort would be treated as an act of aggression. So Lincoln could hardly turn that around on them like this. William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State, had also been assuring the Confederate leaders that the fort would be evacuated. This was not done on Lincoln's orders, but the Confederate leaders didn't know this and the Secretary of State was responsible for communicating in this manner with foreign governments. So this seemed like a violation of promises they'd already been given. With that in mind, there seemed to be no reason to trust Lincoln's word that the troops and weapons would not be unloaded in the event that they permitted the delivery of food, which they'd already declared they wouldn't allow anyway. Pickens showed the note to General Beauregard and said something about drafting a reply. Robert Shoe cut him off. Don't bother drafting a reply, he said, because he was not authorized to accept one. Lincoln had effectively refused any possibility of peaceable communication on the matter. So this was it. In the minds of the Confederacy, this was the coercion they were talking about. This was the aggression. The letter was a clear and undeniable threat to the Confederacy. This was the first shot of the war, and Lincoln had fired it. Any response taken by the Garrison at Moultrie, a response Lincoln clearly anticipated, would essentially be defensive. Now I present this in this way because it was perceived by the Confederates in that way. Whether or not you personally believed this was an act of aggression is at least partially a matter of personal philosophy as to what constitutes a legitimate threat, as I've said before. But the historical facts of the matter are what they are, and at the very least they should be taken into any consideration regarding war, guilt, and immoral judgment if such things are important to you when looking at historical events. Talbot wanted to know if he would be allowed to return to Fort Sumter. Absolutely not, he was told. Beauregard said that the pair should leave the city. Their note was basically a statement that they were in enemy territory. The two men were scared about the prospects of traversing Charleston safely, so Pickens ordered them in escort to ensure their safety as they left town. Then Pickens and Beauregard discussed what must be done. The note did not say how many men were being sent, it only said that ships, plural, were being sent, and there would be troops on them. They speculated that as many as 4,000 Union soldiers might be on board. This was a gross overestimation of course, but they had no way of knowing how many men were being sent, and they wanted to be able to handle whatever force they confronted, so high estimates were not irrational in that sense. They had to plan accordingly. They discussed various ways that an assault might be carried out. General Winfield Scott was a Virginian and he knew this geography well, so they took that into account, considering all the possible places Scott might send forces other than the obvious. Of course we know that Scott was not the engineer of the mission and he didn't support it, but Pickens and Beauregard had no knowledge of this, nor could they have, so again these speculations were not irrational. They estimated that the attack could come as early as April 10th, two days away, so they had to prepare quickly. Above all else, they agreed that when the ships arrived, they would have no choice but to respond. Anything less would be submitting to Northern coercion, which was unacceptable. That, frankly, was what they had seceded to get away from in their view. After Jefferson Davis received word from Governor Pickens about the coming Union ships, he told Pickens that Fort Sumter must be kept completely isolated. Then he sent General Beauregard orders to demand the immediate evacuation of Fort Sumter and, if Anderson refused, to commence the attack. On April 11th, after delaying for a couple of days, Beauregard sent the ultimatum to Anderson. There's no doubt that Anderson wanted to evacuate, but he had received Lincoln's orders to defend the Fort as well as he could, so he sent a note to Beauregard thanking him for the, quote, fair, manly, and courteous terms, end quote, but he refused to evacuate. As the men who were sent to deliver the ultimatum were leaving Fort Sumter, Anderson gave one final statement. He said, quote, gentlemen, if you do not batter the Fort to pieces about us, we shall be starved out in a few days, end quote. Even now, Anderson was trying to avoid starting a war, but the battle would come the next day, despite all of Anderson's efforts to avoid conflict. Lincoln had forced the hand of the Confederacy, and Beauregard had his orders from Jefferson Davis. It's worth giving some background about Civil War artillery in the situation at Fort Sumter to help visualize Anderson's situation a little better. Artillery was the most important military technology in the mid-19th century, but it was a dangerous and difficult technology to handle. The gunpowder that lobbed the cannonballs had to be ignited in a way that wouldn't hurt the people handling the gun, and this was difficult. They'd have to put the gunpowder into the cannon and then try to ignite it through the vent