Return to Ft. Sumter (Article 86)
“If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next.” – Major Robert Anderson, Union Commander at Fort Sumter to Confederate emissaries before the bombardment of the fort by Southern forces.
Robert Anderson’s family pedigree is steeped in service to his Nation. His father served with George Washington and was in the boat with the General as they crossed the Delaware to attack the British Army mercenaries at Trenton, New Jersey; a battle which turned the tide in the War for Independence. His brother Charles Anderson was a Colonel in the Union Army, was seriously wounded, and in November 1863, as Lt. Governor of Ohio, gave an address at Gettysburg following Abraham Lincoln’s famous speech. Larz, another brother, was an influential spokesman against succession; however, his third brother, Marshall, was an advocate for the Confederacy and would even plan, but fail, to expand the secessionist movement to Mexico. Like other families of the era, Marshall’s support for the Southern states’ efforts to form a separate nation caused a breech in the family that would take years to heal. Robert, on the other hand, eschewed political commentary and had, since childhood, hoped for a career in the U.S. Army; and he served his country honorably for nearly forty years in a variety of assignments.
But he is primarily remembered for only one, which ended in April, 1861!
Fort Sumter and Union Major Robert Anderson are forever linked in American history. The large, but unfinished, fort in Charleston Bay became the lightening point for the start of the Civil War when Southern forces opened cannon fire from numerous nearby installations to drive out a small Union force. Major Anderson had led about 100 troops into the fort; which he hoped he could hold against the nearly eight thousand Southern forces gathered in Charleston.
But, in the end, he could not!
Anderson had attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1825. He served in Illinois during the short Black Hawk War in 1832 and was the commissioned officer who mustered (signed in and out of service) a young store clerk and militia member, Abraham Lincoln. Anderson later fought in in the Mexican War, during which he received serious wounds, but recovered. For his service, he was promoted to Major and was appointed to serve at West Point as an artillery instructor.
By late 1860, South Carolina had announced that the state would secede from the United States and began to threaten federal installations. The United States Army, with the concurrence of then President Buchanan, conducted an inspection of the several military installations in and around Charleston Bay. What they found was not encouraging. The garrison in Charleston was commanded by Colonel John Gardner, a capable officer in his earlier days, but who no longer had the vitality to drive improvements to the facilities. The three most important forts in the Charleston area were vulnerable. Fort Moultrie was well provisioned, but was easily within target range of any heavy land-based cannon, which could quickly devastate the fort. Another installation, Castle Pickney was largely ceremonial and was manned by only a few soldiers. Then there was the issue of Fort Sumter. The fort, when finished, was intended to be the dominant military installation in Charleston Harbor; but work had been halted as Southern slave-holders had kept their slave-workers and other laborers off the site following South Carolina’s secession in December. General Winfield Scott, Commander of the U.S. Army, replaced the aging Colonel Gardner and assigned Major Robert Anderson as the new garrison Commander.
Anderson was considered a good choice by both sides. General Scott knew that he was a competent officer and the Southerners in Charleston recognized him as a courteous gentleman, who was from Kentucky and whose family had owned slaves. Anderson mingled easily with the Charleston politicians and civic leaders; possibly because he had publicly stated that he had no pre-determined opposition to slavery in the southern states. Anderson’s position was not unlike many northern born military officers; most of whom were staunch defenders of the Union, but saw no reason to interfere with the institution of slavery in the South. His view also mirrored that of the incoming President, Abraham Lincoln, who, politically at that time, only opposed the expansion of slavery to new states; believing that slavery was constitutionally protected in fifteen existing Southern states.
But Anderson knew there were leaders in Charleston who wanted the United States military out of South Carolina and, specifically, out of Charleston Bay. The state already had a strong local militia, with several thousand men at various stages of military training; and new men were volunteering daily. Jefferson Davis, recognizing that hostilities were inevitable, sent newly appointed Confederate General, P.G.T. Beauregard to command the State’s militia in preparation for the battle. Since the Confederate Army, at the time, had not built any troop strength, General Beauregard only brought a small staff with him to Charleston. But the militia forces dedicated to secession already greatly outnumbered the small Union garrison.
