The Dramatic Events that Led to the Bombardment of Ft. Sumter

Students of the American Civil War will be familiar with Fort Sumter, an uncompleted brick fortress on an artificial island in the middle of the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Today a site maintained by the National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm).

But few understand the dramatic series of events that led to the Confederate bombardment of the fort on 12 April 1861, which forced its surrender the next day.

“Here lay the greatest of ironies: In thirty-four hours of some of the fiercest bombardment the world had ever seen, no one was killed or even seriously injured, yet this bloodless attack would trigger a war that killed more Americans than any other conflict in the nation’s history.” (p. 463)

I've read a lot of history books. The Demon of Unrest is the best one I have read in at least ten years. I virtually could not put it down, tearing through almost 600 pages in three enjoyable days. History is about people, and this book is full of people telling the story in their own words. Some are very famous (Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis,) others rather obscure (rabid secessionist Edmund Ruffin, 1794-1865; diarist Mary Boykin Chestnut, 1823-1886). The central figure of the story is the artillery officer Major (later Brevet Major General) Robert Anderson (1805-1871), a Kentuckian, who commanded the fort’s small garrison. An 1825 graduate of West Point, Anderson fought in the Black Hawk War of 1832, the Second Seminole War (1835-1842), and the Mexican War, in which he was wounded during the battle of Molino del Ray (8 September 1847). The Regular Army in those years was small, and everyone knew everyone else. P.G.T. Beauregard, who took command of the Confederate forces at Charleston, had been Anderson’s student of at West Point.

The book’s many short chapters are organized chronologically in nine sections:

     Part One: The Best of All Worlds

     Part Two: Treachery in the Wind

     Part Three: Precipice

     Part Four: Journey

     Part Five: Coercion

     Part Six: Collision

     Part Seven: Fire!

     Epilogue: A Toast

Coda: Blood Among the Tulip Trees

A remarkable feature of this era was the extent to which elite men were obsessed with real or imagined slights to their personal honor. This promoted a culture of dueling (recall that Founding Father Alexander Hamilton was killed on 11 July 1804 in a duel against Aaron Burr, third vice president of the United States). Each section heading in the book begins with a quote from a version of the Code Duello, the formal etiquette that regulated dueling.

One of my main take-aways from this book was an increased understanding of what a truly terrible 15th President James Buchanan (1791-1868) was. Although he was a Pennsylvanian, he was deeply sympathetic to the cause of the slaveholders and failed to take timely and needed action to protect the nation’s military assets located in the South.

An excellent map illustrates the rather complex geography of Charleston harbor. There is a single period photograph opposite the title page, showing a section of the fort’s battered wall.

Readers with a serious interest in the American Civil War will find The Demon of Unrest to be a richly rewarding experience. 

Note: The Demon of Unrest is also available in audio and e-editions.

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