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1 5 0 t h A n n i v e r s a r y E d i t i o n CIVIL WAR TRAVELER 2 0 1 0 Volume 13 Drifting to Disunion T or not to allow slavery. The Southern delegates believed that he year 1860 opened in a country filled with slave owners — backed by the Constitution and affirmed sharp edges. under Dred Scott Supreme Court decision — were entitled The patchwork quilt of compromises and court to protection of their property — slave or otherwise — anydecisions stitched together over decades to resolve the slavery where. question was not only fraying at the edges but now was comIt was that federal protection for slavery in the territories ing apart at the seams. that was the rub at the convention. The issue was submitted Deadly violence in Kansas, and more recently at Harpers to the platform committee, which split on the issue. “Cotton Ferry, seemed to indicate that the anger building between free state” delegates supported absolute government protection and slave America was growing beyond the control of judges for slavery in the territories and the Douglas contingent stuck and politicians. with the right of the citizens there to decide the question. The But politicians were going to get one last, great chance. It convention, by majority vote, supported the Douglas posiwas a presidential election year and maybe... just maybe… tion. And that did it. Fifty Southern delegates left the room an idea or a man might emerge to bring the country back and did not return. from the brink — to again bandage a sore festering since the Their departure made it impossible for Douglas to reach Constitutional Convention — and keep the country from flythe two-thirds of the original set of delegates required. The ing apart. Democratic Party left Charleston without a nominee and in The Democratic Party seemed to have the best shot at shambles. unifying the increasingly polarized citizenry. The Democrats' Slavery, as historian Bruce Catton described it, had finominating convention was set in Charleston SC — a city not nally proven to be the American political system’s one “undiexactly the poster child for “Union.” gestable lump.” In hindsight it was an odd collection of people playing It was the Republicans’ turn a few weeks later in Chicago. roles that April on what historian William W. Freehling called The long list of nomination contenders — led by New Yorker “Charleston’s eerie stage.” Mississippi Senator Jefferson DaWilliam Seward — all professed opposition to slavery in the vis, who in less than a year would become president of the territories and exhibited various degrees of hostility to the Confederates States of America, was one of the leaders of the “peculiar institution” itself. Only five slave states, and none moderate Southerners. One of Davis’s most earnest supporters from the Deep South, sent delegates. — at least at the beginning of the process — was none other So it wasn’t a matter so much of policy as of politics for than Benjamin Butler from Massachusetts, who soon would the Republicans as they decided their nominee. In a masterbecome a Union general and known throughout the South as ful convention campaign, dark horse Abraham Lincoln was “The Beast.” Mercury special edition. nominated. Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the frontrunner for Charleston Image courtesy South Carolina Confederate Relic Room The Democrats tried again, this time in Baltimore. With the nomination at Charleston. His supporters, headquartered and Military Museum most of the Charleston dissenters missing, at the Hibernian Hall just across Meeting the convention nominated Douglas, who Street from the convention site at Institute held to his long-standing middle ground Hall, believed they could muster the twoposition. Shortly after, the “Southern” thirds of the delegate votes required for Democrats advanced Kentuckian John nomination. C. Breckinridge who ran on a platform The Douglas candidacy, though, faced supporting slavery – in the territories and a number of problems, not the least of otherwise. which was hostility from the Southern Earlier, a group of veteran politicians delegations. Most hated his “Popular Sovcalling themselves the Constitutional ereignty” doctrine, holding that settlers in the territories could decide whether The 1860 presidential candidates: Lincoln, Douglas, Bell and Breckinridge C O N T I N U E s O N PAG E 2 Maryland Antietam Campaign, Booth escape, Baltimore and more, see pages 3–8 West Virginia Pennsylvania Gettysburg campaign and battle, National Museum, see page 9–11 1861 in the mountains, John Brown’s Raid and more, see pages 12–19 North Carolina Battlefields and sites including Fort Fisher, Bentonville see page 20–27 South Carolina Fort Sumter, Sherman's Campaign, more, see pages 28–31 w w w. C i v i l Wa r Tr a v e l e r. c o m Virginia Overland and Peninsula Campaigns, Lee’s Retreat, and more, see pages 35–51 2 CIVIL WAR TRAVELER DRIFTING to DISUNION C O N T I N U E D from PAG E 1 Union Party, nominated Tennessean John Bell who ran under the motto “the Union as it is, and the Constitution as it was.” So the race was set and the edges were sharper still. The man in the middle, Douglas, was taking shots from both sides but was the only candidate to mount a serious campaign nationwide. Lincoln stood on his record and said little, leaving some Southern politicians to believe he was capable of almost any atrocity aimed at them — including abolishing what they believed was a Constitutionally sanctioned way of life. By the Nov. 6 election day some Southerners were bracing for a Lincoln presidency. Others welcomed it, hoping it would be the “last straw,” pushing Southern states out of the Union. Lincoln did not win a majority of the votes cast that day. He was not even on the ballot in Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida or Georgia. But he won a plurality of the popular vote (1,865,908 of 4,685,561 votes cast) and walloped everyone in the Electoral College (180 votes to second-place Breckinridge with 72). Douglas collected only 12 electoral votes but finished second in the popular vote. It didn’t take long for the Southern states to react to Lincoln's election. It was as if a great weight of uncertainty, building for decades, was suddenly lifted. The final insult had been delivered, some Southern leaders now pronounced, and it was time to act. No state acted more quickly and decisively than South Carolina. Within days, the state’s two U.S. senators resigned and the legislature called a convention for Dec. 17 in the state’s capital, Columbia. Local communities in South Carolina held rallies and elected delegates to what now was apparently a “secession” convention. The 170-member delegation assembled at the First Baptist Church in Columbia on the appointed date and got to work. But before much could be done, the fear of a smallpox outbreak in the city forced an adjournment to Charleston. Fence outside St. Andrew's Hall The delegates were called to order again at St. Andrew’s Hall on Broad Street and prepared for a vote. There was no debate or division in Charleston this time. On Dec. 20, 1860, the convention voted 169–0 to repeal the state’s 1788 ratification of the U.S. Constitution and secede from the Union. Finding that St. Andrew's Hall was too small for an official signing ceremony, the delegates adjourned once again and met that evening a few blocks away at Institute Hall, the place where the Demo- cratic Convention had come apart nine months earlier. Following the two-hour ceremony, church bells rang, fireworks exploded, special newspaper editions came off presses, and the streets filled with celebrants. The noise certainly carried across Charleston Harbor to the small garrison of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Moultrie. The new independent state (nation?) of South Carolina now felt it had a legal claim to the fort. The commander at Moultrie, Maj. Robert Anderson, had grown increasingly uneasy as he watched events in Charleston unfold. He felt the fort’s position on a spit of land jutting into the harbor was vulnerable to attack. So, on the day after Christmas, six days after the grand signing ceremony downtown, Anderson prepared to move. That night, after spiking the fort’s guns, Anderson ordered his men to row out to an unfinished stronghold at the mouth of the harbor… Fort Sumter. ▼ Related events First Baptist Church, Columbia Hibernian Hall South Carolina sites associated with 1860 election/secession Charleston Unfortunately, the two buildings most associated with the Democratic and Secession conventions were destroyed in an 1861 fire. The site of Institute Hall (126 Meeting St.) is noted with an historical marker on the current building. The original cast iron fence in front of St. Andrew’s Hall still stands on Broad Street, between King and Legare streets. A marker on the fence describes the site. Hibernian Hall, home to the Steven A. Douglas delagation during the 1860 National Democratic Convention, still stands at 105 Meeting St. The South Carolina Historical Society, 100 Meeting St., is located in the 1827 Fireproof Building. The original “Secession Banner” that hung over the convention when the Ordinance was signed is on display there with a small exhibit of related items. The building is open during regular business hours. The Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting St., offers an excellent exhibit with numerous items of furniture used during the Secession Convention The Confederate Museum, 188 Meeting St., includes many items relating to secession including a flag hoisted over the Customs House the day after the convention voted. The Fort Sumter Education Center features an excellent exhibit highlighting the events leading to war, and the Fort Moultrie visitor center includes a small exhibit highlighting the Dec. 26 evacuation.. Columbia First Baptist Church, 1306 Hampton St. – This church sanctuary appears much as it did Dec. 17, 1860, where the first secession convention was held. A small exhibit here includes many related items. The church office is open during business hours. South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, 301 Gervais St. – The secession-related exhibit includes one of the 200 authorized copies of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession and other items. South Carolina State Museum, 301 Gervais St. – The secession exhibit includes another copy of the Ordinance. Other South Carolina sites Beaufort – The Maxcy-Rhett House, known as the “Secession House” at 1113 Craven St., was one of the Rhett family homes and was the site of many early secession meetings and discussions. Abbeville and Cheraw – Both towns were the site of early public meetings urging secession in 1860. Check at the visitor centers for the sites of historical markers. ■ w w w. C i v i l Wa r Tr a v e l e r. c o m Among events planned to commemorate the dramatic events in 1860 South Carolina are a seminar, “A House Divided” scheduled Dec. 3–4 in Charleston, a monthly lecture series at Fort Moultie, and special exhibitions of the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession at the South Carolina State House in Columbia (Dec. 17) and the Charleston Museum (Dec. 20). Many other seminars and events feature the Election of 1860. See CivilWarTraveler.com/events for details. EASTERN CIVIL WAR TRAVELER www.CivilWarTraveler.com An Independent Newspaper © Copyright 2010 PAGE ONE INC. P.O. Box 4232 Richmond VA 23220-4232 Editor/Publisher Don Pierce 804-399-5737 [email protected] Associate Publisher for Design Norma Pierce [email protected] Database Administrator Greg LeHew