The Crucible of War by Fred Anderson :: Civil War Slavery American History Essays

The Crucible of War by Fred Anderson An account of ex-slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass opens this chapter. When news arrived of the Confederacy firing on Fort Sumter, Douglass cheered the outbreak of the fighting and Lincoln's vow to maintain the Union. Douglass recognized that the Union was fighting solely to uphold the Constitution and preserve the nation, not to end slavery; but he also understood, much earlier than most, that a war to save the Union would inevitably become a war to end slavery. "And the War Came" President Lincoln was determined to stop the spread of secession and to take no action that would push the still undecided Upper South into seceding. He sought to reassure the Deep South of the safety of slavery, giving Unionists there the possibility of reasserting themselves and overturning the secession decision, but at the same time he made it clear that he was determined to uphold the Union. His Confederate counterpart, Jefferson Davis, was equally resolved to see an independent Confederate States of America. While neither man sought war, both knew one side would provoke it sooner or later, and the war would come. The Surrender of Fort Sumter Fort Sumter, a federally manned fort inside Charleston harbor, was a hateful symbol to the Confederacy of the nation it had abandoned. Union forces at the fort were running short of supplies and, unless they were reprovisioned, would have to evacuate. Lincoln knew that to surrender Sumter would be to abandon his commitment to preserving the Union, so he sent a relief expedition, telling Confederates that there would be no attempt to send troops or munitions unless the supply ships were attacked. The Confederates faced a dilemma: If they allowed the ships through, they would be submitting to federal authority, but taking the fort would make them the aggressors. The decision was made on April 12. When Fort Sumter's Union commander refused the southern order to surrender, Confederate shore batteries began shelling the fort, which surrendered on April 14, 1861. The Civil War had begun. The Upper South Chooses Sides Lincoln's proclamation calling for the loyal states to muster 75,000 volunteers to put down the rebellion forced the other slave states to choose sides. Over the next five weeks, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina seceded. The Confederacy now contained eleven of the fifteen slave states. In the border slave states of Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, and Missouri, secession was thwarted by a combination of local Unionism and federal intervention, including the use of martial law to suppress Confederate sympathizers.