Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Please note that Doubleday, the author of these reminiscences, was the only avowed Republican among the officers of the command in Charleston in 1860-61. But as an officer on the scene it is interesting to see how he felt about the actions in Charleston in the "Winter of Secession".
Robert Anderson, the new commander who arrives in November 1860, was born in KY and married to a GA woman, regarding himself more and more as a georgian in those days. He was a strong pro-slavery man, but he was also a strong pro-Union/anti-secession man. Beyond that, he was a man in the mold of Robert E. Lee, who would do what he saw as his duty no matter what others thought. Doubleday was one of his senior subordinates, and has an interesting view of him.
Without reading the much-appreciated link, I'm guessing that Abner was against just about every decision Anderson made; and that in it he explained exactly why he was right and Anderson (the fool) was wrong.
Doubleday was an adequate commander, but there are reasons he didn't rise above Division Command.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Without reading the much-appreciated link, I'm guessing that Abner was against just about every decision Anderson made; and that in it he explained exactly why he was right and Anderson (the fool) was wrong.
Doubleday was an adequate commander, but there are reasons he didn't rise above Division Command.
I was leaning that way myself before I read it, but his opinion on Anderson seems pretty fair and balanced. Virtually all Army officers seem to have respected Anderson, and he was, of course, a National Hero by the time Doubleday wrote. Anderson was also seemingly one of Winfield Scott's two favorite officers in 1860, an experienced combat soldier, and deliberately chosen to handle the Charleston command at a difficult moment.
Okay. So maybe I will download a chapter or two.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Maj. Anderson was chosen to command in Charleston, specifically because of his southern birth and sympathies, in spite of which it seems that his loyalty to the United States was such that it was never really questioned by those in power at the time; really quite remarkable, considering the times.
I'd recommend the first 3 or so to get a look at what the Union officers in the forts saw going on around them in Charleston in the days before Anderson moved theem to Fort Sumter.
Doubleday is, however, fairly sharp in his opinion about the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd.
Just to bring this old thread back to the top for those who have not seen it.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie 
Linear Mode