hole. This was first done by thrusting a hot string or poker into the vent hole, which was a very dangerous and unpopular job. But by 1861, artillerists had started employing a friction primer, which was a two-inch long copper tube filled with gunpowder. This made the lighting of artillery quite a bit safer. But even with this improvement, manning a cannon was dangerous. When the gun went off, the recoil would launch the cannon backwards and sometimes considerably so, sometimes as much as 30 feet. And the cannon wouldn't just fly straight back as the recoil might launch it in unpredictable directions. Aside from having to avoid getting hit by a flying cannon, the artillery team had to tediously re-aim the gun before every shot. But gun carriages helped men to deal with this as well, which is why it was such a big deal when the men burned the carriages at Moultrie before moving to Fort Sumter. The carriage allowed the artillery team to better aim the cannon by being able to angle the gun upwards. And it also helped absorb the recoil so the cannon wouldn't be sent flying after every shot. So artillery had gotten easier to man, but there were still aspects that required skill and training. After the gun was shot, artillery had to jam a sponge down the mouth of the gun and spin it clockwise, exactly three times, which was meant to both clean the barrel and cool down the gun to prepare it for another round. You didn't want to spend any more time cleaning the barrel than you had to, obviously, since time is such a factor during battle. But if you went too quickly, you'd have even bigger problems. While the gun was being cleaned, another crew member would wear a padded glove and hold his finger over the vent hole to prevent an unintentional ignition of remaining gunpowder. Then another crew member would have to bring a new cartridge of gunpowder over to reload the cannon, always being wary not to accidentally set off any other explosions. The gunpowder cartridge was also a newer innovation in artillery that allowed the men to more quickly reload the cannon and more precisely measure the gunpowder, which was important in aiming because the amount of gunpowder dictated the distance of the shot. But a gunpowder cartridge actually had to be sewn by hand at this time. Ideally, they'd be made out of wool because wool would burn up more cleanly and leave behind no lingering residue. But if you didn't have the wool, other materials would work too. But if you used cotton or paper, for instance, then it would be more likely that some lingering residue would set off an unintentional explosion. During the war, sewing cartridges would be one way women would contribute to the military effort. At Fort Sumter, both the soldiers and their wives worked to sew cartridges. While they were held hostage at Sumter, they really didn't have much to do, so they spent a great deal of time monotonously sewing gunpowder cartridges. By the way, I mentioned a few times in the last episode, the women and children at Fort Sumter, but it is worth clarifying that they were evacuated in early February, so they were only suffering with the soldiers at Fort Sumter for part of the time that they were trapped there. There were also two types of cannonballs the men had to be trained to deal with. What was called a shot was the easiest to deal with. This was just an iron ball, like what we typically think of when we think of cannonballs. This would be useful in breaking down fortifications. A shell was better against men, but it was more complicated to use. These cannonballs were hollow and their cavity could be filled with gunpowder if you wanted to set off an explosion wherever they landed, or small metal balls so you could have a spray of shrapnel once the shell exploded. The shell had its own fuse, though, so the explosion didn't get triggered by the impact of the cannonball, but by the timing of the fuse. But this made shells very dangerous for the crew. If the fuse to the shell got damaged, you were lucky to just have it turn the shell into a shot. Basically, the explosion wouldn't go off. The other possibility of a damaged fuse would be a premature explosion taking out some of your own guys, possibly. There was also what was called a hot shot, which required a shot furnace. Both Moultrie and Sumter had a shot furnace. This used a regular shot, but they would heat it beforehand so that when it landed against a wooden structure, a fort or a ship, most likely, it would start a fire. But this was also difficult and dangerous to deal with and required three additional men for the typical five-man artillery crew because of the complications of loading a heated ball into a cannon, which was obviously difficult to handle. But you also didn't want the ball to ignite the gunpowder early. So the process of manning an artillery, roughly, was to throw in a cartridge, ram in the cannonball, and then aim the cannon. The carriages made it easy to aim the cannon up and down, for instance, but turning the gun left or right meant laboriously moving the entire gun carriage. We're talking about thousands of pounds here. Some of the biggest guns could weigh up to 10 tons, so aiming a cannon was not a fun task and required an entire team of men. Then somebody would thrust a