Civil War-150 years ago this week
Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
The date normally accepted as the start of the American Civil War is April 12th, 1861 when the State of South Carolina fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This coastal defensive fort was garrisoned by US Army troops.
While this is the 'accepted' start date, important events crucial to this event happened earlier, some many years earlier. Here listed are some of those events:
1776-The Declaration of Independence first draft denounced the slave trade but this was deleted by the final draft-Colonists were aware of the issue
1793-Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin turning cotton farming into a large-scale profitable industry
1807-William Wilberforce succeeded in getting the British House of Commons to abolish slave trade in England
1820-The Missouri Compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state and Maine to join as a free state
1822-Wilberforce urged British Colonies and other countries to suppress slavery with great success but no move in the US
1832-The New England Antislavery Society was formed (William Lloyd Garrison)
1852-Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and inflamed the Northern States over the cruelty of slavery
1854-The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed those territories and any future ones to decide for themselves if they wanted slavery
1857-The US Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case decided that a slave was not a citizen so had no right to sue
1859-John Brown and 21 other men attack the Armory in Harper's Ferry hoping to encourage a slave uprising
February 27,1860- Abraham Lincoln states in a speech at New York's Cooper Union that the Constitution provides the power to control slavery in the territories
April 30,1860-Delegates of 8 slave states walk out of the Democratic National Convention saying Stephen Douglas does not support slavery enough
May 3,1860-The Democratic National Convention ends without naming a candidate (Charleston, SC)
May 18-23,1860-The Republican National Convention nominates Abraham Lincoln in Chicago
June 18-23,1860-The Democratic National Convention nominates Senator Stephen Douglas (Baltimore, MD) with no slave states represented
June 28,1860-Slave state Democrats meet (in Baltimore) and nominate John C. Breckenridge for President
November 6,1860-Lincoln is elected: Hannibal Hamlin as Vice President
December 3,1860-President James Buchanan tells Congress that no state has the right to secede but the Federal Government has no power to stop it
December 24,1860-Major Robert Anderson shifts his garrison from Ft. Moultrie to Ft. Sumter - South Carolina troops occupy Ft. Moultrie
January 9,1861-South Carolina fires on the supply ship 'Star of the West' carrying supplies to Ft. Sumter
January 9,1861- Missouri secedes from the Union
January 10,1861- Florida Secedes;
January 11,1861-Alabama Secedes;
January 19,1861-Georgia Secedes;
January 26,1861-Louisiana Secedes; W.T. Sherman resigns from the Louisiana Military Academy
February 1, 1861-Texas Secedes;
February 4, 1861- Provisional Government meets for the first time in Montgomery, Al
February 8-9,1861- The name 'Confederate States of America' is chosen and Jefferson Davis is elected President
March 4,1861- Lincoln Inaugurated as President of the United States
March 6,1861- The Confederate States establish the "Provisional Army of the Confederate State"
April 6,1861- Pres. Lincoln informs South Carolina that he will provision Ft. Sumter but will reinforce only if attack
April 11,1861-Confederate General P.T.G. Beauregard demands the surrender of Ft. Sumter. Major Anderson refuses
April 12,1861- At 4:30 AM CONFEDERATE TROOPS BOMBARD FORT SUMTER
