Background information and commentary by Andrew Carroll: South Carolina was the first to go. Mississippi was next. And then Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Enraged by the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, who vowed he would not allow slavery in new territories joining the United States, the seven southern states seceded from the Union and elected their own president, the former senator from Mississippi Jefferson Davis, before Lincoln even took the oath of office on March 4, 1861. "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists," the president stated in his inaugural address. But Lincoln also declared he would use the "power confided in [him] to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government." This included Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, which, surrounded by thousands of Confederate forces, was rapidly running out of provisions. For weeks Major Robert Anderson and his modest garrison, who received no supplies or reinforcements, remained in the fort despite mounting pressures and threats to evacuate. As word of Anderson's plight spread through the Union, heartfelt letters of admiration poured into the fort, including one from Marcus Morton, the former governor of Massachusetts. (The following was published in its entirety in WAR LETTERS.)

Sir…

This is not the time nor the occasion to enter upon any discussion of the merits of the unhappy controversy which menaces the Republic; nor to enquire upon whom rests the responsibility for the perils which environ us. Your heroic action admonishes us that our first thoughts and efforts should be devoted to the maintenance of the Union as it was founded by our wise and patriotic Fathers and bequeathed to us, that we, in our time, may transmit it, in all its integrity and glory, to our successors. We trust that this may be accomplished by an exercise of the same disinterested spirit by which they were animated, and by the same rational means which they employed….

We trust that God, in infinite Goodness, may avert the horrors of fraternal strife; and that under His providence, the Flag, which, heretofore, has floated in glory over land and sea, the hope of the world, may never be stained by fraternal blood. But come what may come, we but utter, what we believe to be the honest sentiment of the Country, when we repeat and adopt, the memorable words, which, in a similar crisis, gave hope and confidence to the nation.

"Our federal Union -- It must be preserved."

Entertaining these sentiments, and recognizing in you a man and a soldier, who in the hour of imminent peril, had the forethought to conceive, and the patriotism and courage to perform and Act necessary to the preservation of the authority and entirety of the Union, even at the risk of self-sacrifice, the citizens of the Ancient Town of Taunton, desire to present to you an expression of their admiration and gratitude, and as a testimonial of their appreciation of your character and of the eminent services rendered the Republic, the undersigned, by their authority and in their name and behalf, begs your acceptance of the accompanying Sword , confident, that, by your hand, it never will be drawn without just cause, or returned, dishonored, to its scabbard.

In behalf of the inhabitants of Taunton,
With high personal considerations
I am Your Obedient Servant,
Marcus Morton

Just after 3:00 a.m. on April 12 Major Anderson received a polite but ominous message from two Confederate officers: "By authority of Brig General Beauregard Commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his Batteries on Fort Sumter in an hour from this time. We have the honor to be Very Respectfully Yr. Obt Svts." Anderson refused the ultimatum, and at 4:30 a.m., the Confederate forces began their assault. Anderson and his 68 soldiers were bombarded by an estimated 4,000 shells for a day and a half before they finally surrendered. (Miraculously, no one was killed in the onslaught.) Cheers erupted throughout the Confederacy as the "American" flag above Fort Sumter came down. "We have humbled the proud flag of the Stars and Stripes," boasted the governor of South Carolina, "that never before was lowered to any nation on earth." Pierre G. T. Beauregard, who directed the attack, learned his artillery skills over 20 years earlier while a cadet at West Point. His instructor was Robert Anderson.

NEXT WEEK: A letter written after one of the first truly catastrophic battles of the war.