Quotes Leading Up to the War

[hawglips]

HEADQUARTERS PROVISIONAL ARMY, C. S. A.,
Charleston, S. C., April 11, 1861.

SIR: The Government of the Confederate States has hitherto forborne from any hostile demonstration against Fort Sumter, in the hope that the Government of the United States, with a view to the amicable adjustment of all questions between the two Government, and to avert the calamities of war, would voluntarily evacuate it.

There was reason at one time to believe that such would be the course pursued by the Government of the United States, and under that impression my Government has refrained from making any demand for the surrender of the fort. But the Confederate States can no longer delay assuming actual possession of a fortification commanding the entrance of one of their
harbors, and necessary to its defense and security.

I am ordered by the Government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter. My aides, Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee, are authorized to make such demand of you. All proper facilities will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command, together with company arms and property and all private property, to any post in the United States which you may select. The flag which you have upheld so long as with so much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down.

Colonel Chesnut and Captain Lee will, for a reasonable time, await your answer.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[hawglips]

On the refusal of Major Anderson to engage, in compliance with my demand, to designate the time when he would evacuate Fort Sumter, and to agree meanwhile not to use his guns against us, at 3:20 o'clock in the morning of the 12th instant I gave him formal notice that within one hour my batteries would open on him.

G. T. BEAUREGARD,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.

[unionblue]

From the book, Lincoln's War, by Geoffrey Perret:

"...Lincoln asked Robert Chew, a clerk in the State Department, to report to him. Go to Charleston immediately, he told Chew, and read the following statement to Francis Pickens, the Governor of South Carolina:

"I am directed by the President of the United States to notify you to expect an attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only, and that, if such an attempt be not resisted, no effort to throw in men, arms or ammunition will be made..."

Unionblue

[thea_447]

Here is a copy of a letter from a citizen of my town, Prattville talking to a friend about the war. It shows the friendship that still remains even though these friends are separated by their opinions of the war.

At our Christmas party at an antebellum home here in my town this December I have the honor of portraying Miss Abbie Holt. I will also be playing the piano for the occasion, playing tunes of that era as well as Christmas songs, etc.

Please note that the person writing this letter reiterates what we Southerners on this board have been saying all along: that the South wanted nothing more than to leave the Union and be left alone.
---Thea
[1] Letter from Pratt &Ticknor Letterbook, Auburn University Special Collections, Auburn, Alabama

[1] This letter was written less than a month after the firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s first call for troops.

[1] April 12 – 13, 1861

[1] Lincoln refused to see the Southern commissioners and the South felt that Lincoln’s advisors misled the Southern delegation concerning the Northern intentions regarding the provisioning of Fort Sumter.

[1] On Saturday, April 27, 1861, 85 members of the Dragoons left Prattville for Montgomery and then from there Pensacola.

[1] According to the War History of the Prattville Dragoonsby Captain W.F. Mims, Miss Abbie Holt, daughter of Eliza (Pratt) Holt, presented the company with a silk flag.
[1] Letter from Pratt &Ticknor Letterbook, Auburn University Special Collections, Auburn, Alabama

[1] This letter was written less than a month after the firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s first call for troops.

[1] April 12 – 13, 1861

[1] Lincoln refused to see the Southern commissioners and the South felt that Lincoln’s advisors misled the Southern delegation concerning the Northern intentions regarding the provisioning of Fort Sumter.

[1] On Saturday, April 27, 1861, 85 members of the Dragoons left Prattville for Montgomery and then from there Pensacola.

[1] According to the War History of the Prattville Dragoonsby Captain W.F. Mims, Miss Abbie Holt, daughter of Eliza (Pratt) Holt, presented the company with a silk flag.

Prattville, May 11, 1861[1]

Mr. J.A. Holt

Philidelphia

Dear Sir[2]