wire into the vent hole and fidget with it until it pierced the gunpowder cartridge. Once the shot went off, you had to quickly clean and cool the gun without igniting any residue and then repeat the process. It was an imperfect process, too. The sponge obviously couldn't perfectly clean the gun barrel, so as the battle went on, more and more gunpowder would accumulate, which would make the gun progressively less accurate. When the gun went off, the explosion was loud enough to damage the eardrums of the men, even if they were covering their ears. Veteran artillerists were commonly deaf by the end of their careers. You also had to deal with the smoke left by the gunpowder, so if you're an artillerist at this time, you're having to do all of this difficult and dangerous work with explosions that take out your hearing and while trying to breathe and see through clouds of gunpowder smoke. Then add to this the fact that you're being fired on as well. Artillery teams would have a spotter whose job it was to keep an eye out for incoming cannonballs. If a cannonball was coming toward them, which was easy to see since they'd be arcing through the air for nearly a full minute, the spotter would have to yell out a signal for the rest of the crew to take cover. Obviously, as the battle wore on, it would be more difficult to hear a spotter's yell because your own ears would be ringing from the explosions. And every gun was different, so an artillery team had to be an expert at every type of cannon in the middle of battle. An artillery team might have to switch guns for one reason or another, and they were expected to be able to do this efficiently with full knowledge in how to handle whatever gun they might have to jump to. And then at Fort Sumter, you can add the last element that this was all expected to be done by men who were exhausted and starving. When Major Anderson gave his recommendation to President Lincoln that they should be evacuated, he would have been aware of all of this. Anderson was a military expert. Winfield Scott would have been aware of this when giving his advice to Lincoln, but President Lincoln was not a military man when he sent his orders to Anderson telling him to defend the fort as long as he could when he discouraged evacuation, when he delayed the resupply mission until the last moment, when he decided to ignore all the advice of every military expert in his ear, Lincoln had no idea what he was really ordering these men to do. At 4.30 a.m. on April 12th, Captain George James ordered Lieutenant Henry Farley to fire the first shot of the Civil War. From Charleston, civilians were able to watch the shell arc across the sky to Fort Sumter. The shell detonated before it landed, exploding perfectly above the fort like fireworks. It was a spectacle. And Charlestonians had been waiting for the show for more than a day. Those who owned slaves had ordered them to lay blankets out on the flat rooftops of their homes and to prepare drinks and a picnic. Guests showed up in the home of friends to watch the battle with them. There were 43 pieces of artillery aimed at Fort Sumter. And after Farley sent the first shot, the rest of the artillery team started firing in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor. It didn't take long though before the ordered pattern of cannon fire devolved into each artillery team firing just whenever they were ready rather than waiting their turn. The bombardment continued for two and a half hours before Fort Sumter attempted to return fire. The first round ordered by Abner Doubleday shot too high and flew over the heads of the Confederate soldiers. The sixth shot from Sumter hit the iron battery but it ricocheted harmlessly away. The gun wasn't powerful enough to cause any real damage. Doubleday knew how to manage artillery but they didn't have the proper equipment to aim very well and as men were inexperienced. They had been practicing with the guns for the past few weeks but this was the first real experience the majority of the garrison had in actual battle. The men at Sumter also had a severe shortage of cartridge bags. Even though they had been sewing bags in their downtime they lacked the cloth to make as many bags as time would have otherwise allowed. This is something I think we don't think about regarding the logistics of the Civil War. A supply of gunpowder was more of a liability if you didn't have the proper equipment to make use of it which was the case if you ran out of gunpowder cartridges. Firing from both sides continued through the morning. Fort Sumter had the ammunition but they were running out of gunpowder cartridge bags and the Confederates had the cartridges they needed but they only had enough ammunition to last them about 48 hours. Sumter though would start filling their lack of supplies first and by the late morning it was clear that they were going to soon run out of cartridges. Major Anderson gave the order to reduce the number of guns in play to only six so as to conserve the cartridges. Three separate fires broke out at Fort Sumter throughout the day. The largest fire came after the Confederate shell exploded against the gorge wall where the officers quarters were. But another cannon shot hit the water cisterns nearby that put out the