United States History Student Edition

The War Begins GUIDING QUESTION How did the two sides compare at the start of the war? Lincoln’s decision to protect federal properties in the South would lead to conflict. Southerners who sought to break away from the Union could not allow federal troops to remain within their borders. Fighting at Fort Sumter The South soon tested President Lincoln’s vow that the Union would hold on to federal property. Confederate forces had already seized some United States forts within their states. Although Lincoln did not want to start a war by trying to take the forts back, allowing the Confederates to keep them would amount to admitting their right to secede. The day after taking office, Lincoln received a message from the commander of Fort Sumter, a U.S. fort on an island guarding Charleston Harbor. The message warned that the fort was low on supplies and the Confederates demanded its surrender. Lincoln told South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens that he was sending an unarmed group to the fort with supplies. He promised that Union forces would not “throw in men, arms, or ammunition” unless they were fired upon. Jefferson Davis ordered his forces to attack Fort Sumter before the Union supplies could arrive. Confederate guns opened fire on April 12, 1861. High seas had prevented Union relief ships from reaching the besieged fort. The Union garrison held out for 33 hours before surrendering on April 14. Thousands of shots were exchanged during the siege, but there was no loss of life on either side. The Confederates hoisted their flag over the fort, and all guns in the harbor sounded a triumphant salute. With the loss of Fort Sumter, Lincoln decided he had to act. He issued a call for troops. Volunteers quickly signed up. In reaction to Lincoln’s call, the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas voted to join the Confederacy. The Civil War had begun.

had broken the contract by refusing to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act and by denying Southern states equal rights in the territories. As a result, Southerners argued, the states had a right to leave the Union. In the South, many Southerners welcomed secession. Others, however, feared what actions the North would take against them. In the North, some abolitionists preferred to allow the Southern states to leave. If the Union could be kept together only by compromising on slavery, they declared, then let the Union be destroyed. Most Northerners, however, believed that the Union must be preserved. For the newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, the issue was “whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose.” Lincoln Takes Over As the country waited for Lincoln’s inauguration in March 1861, people wondered what actions he might take against the seceding states. People also wondered what would happen in Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland, and Arkansas. Those slave states had not yet seceded, but if the United States used force against the Confederates, they might choose to. In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln spoke to the seceding states directly. He said that he could not allow secession and that “the Union of these States is perpetual [forever].” He vowed to hold federal property in the South, including a number of forts and military installations, and to enforce the laws of the United States. At the same time, Lincoln pleaded with the South: “ In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. ” — Abraham Lincoln, first Inaugural Address 7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING 1. Summarizing Explain how the South used the concept of states’ rights to justify secession. 2. Analyzing Describe Lincoln’s tone in his first Inaugural Address.

(1)McPherson, James M. The Illustrated Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; (2)Abraham Lincoln, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress.

Division and Civil War 429