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may be expected to go on with almost absolute certainty. We are now the nucleus of a growing power, which, if we are true to ourselves, our destiny, and our high mission, will become the controlling power on this continent."

FORT SUMTER.

When the undisguised treason of South Carolina appeared, Major Robert Anderson, a gallant Kentuckian, had command of seventy men, with headquarters at Fort Moultrie. Regarding this position as critical and unsafe, he quietly removed his small garrison to Fort Sumter. It was farther from Charleston, and a better fort. This the leaders of the Rebellion considered an offence to the nation of South Carolina. Their papers denounced it as an act of hostility, and in violation of an express understanding with the government. Mr. Floyd professed to be very indignant at this breach of faith, and demanded that Mr. Buchanan should order our troops to evacuate the forts in Charleston Harbor. As the President hesitated, and Floyd saw no further opportunity of serving the cause of secession without danger to himself, he made this the occasion of his resignation, and went deliberately from under the eyes of the government over to her deadly foes.

In the mean time, the volunteers from South Carolina, and then from other Southern States, came into Charleston in great numbers, armed and drilled, ready to open the war. They immediately took possession of Fort Moultrie, and commenced a vigorous improvement of all their military defences.

The feeling of concern and alarm began to extend through the North. Timid, conservative men joined with the rebels to entreat Mr. Buchanan not to do any thing that would irritate the South, or provoke hostilities; while brave, manly patriots demanded that Fort Sumter should be immediately re-enforced and provisioned. The Legislature of South Caro

lina resolved, that "any attempt by the Federal Government to re-enforce Fort Sumter will be regarded as an act of open hostility, and a declaration of war." Gen. Dix, then Secretary of the Treasury, had attempted, but too late, to save two or three vessels at Mobile and on the Mississippi, and had sent that despatch which thrilled the patriotic heart of the nation, "If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot."

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Government determined to make an effort to relieve our garrison. For this purpose, "The Star of the West," a small steamer, left on the night of the 5th of June, with two hundred and fifty men and a supply of food, for Fort Sumter. She reached the waters off the city of Charleston on the 9th; and, as she moved up toward Fort Sumter, "she was fired upon from Fort Moultrie and a battery on Morris Island, and, being struck by a shot, put about, and left for New York, without even communicating with Major Anderson.” * Thus the conspirators commenced the war.

On the third day of March, P. G. T. Beauregard was commissioned by Jefferson Davis as a brigadier-general, and placed in command of all the forces at Charleston. On the day following, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States.

A small number of vessels had been collected, and sent to the relief of Fort Sumter; the President frankly and humanely sending word to the men leading the Rebellion, that these vessels were not to make war upon them, but "to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only; and that, if such attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in more arms or ammunition will be made, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort."

Under instructions from Mr. Walker, Confederate Secretary of War, Gen. Beauregard, on the 11th of April, demanded the surrender of the fort, which Major Anderson promptly declined. After notice of a single hour, at half-past four, * Greeley, i. 412.

A.M., on the twelfth day of April, 1861, the first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, from Fort Johnson, by Mr. Ruffin of Virginia, who craved the privilege as a distinguished honor. This gun awoke the nation from its slumbers. To the Confederate rebels it was the signal of the complete triumph of the slave-power and the death-knell of the Union: in fact, however, it was the death-knell of slavery, and the formal announcement of a new era of liberty to the continent and the world.

The conflict was short. Immediately the fires of Moultrie, Cumming's Point, and the floating-battery, answered the signal gun from Johnson; and a sheet of flame encircled the doomed fort and its gallant defenders.

Major Anderson made no hasty response. As was fitting, for two hours and a half this rebel fire poured its missiles upon the government fort without a note of response, that the world might know that the Confederates began the war. At length the guns of Major Anderson told the world that the nation would resist, and fight for its life. For thirty-four hours, this storm of ruin fell upon Fort Sumter, to be answered by the few guns of the Republic amid suffocating smoke and the flames of every thing combustible. The provisions of the little garrison were almost exhausted, their guns dismounted, their ammunition nearly gone. A chivalrous feeling rose in the hearts of the assailants toward their heroic countrymen in their imperilled condition. Mr. Wigfall of Texas risked his life to induce Major Anderson to cease resistance. Representatives of the conspirators took up the negotiation, and the fort was surrendered. The brief despatch of Major Anderson to his government, dated April 18, 1861, will explain the whole: "Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed, the gorge-wall seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of the heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions

but pork remaining, -I accepted terms of evacuation offered by Gen. Beauregard (being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities), and marched out of the fort on Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns."

It is not as a battle between armies that this event is to be considered; for it was simply seventy men in a beleaguered fort, with nothing in preparation for war, maintaining with the greatest heroism the honor of their nation and flag to the last moment, against some seven thousand men with all the munitions of war and perfection of appointments which money or science could provide. Not a man had been killed (God so ordered), excepting one by the bursting of a gun in firing the salute. But enough had been done to "fire the Southern heart," and to awaken in the breasts of patriot Americans the spirit which would rise to vindicate the nation's honor, and save our liberties.

PROVIDENTIAL ADJUSTMENTS.

We have seen, that, whether willing or otherwise, American freemen were brought sternly up to confront this menacing despotism. No cringing submission, no humiliating compromise, could avert the danger. All the endeavors of men, however rash or grave, were baffled by a power to a large extent unseen. Thus did God indicate that the time had come for a final settlement of this grand question of the continents and the ages.

The war, as it advanced, would show that vast sums of money were required to meet its expenses; and, in the reduced condition of government finances, faith in God, and confidence in the people, took the place of visible resources. We were compelled to fight. The bayonet was at our breasts. The shouts of defiance from the gathering

hosts of rebellion were ringing in our ears. The overt acts of treason were rapidly impoverishing us, and taking away the means of resistance. There was no alternative but to rise in arms, or hand over the fairest country and best government in the world to the hopeless rule of an odious tyranny. In such a crisis, how manifestly the wisdom of God rises above the folly of men! It soon began to appear that he had given to the friends of the government everywhere a large amount of surplus wealth, and a disposition to use it freely in defence of the public liberties. It was, moreover, a striking consideration that the rich and exhaustless mines of gold and silver on the Pacific slope, and on both sides of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, had been hid away during the long ages, and then discovered and developed just in time to meet this grand emergency. Without the large annual yield of the precious metals from these mines, it may be safely said that the resources for the war would have been soon exhausted, and the absolute destruction of trade must have compelled a premature accommodation. Equally providential was the fact, that the deathstruggle of the slave-power to get control of our Pacific empire in advance of the crisis signally failed. God stirred up the spirit of a few brave men to fight that battle on the coast; and they were Christian men, Christian ministers indeed, who moved to the front in the conflict, and, at the risk of obloquy and personal violence, led on the moral battles which saved that grand inheritance for freedom. This was Providence it was God forecasting, and providing for contingencies utterly beyond the reach of human sagacity.

And men were as indispensable as money,—not mere numbers; for nothing is more unreliable than the calculations of physical theorists as to just how many men it will require to secure success to a revolution or to overwhelm a rebellion. When we say men were required, we mean not merely the hundreds of thousands, the millions, to rise at the nation's call, and rush to the field of conflict; but we mean

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