Scribe
Cadet
- Joined
- May 9, 2008
- Location
- St. Louis, Mo
To all:
I know we've rehashed this before about a zillion times, but I think it's always an interesting discussion. Besides, I can't wait for my latest lesson in revisionist history. The North attacked Sumter? It's own federal outpost? Please explain.
Be prepared to hear the same old, same old how the Union precipitated the crisis by the move from Moultrie to Sumter, by the attempt to resupply the garrison at Sumter, by refusing to negotiate for the surrender of Sumter to the rebels.
Be prepared to hear how it was all plot by Lincoln... how stupid Jefferson Davis and the other Confederate leaders must have been to be taken in in that way.
Don't expect to hear much about the facts that the move from Moultrie to Sumter was a command decision by Anderson not a dictate from D.C., about the rebels firing on the Star of the West, that by firing on Sumter the Confederate leaders were following the pledge of Virginia secessionist Roger A. Pryor to South Carolina that "I assure you that just as certain as tomorrow's sun will rise upon us, just so certain will Virginia be a member of the Southern Confederacy; and I will tell your governor what will put her in the Southern Confederacy in less than an hour by a Shrewsbury clock. Strike a blow!"
So the rebels struck a blow, fired on Sumter and forever after in defeat claimed that Lincoln or the devil or someone had made them do it.