US History

U.S. History Study Guide

©2018 of 194 13.4 Fighting Breaks Out It all began at Fort Sumter: Five days after South Carolina seceded, Union troops stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, fled to Fort Sumter, an island in Charleston Harbor. The North considered the fort to be the property of the United States government. The people of South Carolina believed the island belonged to the new Confederacy. The first engagement of the Civil War took place on this disputed soil. Abraham Lincoln took his oath of office as president of the Union. As weeks passed, pressure grew for Lincoln to take some action on Fort Sumter and to reunite the states. Lincoln had a dilemma. Fort Sumter was running out of supplies, and sending supplies might result in a conflict. States that still remained part of the Union (such as Virginia and North Carolina) might be driven into the secession. People at home and abroadmight become sympathetic to the South. Lincoln could not allow his troops to starve or surrender and risk showing considerable weakness. On April 6, Lincoln told the governor of South Carolina that he was going to send provisions to Fort Sumter. He would send no arms, troops, or ammunition unless South Carolina attacked. Now the conflict would be in the hands of Jefferson Davis and the South. Attacking Lincoln's resupply brigade would make the South the aggressive party. Davis decided he had no choice but to order Union Major Robert Anderson to surrender Sumter but Anderson refused. The Civil War began when Confederate artillery, under the command of General Pierre Gustave Beauregard who opened fire on Fort Sumter. The Confederates fired on the fort for three and a half days and Anderson eventually surrendered. The day following the Sumter's surrender, Lincoln declared war and called for the Union to provide volunteers to end the Confederate rebellion. In response to this, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas declared their secession. The remaining slave states, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri, wavered but stayed with the Union. 13.5 Border States There were five Border States: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and West Virginia. These are the five slave states that remained in the union for varying reasons. Delaware had more in common with other Northern states even though it was a slave state. Maryland actually did not have a choice because the state was placed under Marshall Law which prevented it from seceding. Kentucky and Missouri did secede, but their state governments prevented them from being able to fully leave the Union. Finally, West Virginia started out as part of Virginia which seceded from the rest of the state in June 1861 because they had more in common with Pennsylvania and Ohio than they did their own state. They voted against Virginia seceding from the union and would then secede from the state, after the West Virginia seceded from the union but joined the Confederacy. It was not until 1863 that they became a state themselves, having been a Northern territory at the time. Achieve Page 166