flames. For the other fires the men who were not busy manning the artillery were doing what they could to put out the flames. Two men from Company East snuck away to make use of a gun aimed at the iron battery across the harbor. They figured that if they hit the battery with this large gun that was not being used they might actually be able to do some real damage unlike the first shot I mentioned that glanced harmlessly off the battery. But two men were not enough to effectively manage a piece of artillery and they were trying to do this while taking fire from Confederates. So one of the two men set off the gun prematurely and the recoil from the shot launched the gun out of its chassis and the gun flew down the stairs nearly hitting the other guy. And another event and probably one that speaks most poorly of the soldiers at Sumter the men got annoyed at the sight of some of the spectators watching the battle in front of the Moultrie House. When the officers were occupied elsewhere some of the men aimed two 42 pound guns at the crowd and fired. Neither shot hit, but one of the shots landed not far in front of the spectators and then bounced over their heads hitting the second floor of the Moultrie House behind them, the crowd scattered. Then in the afternoon Gustavus Fox's fleet of ships started to come into view but the ships faced trouble. Fox was on board a steamer, the Baltic and he first met up with an armed revenue cutter the Harriet Lane. He told the captain of the Harriet Lane that he wanted to use the ship to cover his move until the warship the Pawnee arrived. But the captain of the Harriet Lane refused because he was under orders from Lincoln to wait until the Palhattan showed up. But Lincoln was confused. The Palhattan was on its way to Florida to ship reinforcements to Fort Pickens and Lincoln had actually meant to tell the Harriet Lane to wait for a different ship with a similar name the Pocahontas. For those who may not be aware, Pocahontas' father was named Palhattan so this was presumably the source of Lincoln's confusion. But the Pocahontas was nowhere to be found either. They were also missing the three tugs that Fox had designed his plan around being that they were small enough to cross over the bar without getting stuck and wouldn't be easy to hit by the artillerists. So Fox's plan was in shambles but as I've already pretty much asserted I don't really think Lincoln ever cared very much about whether Fox's plan was successful or not. If it had been so be it but I do believe that Lincoln was probably more interested in getting the Confederates to initiate the war and that had already been accomplished. But regardless of Lincoln's intentions, Fox was sincerely trying to get supplies to Fort Sumter. So with the few ships that did show up to the rendezvous point, Fox started moving in. But it soon became clear that the ships weren't going to be able to do much as they sat out of the way. By nightfall, Fox's ships were still sitting nearby and firing had died down almost completely. Beauregard kept two guns firing at Fort Sumter but nothing more. So far there were only a handful of men with minor injuries between both sides. When leaders in Montgomery learned about the goings on off the coast of Charleston, they were riled up. The Confederate Secretary of War, Leroy Walker gave a poorly crafted speech in which he spoke about the Confederate flag being raised above Washington DC. These words would be used against him in the future to help make the case that the Confederacy was not only the aggressor but they were intent on taking over the government of the United States or at least the Capitol. Had this been the case, we might accurately call the American Civil War an actual Civil War. And some people point to this speech as evidence that the term isn't a misnomer. But the reality is that Walker was being bombastic in his excitement and he was hardly speaking on behalf of his government. While the battle at Fort Sumter was being waged, the troops at Fort Pickens did finally receive their reinforcements all of whom were unaware that the war had already begun. Only hours after the reinforcements arrived, Braxton Bragg received orders to prevent any communication with the ship carrying the reinforcements. The orders came too late for Bragg to act on them but had they arrived today earlier, we may be telling the story of how Fort Pickens had started the Civil War. At 7.30 in the morning on April 13th, more than 24 hours after the bombardment had commenced, a fire broke out near the officer's quarters. Possibly the fire that had started the day before had never fully been put out and some smoldering rubble had fallen and started the fire back up again. But we don't really know what started this new fire. Rain had fallen the night before and much of the fort was still damp but the fire spread with the help of a morning breeze and black smoke started blowing everywhere. The fire had spread quickly and clouds of smoke were rising. Seeing the fire destroying the fort for them, the Confederates started firing faster than they had been. Let the fire take care of one end and make sure that the men couldn't do much to deal with it while facing cannon fire elsewhere. Fox decided that he couldn't just sit by