I hereby acknowledge receipt of your letter, bearing date of April 26th, thus assuring you that the object of said epistle has been accomplished. This no doubt will afford you infinite relief, for even you must have regarded it as labor lost, and be lost in wonder and astonishment that anything of such a nature, without sufficient conservative element to preserve it upon its passage should ever have reached its destination or survived exposure to a Southern clime. Well do you say that it would be very strange if I did not entertain opinions in consensus with Southerners generally. Yes, it would be passing strange if I could so far forget the land of my adoption as to bear with any degree of complaisance the aggressions of abolition rule. To my New England birth and associations I am indebted for an indomitable independent spirit that will never submit to such sway. You say “you will not of course take any remarks that I may make upon this subject as personal nor consider them as coming from a personal enemy, though they may come from a public one.” A nice distinction without a difference! I and my country are one, and every enemy of my country is mine. You poor shortsighted mortals seem to think that the present crisis has sprung up like a guard in the night. You utterly lose sight of the fact that it is the aggressions of the past twenty years that have resulted in this; so treacherous are many of your memories that you are able to date no further back than the Battle of Sumter[3]. To accommodate such memories I will confine myself to occurrences of recent date. Perhaps you have altogether forgotten the fact that after declaring our right as sovereign states to secede, we sent commissioners to Washington for the purpose of negotiating friendly relations between that government and ours, and possibly you have not forgotten how they were treated[4]. We have not and can’t. The annals of history furnish no parallel of such deceit and treachery. You think the better and more thoughtful men here are still loyal at heart, but that they are over-ruled by the mob. What mob pray! We are entirely indebted to our northern journalists and friends for our knowledge of the existence of any such bodies. We are a unit here ready to sacrifice all upon the altar of liberty, and the word subjugate is not in our vocabulary. Victory or death is our watchword. Our whole country united, and should the Northern hordes come down upon us they will find us ready to give them a warm reception, in way of weather as well as arms. Our generals July, August, and Sept, your unacclimated troops will find to be formidable. Many thousands have volunteered more than are called for. Our little town has furnished over one hundred. The Prattville Dragoons, a fine cavalry company, left this place two weeks ago[5] and previous to leaving were presented with a flag of the Confederate States by a Northern Lady, a New Englander by birth but a whole-souled Southerner by adoption[6]. Our ladies are perfectly enthusiastic, forming sewing societies for making uniforms and fitting out our soldiers, also making thousands of sandbags for our batteries. With great fortitude they yield their Husbands, Fathers, Sons and Brothers for their countries defense some regretting when their all is gone that they have not more to give. Ours is a just and holy cause and with a firm reliance in the God of battles true hearts and strong arms we hope to be successful in repelling all invasions. In the commencement of your letter you say that my last to you contained a check. This you will find contains the note for the same which I hope will enable you to accomplish your desire of going “to the wars to crush out all traitors.” And as I am by you included under that head, by informing me of your movements I shall try to be ready to meet you on half way ground and try to give you more medicinal practice than it has yet been your fortune to get. I send you a representation of our flag that it may not be unknown to you when met with upon the field of Battle. This is the one under which every southerner expects to fight and one under which we will march. I include the message of our President to our Congress, to which I invite your careful perusal, as it will furnish you in a concise and able manner with the sentiments of every Southern heart. We have never and still do not ask anything of the North except to be left alone. That you seem determined not to do. With no officers of your government within the territory of the State of S.C. is any attempt to enforce your laws within her borders. You have persisted in claiming jurisdiction within a few fortified walls which were erected for the protection of that state and her commerce and evince an eagerness to bring on a fratricidal war (which is unparalleled in the history of civilized nations) merely for attempting to retain possession of property which is essential to her own preservation and safety. Hoping that the above may serve to give you an idea of my views in regard to the present state of affairs, I remain,

Yours,

M.E. Pratt


[1] Letter from Pratt &Ticknor Letterbook, Auburn University Special Collections, Auburn, Alabama


[2] This letter was written less than a month after the firing on Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s first call for troops.


[3] April 12 – 13, 1861


[4] Lincoln refused to see the Southern commissioners and the South felt that Lincoln’s advisors misled the Southern delegation concerning the Northern intentions regarding the provisioning of Fort Sumter.


[5] On Saturday, April 27, 1861, 85 members of the Dragoons left Prattville for Montgomery and then from there Pensacola.


[6] According to the War History of the Prattville Dragoonsby Captain W.F. Mims, Miss Abbie Holt, daughter of Eliza (Pratt) Holt, presented the company with a silk flag.

[samgrant]

Now if all women like this one were allowed to vote in 1860, then maybe someone else would have been elected.

Then the minority might not have to decided to "break up the government whenever they chose".

[thea_447]

I am having trouble getting into any of the threads tonight, they all want to have "quick reply answers" which is not what I want to use.


Also this has nothing to do with the above written letter and the response given (which by the way, I wholeheartedly agreed with), I shall post this item I ran across in Mcpherson:


******************************************


'Thus when secesionists protested that they were
acting to preserve traditional rights and values, they
were correct. They fought to protect their
constitutional liberties against the percieved
northern threat to overthrow them. The South's
concept of republicanism had not changed in
three-quarters of a century; the North's had. With
complete sincerity the South fought to preserve its
version of the republic of the founding
fathers--a government of limited powers that protected
the rights of property and whose constituency
comprised an independent gentry and yoemanry of the
White race undisturbed by large cities, heartless
factories, restless free workers, and class conflict.
The accession to power of the Republican party, with
its ideology of competitive, egalitarian, free-labor
capitalism, was a signal to the South that the
Northern majority had turned irrevocably toward this
frightening, revolutionary future. Indeed, the Black
Republican party appeared to the eyes of many
Southerners as 'essentially a revolutionary party'
composed of 'a motly throng of Sans culottes ...
Infidels and freelovers, interspersed by Bloomer
women, fugitive slaves, and amalgamationists.'
Therefore secession was a pre-emptive
counter-revolution to prevent the Black Republican
revolution from engulfing the South. 'We are not
revolutionists,' insisted James B. D. DeBow and
Jefferson Davis during the ... War, 'We are resisting
revolution ... We are conservative.'"
--James M. McPherson, _Battle Cry of Freedom_,
pp860-61

[samgrant]

Can we use this to refute the perception that Mr. McPherson has a Union/ Norther bias?

By the way, try the new Chat room, right Now Thea!

[matthew mckeon]

It is not a case of McPherson endorsing the Confederate position, it is a case of him describing that position. His conclusions in "Battle Cry" are how and why the war came on and was fought. He describes and analyzes why folks did and say what they did and said. Unlike many posters in this forum, he is describing the war, not refighting it.

[Alabaman]

Originally Posted by matthew mckeon

It is not a case of McPherson endorsing the Confederate position, it is a case of him describing that position. His conclusions in "Battle Cry" are how and why the war came on and was fought. He describes and analyzes why folks did and say what they did and said. Unlike many posters in this forum, he is describing the war, not refighting it.

Matthew,

Would you please tell us names of the "many posters" who are "refighting" the war? (Are you getting grumpy, again?;-)

Alabaman

[samgrant]

Originally Posted by matthew mckeon

It is not a case of McPherson endorsing the Confederate position, it is a case of him describing that position. His conclusions in "Battle Cry" are how and why the war came on and was fought. He describes and analyzes why folks did and say what they did and said. Unlike many posters in this forum, he is describing the war, not refighting it.

Just so. Unbiased.