Battalion
Banned
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2005
trice said:"Historians have also concluded that the no secession/no compulsion opinion vanished from public view like the melting snow immediately after the arrival of news of Ft. Sumter in any particular area of the North. It was replaced with anger and outrage -- followed by massive volunteer enlistment to avenge the insult.
From that, we can conclude that the declarations of secession and the subsequent provocative acts of the seceding states (January-early April, 1861) were not enough to cause a war. The violent assault on Ft. Sumter, coming on top of all that, was enough to cause a war in the minds of Northerners and Westerners.
That all seems clear and decided. We know why the North went to war: the South attacked them."
"Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight."
Proverbs 18:17 (Living Bible)
"The Secret Out. -- It is evident now that the reason why the fleet did not assist Major Anderson was because the Government really wished Major Anderson to be defeated. The Tribune tacitly confesses it this morning. It says: 'We have lost Fort Sumter, but we have united the North.' This corresponds with the wish of a prominent Republican, who said he hoped Major Anderson would be defeated, in order to do just what the Tribune now claims it has done--expose a gallant band of soldiers to death in order to carry a political point!"
There is every reason to believe that the above paragraph from the New York Day Book speaks the truth, and unmasks the guilty authors of the war. The whole Charleston exhibition was a compound of treachery, dissimulation and devilishness. The war of coercion had been resolved upon, and afraid to assume the responsibility of their own act, the Cabinet secretly got up this affair only for the purpose of provoking a conflict in such a manner as to give them a plausible appearance of having been the attacked party. In this way have they imposed upon the Northern people and aroused them by their crafty appeals and false representations to the desired pitch of indignation. It was a smart trick, but an ineffably base one. They have accomplished their infernal purpose, and are now glorifying in their success.
Petersburg Express, April 1861
~
"...by an accident, for which you were in no way responsible, and possibly I, to some extent, was, you were deprived of a war-vessel [Powhatan], with her men, which you deemed of great importance to the enterprise....
...You and I both anticipated that the cause of the country would be advanced by making the attempt to provision Fort Sumter, even if it should fail; and it is no small consolation now to feel that our anticipation is justified by the result."
Abraham Lincoln to Capt. G.V. Fox (commander of expedition to relieve Fort Sumter), 1 May 1861
It is strange that the one vessel considered absolutely necessary for the success of relieving Fort Sumter was diverted elsewhere by an "accident"...
Fort Sumter Relief Force
U.S.S. Pawnee
1289 Tons
Armament- 10 (Eight 9-inch guns, Two 12-pounders)
U.S.S. Pocahontas
694 Tons
Armament- 6 (Four 32-pounders, One 10-inch rifle, One 20-pounder Parrott)
U.S.S. Harriet Lane (revenue cutter)
600 Tons
Armament- 2 (Two 32-pounders)
Baltic (transport)
Armament- None
Carrying 200 troops (artillerists) for the re-enforcement of Fort Sumter.
U.S.S. Powhatan
2415 Tons
Armament- 3 (Three 12-pounders)
Carrying 300 additional seamen to assist in the re-supply/re-enforcement effort.
(Never arrived.)