and watch so even though it wasn't the ideal plan, he agreed to put the 200 troops on board a schooner and send them to Fort Sumter after dark. But the garrison at Sumter wouldn't hold out long enough for this plan to even actually be attempted. A hot shot from the Confederates set another fire after landing near a soldier's bedding, igniting it. Then a shell went off sending shrapnel under the legs of a laborer. Roofs and walls started to crumble under the flames. Then the flames spread to the stairwell under which was stored hundreds of grenades. They exploded mixing a cloud of white smoke and with the black. The smoke was the worst of it all. The men could barely breathe at this point and wind was blowing the smoke right toward them. They used wet handkerchiefs to cover their faces and they stayed close to the ground so the smoke would rise above them. At noon, the wind finally helped them out blowing the smoke away from the soldiers but the men at Sumter were done. At one o'clock, the flag fell. When the Confederates saw the flag come down, they assumed it meant surrender. Colonel Louis Wigfall took a boat to Fort Sumter with another volunteer, Private William Gordon Young and three slaves. But while he was doing this, the men at Sumter were actually scrambling to raise the flag up again. They weren't ready to surrender just yet. It was the fire that had brought the flag down. The flag at Sumter went back up and the men on Morris Island tried to yell to Wigfall that the battle wasn't over but he couldn't hear them. So Fort Moultrie fired a warning shot and the 32-pound ball landed uncomfortably close to Wigfall's boat. Wigfall didn't know why this was happening so he kept moving forward towards Sumter. Then Young pointed out that Wigfall had no flag to signal with so Wigfall pulled out a large white handkerchief and started waving it. Young ripped off pieces of a shirt sleeve and tied them to the end of his sword to wave as well. When they reached the fort, the Confederates were still firing on it. Wigfall went around the side of the fort to try to find a way in. While he was gone, Major Anderson came out of the front gate to see what they wanted, seeing only Private Young and the three slaves. He asked what they wanted. Young said that he was escorting an officer who had wandered off to speak with Anderson. The situation undoubtedly looked odd to Anderson who probably was confused as to why Wigfall didn't try to enter through the front gate. He told Private Young and the slaves to follow him inside the fort but Young refused to leave his post until Wigfall returned. But then somebody came out of the fort to let Major Anderson know that Wigfall was now inside wanting to speak with him. So all of the men returned inside to Fort Sumter. When Wigfall was finally able to speak to the officers before Anderson arrived, he said, quote, let us stop the firing. You're on fire and your flag is down. Let us quit. Jeff Davis, the officer with the unfortunate name, responded, no sir, our flag is not down. Step out here and you will see it waving over the ramparts. Obviously this is what the other men had been trying to warn Wigfall about when he continued moving forward toward Sumter despite dealing with friendly fire. But now that he was here, he wanted to make sure his mission wasn't a waste of time. Let us quit this, he said. Here is a white flag. He held out his handkerchief. Will anybody hoist this? The officer said that if anybody was going to wave a white flag, it would be the Confederates. So Wigfall asked if it would be all right for him to wave the handkerchief. The officers allowed Wigfall to stand on the parapet and wave the white handkerchief. At this, Davis told one of his men to take the handkerchief when Wigfall and try waving it himself. The men at Sumter were ready to surrender after all. But when the man held up the white handkerchief, a shot landed just next to him. God damn it, he said. They don't respect the flag, they're firing on it. Wigfall responded. They fired at me two or three times. I stood it and I should think you might stand it once. At this point, Anderson showed up and Wigfall introduced himself and suggested a ceasefire, not a surrender. It seems that even when Wigfall had offered his white handkerchief to the other officers, this is really what he meant. Wigfall was just offering a ceasefire, but the other officers took it to mean a surrender. But Anderson knew the offer of a ceasefire was just generosity, they weren't going to win. It was like offering a draw to a good opponent in chess when you know you're going to win the game, but it was well played. Wigfall spoke. You have defended your flag nobly, sir. You have done all that it is possible to do, and General Beauregard wants to stop this fight. On what terms, Major Anderson, will you evacuate this fort? Again, Wigfall avoided collowing it a surrender. It was an evacuation. Anderson responded that he had already told Beauregard his terms. This was true, though in the message he said it would come on April 15th when Beauregard had only given them until the 12th. The terms were to be allowed safe transportation with their belongings, and if they would be allowed, they would salute their flag as it was being lowered. Wigfall