Southerners did not believe him but because the Democratic Party had split over the issue of slavery proslavery factions could not rally enough support behind one candidate On November 6 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president Even before the results were announced states of the Deep South prepared to secede from the United States THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW REPUBLIC South Carolina was the first state to go On December 20 1860 its representatives voted to secede and they called for other Southern states to hold a convention to create a new national government When this convention met on February 4 1861 Mississippi Florida Alabama Georgia and Louisiana had already seceded with Texas soon to follow On the afternoon of February 10 1861 Jefferson and Varina Davis were pruning rosebushes in the garden of their Mississippi plantation A slave handed Mr Davis a telegram As he read silently his wife said He looked so grieved that I feared some evil had befallen our family Perhaps Davis looked stricken because his distinguished career in the US government had just ended The telegram informed Davis that delegates from the seceding states had chosen him to be president of the Confederate States of America Davis was inaugurated on February 18 1861 He used the Declaration of Independence to justify secession If the government harms the people it was
created to protect then the people have the right to abolish that government he asserted The new Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens was blunter He said the Confederacy was founded on the principle that the Negro is not equal to the white man The crowd at the inauguration cheered FIRE EATERS Southern extremists known as fire eaters fanned the flames of secession after Lincoln was elected president An editorial in an Atlanta newspaper bellowed Whether the Potomac is crimsoned in human gore and Pennsylvania Avenue is paved ten fathoms deep with mangled bodies the South will never submit to the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln GUNS OF WAR March 4 1861 was cold and blustery in Washington DC when Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated Cannons guarded the grounds of the unfinished capitol and sharpshooters lined the roofs of nearby buildings A tense crowd listened as Lincoln reaffirmed his pledge to not interfere with slavery He also stated that secession was unconstitutional and he was legally bound to hold occupy or possess government property However Lincoln vowed not to strike the first blow The government will not assail you he told Southerners You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors Lincoln believed the secession crisis was directed by a small elite group of Southern planters He was confident that if he took a firm but calm stance no more slave states would
By the time Lincoln was inaugurated on March 1 1861 seven of the nation's 34 states had seceded from the union over the issues of slavery and states rights The Confederate States of America would eventually consist of 11 states stampede out of the Union But soon enough the developing crisis at Fort Sumter caused Lincoln to realize he had misjudged Southern passions Control of Fort Sumter the federal installation in the harbor of Charleston South Carolina became a test of wills between Lincoln and Davis South
Carolina's leaders insisted the fort was their territory and they demanded that federal troops vacate it Lincoln refused But federal troops inside the fort were running out of food so Lincoln was forced to act On April 6 1861 he informed the governor of South Carolina he would send provisions to Fort Sumter but he would not rearm the fort as long as it was not attacked President Davis's response was swift and decisive He ordered the FRACTURED FRIENDSHIPS Confederate commander in Charleston to Major Robert Anderson led the defense inside destroy Fort Sumter if federal troops did Fort Sumter When Confederate messengers rowed out to tell him to surrender or the fort not evacuate immediately At midnight would be bombed Anderson refused The on April 12 the federal troops were given Confederate commander in Charleston who bombarded the fort was General P G T four hours to evacuate As the clock ticked Beauregard Anderson had been Beauregard's neither side budged artillery instructor at West Point Military Academy in New York On the eve of the war At 4 30 a m on April 12 the skies the US Army had only 17 000 men Many of the over Charleston Harbor lit up as a barrage officers knew each other personally Now these friends would face each other in battle of Confederate artillery fired on Fort Sumter Thirty six hours later the federal commander inside the fort raised a white flag of surrender The Civil War had begun Although there were no combat deaths for either side two Union soldiers died from an accidental artillery explosion during the 100 gun salute marking the Union's evacuation
