Civil War Week By Week: 1.The Three Month War (April 12-19) (Old, needs to be revised)

The first in a hopefully long series.

The song When Johnny Comes Marching Home is by the U.S Military Academy Band.

Script:
It is the middle of the 19th century, what America is isn’t really well defined. Is it a confederation of different nations, a union of principalities, a group of states or a lemur in a trench coat. Besides from the last one, each interpretation could be correct. But on this day many years ago a war will be started, a war that will have ripple effects still felt by Americans to this day, a war that will cost more lives than any other war in American history and a war that will solidify a nation by breaking it into two. This is the civil war.
First some backround history, slavery has been a devisve subject to America before America was a thing. Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, tried to get it ended multiple times. Unfortunately it was so economically important to the south they would never allow it to be ended. This led to a long period where the senate had to be balanced half free and half slave. This all came to a head with the election of Abraham Lincon and because of his election South Carolina would leave the union. This caused a ripple effect and by April South Carolina, along with Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had formed the Confederate State. They had been taking over federal bases before April 12th but those were relatively peaceful. It is today 159 years ago that the war started, off the coast of South Carolina, in a Mason Fort, Fort Sumter.
It is 3:20 at Fort Sumter and it has been cut off from Food, supplies and reinforcements. Two men arrive from a row boat they are Colonel James Chesnut and Captain Stephen D. Lee. They ask for surrender from Major Robert Anderson, a west point graduate. He believes that he will soon get resupplied and remanned, so responds no. The two men unsatisfied warn him that shelling will begin within the hour. At 4:28 a gun is primed, 4:29 it is loaded and at 4:30 Edmund Ruffin fires the first shot at fort sumter and the first shot of the civil war. At 7:00 Captain Abner Doubleday returns fire under orders from Anderson. Anderson withheld retaliation until the day to better use his already dwindled resources.The Union shots are infrequent since they are undermanned and low on Ammunition. This begins an artillery duel that lasts for five hours. The Union couldn’t possibly keep up with the Confederates and the Rebels didn’t really want to kill anyone. Interesting to note the confederacy started using heated shots, started fires, heated shots for those who don’t know are cannonballs that are heated in a furnace before being fired, heating them up until . These would be put out by rain at 7:00 P.M along with the Union cannons, not because they're hit but because the crews went to sleep. These men had balls of steel. By the way, any attempt to relieve Fort Sumter was stopped either by the Confederate cannons or by the fact they were being diverted to Florida. At midday on April 13th the American flag was knocked down prompting the confederates to ask on what terms would the fort be evacuated. Anderson had only one, a 100 gun salute. The fact he was evacuating indirectly to P.G.T Beauregard, a man he taught probably made it easier. Along with the fact they said evacuating instead of surrendering. Sadly during this lowering of the flag, a cannon ignited early killing Private Daniel Hough and Private Edward Galloway. Becoming the first and second deaths of the war. After Fort Sumter things start speeding up.
On the 13th Governor Alexander Ramsay of Minnesitoa in response to the Attack on Fort Sumter pledged 1,000 men to the Union war effort. This is actually premature because the call for volunteers won’t be made for another two days. This shows the excitement for what is supposed to be a glorious little war.
On the 15th Lincoln with the approval of congress called for 75,000 volunteers with 3 month tours. In some states like Ohio there is much excitement. In fact Ohio had to turn back some volunteers since they would go over their limit. From states on the border there was a less enthusiastic response. Missouri Governor Claiborne Jackson called the call “unholy” and Kentucky Governor Beriah Mafigan said “Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subduing the south.”
On the 17th Virginia succeeded in a vote of 88 to 55. This is very good for the confederate states since it owns the only current factory producing weapons and munitions along with having the biggest population of any of the states that have succeeded.
That’s where on the weekends, a nation in a “small scuffle” only a few dead. This can’t last more than the 3 month tour. A war that will be forgotten to history, one that in the grand tapestry of America is but a single event not even worth being painted. Or at least that is as it seems. I mean how bad can it truly be, it's just a civil war, right.