agreed. While this conversation was taking place, somebody had actually been raising Wigfall's white handkerchief over Fort Sumter. Apparently nobody who left records even noticed this was going on. It was only after the conversation took place that it was noticed that the handkerchief had already been raised. The firing had come to an end. A little while later, Anderson would find out that Wigfall had not even been sent to speak on behalf of Beauregard. After seeing the white handkerchief, Beauregard sent his emissaries, Stephen Lee, Portia Miles, and Roger Pryor. They'd come to help put out the fire. Anderson told him the fire was under control, and they'd already spoken to Wigfall. The men informed Anderson that Wigfall hadn't even spoken to Beauregard in the past two days. Anderson was embarrassed and angry, thinking that Wigfall had been speaking on behalf of Beauregard. So Anderson said, very well, gentlemen, you can return to your batteries. He then told them he was going to raise the American flag and the battle could recommence. The men were stunned. They went off to a corner of Fort Sumter to confer privately and then came back and spoke to Anderson again. They asked for a parlay. They asked Anderson to write down his conversation with Wigfall and they would take it to Beauregard. While waiting for Beauregard to write down his account of the conversation, Roger Pryor was thirsty. They were in a room that Dr. Crawford had been sleeping in, and he had recently felt ill and prescribed tiny doses of potassium iodide. The bottle was near Roger Pryor, whom mistook it for water. He chugged it down greedily, swallowing it before he realized it wasn't water. The men sent for Dr. Crawford, who informed Pryor that he had just poisoned himself. Crawford grabbed a stomach pump, shoved the tube down Pryor's throat and saved the man's life. It's no real purpose in telling this anecdote, by the way, except how cartoonish the whole thing seems to be when I imagine it. Kind of like some anecdotes I recounted in the Nicaragua episodes a while back. This is just the kind of thing that needs to be in a movie about Fort Sumter. This guy grabbing a bottle of poison and just chugging it down. When the terms of surrender were finally brought to Beauregard, he authorized his emissary, this time David Jones, to agree to everything except for the salute. Anderson said that the salute wouldn't be a deal breaker, but it would mean a lot to him and his men to be allowed to salute the flag they had defended. Jones relayed the message to Beauregard and then came again to Anderson to tell him that they were allowed to salute their flag. At 2.30 p.m. on April 13th, the men were ready to give their salute. They had guns ready to fire the salute, but they didn't know how many shots it should be. One man asked Anderson if he planned to fire a 34-gun salute, which would mean indicating that they didn't recognize secession. If they fired a 27-gun salute, it would send the opposite signal, saying that they recognized the legitimacy of secession, an idea that Lincoln and many Northerners refused to consider. Anderson responded, quote, "'No, it is 100, and those are scarcely enough.'" Then he burst into tears. When the Confederates stood by to listen to the salute, they were counting the number of shots. When they passed 27, they grew tense. It would be an insult for Anderson to give a 34-gun salute after they had graciously allowed them to salute at all. When the 35th shot went off, they relaxed, but the 47th shot fired prematurely. Private Daniel Howe was trying to jam a cartridge bag into the muzzle of the gun when it ignited and tore off his right arm at the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. Then some smoldering debris flew into a pile of cartridges nearby, exploding them and sending hot pieces of wood and slate and lead all over the place. The entire crew of that particular gun was wounded, but Howe didn't make it. Officially, he became the first casualty of the Civil War, though his death was an accident. In fact, there is some bitter irony in the fact that Hadbo regard not respectfully allowed them in to salute their flag. Howe would not have been killed, but obviously nobody could have foreseen the accident. With Howe's death, they did not finish their hundred gun salute, but they did fire off three more rounds to end the clean 50. The Battle of Fort Sumter was over, but the war had just begun. With his justification in place, Lincoln used the occasion to call for 75,000 volunteers for the Union Army. He refused to recognize the session. This was not an act of war. As far as Lincoln was concerned, it was an act of rebellion, and he was ready to use military force to suppress it. But despite his success in maneuvering the Confederacy and defying the first shot, many people considered the Confederacy justified. And attacking Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call for troops was a tremendous abuse of executive authority. It would be enough to send four more states into the Confederacy and force Lincoln to institute martial law to prevent Maryland and Missouri from possibly joining as well. The second wave of secession will be the subject of the next episode. For more content like this, visit Mises.org.