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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.04.15 15:42l 49 Lines 2252 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 52734_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Apr 12
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N9PMO<N3XPD<N0KFQ
Sent: 150412/1339Z 52734@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1861
The Civil War begins
The bloodiest four years in American history begin when
Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open
fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston
Bay. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars
launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On
April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two
days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation
calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern
"insurrection."
As early as 1858, the ongoing conflict between North and South
over the issue of slavery had led Southern leadership to discuss
a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the
majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession
if the Republicans, the anti-slavery party, won the presidency.
Following Republican Abraham Lincoln's victory over the divided
Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina immediately
initiated secession proceedings. On December 20, the South
Carolina legislature passed the "Ordinance of Secession," which
declared that "the Union now subsisting between South Carolina
and other states, under the name of the United States of America,
is hereby dissolved." After the declaration, South Carolina set
about seizing forts, arsenals, and other strategic locations
within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern
states-Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana-had
followed South Carolina's lead.
In February 1861, delegates from those states convened to
establish a unified government. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi
was subsequently elected the first president of the Confederate
States of America. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March
4, 1861, a total of seven states (Texas had joined the pack) had
seceded from the Union, and federal troops held only Fort Sumter
in South Carolina, Fort Pickens off the Florida coast, and a
handful of minor outposts in the South. Four years after the
Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the Confederacy was defeated
at the total cost of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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