Anderson was alarmed by the increasingly hostile comments by South Carolina’s militia and political leaders. Initially, Anderson had about three hundred men in the Charleston garrison, certainly not enough to withstand a determined Confederate assault against his soldiers, who were scattered among the three forts. And he realized that he had neither the provisions nor the troop strength to withstand simultaneous attacks on all of those Union facilities. So, Anderson ordered most of the garrison to leave Charleston and relocate to secure areas in the North, and then moved a small unit of 85 men into Fort Sumter. The fort was away from the shore in the middle of the bay, and, while unfinished, provided the best defensive position.
Until the March 4th Inauguration of President Lincoln, outgoing President Buchanan had continual diplomatic exchanges with the Governor of South Carolina hoping to defuse the situation. However, even Anderson’s move into Fort Sumter was considered a hostile act by the Governor, who warned of military action. Immediately after Lincoln became President, he faced a dilemma. Should he try to send provisions into the harbor to re-supply Fort Sumter? If so, that would almost certainly provoke a battle between the U.S. ships and Southern forces which now commanded the shore and the two other fortresses. The new President attempted a compromise by telling the South Carolina Governor that he would send food and water to Ft. Sumter, but no additional men or weapons. The Governor’s reply was that any attempt to re-provision the fort would be considered an act of war and would be met with force.
All parties waited, not knowing for certain when the expected showdown would begin. Confederate President Jefferson Davis had given the local commander, General Beauregard, authority to choose the time to begin the bombardment of the fort. Just after midnight, on the morning of April 12, 1861, three Confederate officers, two of whom Anderson knew well, rowed out to the fort and delivered an ultimatum; either vacate the facility or face annihilation from a bombardment which would begin at 4:30am. Anderson had no orders that would permit him to abandon his position without a fight, so he declined the offered terms. As they parted, Major Anderson shook hands with the Southern emissaries and said, “If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next.”
Then, at dawn, the bombardment of Fort Sumter began. Ironically, Confederate General Beauregard, who planned and, then directed, the cannon attack, had studied artillery strategy and tactics under Major Anderson at West Point.
By the afternoon of April 13th, without sufficient provisions, and with much of the fort in flames from over 4,000 shells fired by the Confederates over the past 36 hours, Major Anderson agreed to surrender Ft. Sumter. The next morning, April 14, 1861, Confederate General Beauregard, as a matter of respect, permitted Major Anderson to fire a cannon salute as he lowered the United States flag, which had been torn by repeated Confederate blasts. And, in another act of courtesy, Beauregard allowed Anderson to keep the tattered flag.
Shortly after returning to the North, Major Anderson wrote, “Our Southern brethren have done grievous wrong. They have rebelled and have attacked their father’s house and their loyal brothers. They must be punished and brought back, but this necessity breaks my heart.”
For his gallant, but futile, stand at Fort Sumter, Anderson was feted as a hero in the North. While he hoped for a new command, Anderson was first asked to tour Northern states to help build support for the war effort. Over 100,000 people attended a ceremony in New York City to hear Major Anderson, and of course to see the large American flag which had been preserved. At one point, the flag was even draped over a statue of George Washington in Times Square. The flag was then routed to numerous Northern cities and became a significant fund-raiser for the Union cause.
For the next two years, Anderson served in various positions, but, by late 1863, he had to retire from active duty as his earlier war wounds contributed to his declining health.
However, he would put on his uniform one more time!
Charleston finally fell to Union troops on February 18, 1865 and the Confederates abandoned Fort Sumter. Then, two months later, in a largely ceremonial action, Anderson returned to the fort with the flag that had been so carefully maintained over the years. On Good Friday, April 14th, 1865, (now retired) Brigadier General Robert Anderson again raised that flag over Fort Sumter; exactly four years after he was forced to take it down. He commented, “Thank God, I have lived to see this day.”
Later that night, amid all of the jubilation by the Northern people who celebrated the pending victory over the Confederates and the re-unification of the nation, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and died the following morning. When Anderson heard the news, he reportedly wept and said, in a halting voice, “Oh God, I loved that man.”
Unfortunately, Anderson never regained his health and died five years later, at age sixty-six. He was buried at West Point.
The flag, still showing the damage from the bombardment, is preserved, as Robert Anderson believed it should be, and is on display at the Fort Sumter museum.