Lunacy: Charleston and Southern

This virtual demand for the President to recognize the Southern Confederacy as an independent nation, caused him to "put the foot down firmly." He ordered an expedition to be sent to Charleston harbor immediately, under the direction of Mr. Fox (who had offered a plan for such action), with provisions and troops for Fort Sumter. Fox sailed from New York with a squadron of eight vessels, on the 9th of April, but only three reached the vicinity of Charleston harbor, which they could not enter because of a terrible storm that was sweeping over the ocean in that region. While these vessels (the Baltic, carrying the troops, and the Pawnee and Harriet Lane) were buffeting the tempest, the insurgents attacked Fort Sumter with bomb-shells and solid shot, with great fury. For three months after the expulsion of the Star of the West, Anderson had been kept in suspense by the temporizing policy of his Government. He had seen forts and batteries piled around Fort Sumter for its destruction, and had been compelled to keep his own great guns muzzled, waiting for an attack. Nearly all that time he was menaced daily with hostilities; abused by the Southern press; misrepresented by the Northern newspapers, and yet was forced to passively endure his situation until his supplies were exhausted. He had sent away the women and children to New York, in February, and had calmly awaited the course of events.

Meanwhile the leaders in the revolutionary movement were impatient to begin the destructive work. They were vehemently urging Virginia and other Border States to openly and practically espouse their cause. They feared the cooling effects of delay and hesitation, and anxiously sought a pretext for firing the first gun. The crisis was reached on the morning of the 8th of April, when President Lincoln, with the most generous fairness, telegraphed to Governor Pickens that he was about to send relief to Fort Sumter. It produced the most intense excitement in Charleston. Beau-regard, who was in command of the armed insurgents there, sent the message to Montgomery, to which L. Pope Walker, the Confederate Secretary of War, replied on the 10th, ordering him to demand the evacuation of the fort. "If this is refused," he said, "proceed, in such manner as you may determine, to reduce it." Beauregard replied, "The demand will be made to-morrow."