This Day in History

It's April 12, and one hundred fifty years ago today forces of the breakaway nation, the Confederate States of America, opened fire on Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston South Carolina. The cannonade lasted one day and the garrison in the fort surrendered. There were no human fatalities. One horse was killed.

There are two other things to commemorate on this day. One hundred years ago today the first non-stop "aeroplane" flight between London and Paris took place. And fifty years ago today Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

My purpose today, however, is to discuss the Confederacy and the beginning of the Civil War. I suppose from a narrow perspective the attack on Sumter was a success for the Confederate States. The fort was taken, after all, and there was no longer a US Army presence at the mouth of Charleston harbor. Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government undoubtedly felt that no sovereign government could abide a foreign fort in such a place, and removing it would pave the way for British and French trade with the newborn nation.

But the attack was really a calamity for the country as a whole and for the south in particular. The attack allowed President Lincoln to rally the north as nothing else could have. Enormous demonstrations took place in almost every northern city. Volunteers flocked to the stars and stripes. Even though the military action tipped Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee into the southern camp, it was still a disaster. By 1865, about 600,000 American men had died in the armies the attack had spurred into existence. Of the dead, about 250,000 were white southerners and another 100,000 were black men, mostly from the south. The southern lands were devastated, buildings destroyed, railroads torn up, animals killed, and capital spent or stolen.

And it really needn't have happened. What would the Confederacy have lost by doing nothing? If they sought legitimacy by shelling Fort Sumter, they could have achieved the same thing by just letting some time pass. Every college sophomore taking a political science course knows that one of the factors making a government legitimate is lasting for a long time. If they wanted to be sure of trade with Europe, that was ruined by the attack, not assured by it. And the three states that joined them after Sumter was blasted by cannon fire would have come over in short order anyway.

In short, the decision to attack Sumter was a blunder of huge proportions. We should be very glad they made such a mistake or we might have two nations now where one is enough.