The Confederacy's First Shot

THE CONFEDERACY'S FIBST SHOT Grady McWhîney Thirty years ago Charles W. Ramsdell charged that Abraham Lincoln, "having decided that there was no other way than war for the salvation of his administration, bis party, and the Union, maneuvered the Confederates into firing the first shot in order that they, rather than he, should take the blame of beginning bloodshed."1 The ensuing uproar, especially among Lincoln scholars, was predictable . Many distinguished historians joined the debate; some supported the Ramsdell thesis, but most attacked it In works published in the early 1940's James G. Kandall and David M, Potter claimed Lincoln sought peace rather than war. A few years later Kenneth M. Stampp concluded: *one cannot indict Lincoln for [sending relief to Fort Sumter] . . . unless one challenges the universal standards of 'practical' statesmen and the whole concept of 'national interest.' This was a thing worth fighting fort If Lincoln was no pacifist, neither were his contemporaries, North and South. Southern leaders must share with him the responsibility for a resort to force."3 Recent scholarship also contends that Jefferson Davis was as responsible as Lincoln, if not more so, for the outbreak of hostilities. "The firing on Sumter was an act of rash emotionalism," stated Allan Nevins in 1959. "The astute Alexander H. Stephens, counseling delay, showed more statesmanship than Jefferson Davis." And in 1963 Richard N. Current suggested that "the Ramsdell thesis, turned inside out, could be applied to Davis with as much justice as it had been applied to Lincoln, One could argue that political and not military necessity led Davis to order the firing of the first shot. The very life of ? Charles W. Ramsdell, "Lincoln and Fort Sumter," Journal of Southern History , III (1937), 259-288. 2James G, Randall, "When War Came in 1861," Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, I (]M0), 3-42; Lincoln the !'resident: Springfield, to Gettysburg (New York, 1&45), I, 3:11-350; Lincoln the Liberal Statesman (New York, 1947), pp. 88-117; David M. Potter, Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis (New Haven, 1942), pp, 315-375; Kenneth M, Stanipp, "Lincoln and the Strategy of Defense in the Crisis of 1861," Journal of Sovtfiern History, XI (1945), 297-323; And the War Came: The North and the Secession Crisis, 1860-1S61 (Baton Rouge, 1950), pp. 263-286. ß CI V ILWARHISTOKY the Confederacy, the growth upon which that life depended, was at stake. So were the pride, the prestige, and the position of Davis." "Biographer * of Davis and historians of the Confederacy have evaded or obscured dicir hero's role in the Sumter affair," charged Current. "They have digressed to levy accusations or innuendoes at Lincoln. If they have any concern for historical objectivity, however, they should face frankly the question of Davis' responsibility for the coming of the war." "After all," Current concluded, "Lincoln did not order the guns to fire. Davis did."3 Those who consider the Confederates aggressors have a strong case, and, as Current claimed, southern historians and Davis biographers have evaded or obscured what the Confederate President and his associates actually did to bring on war. But so have northern historians; thev have been too engrossed in defending Lincoln against Ramsdell's charges to give much attention to Davis and the Confederates. Too few scholars have mined beyond the most obvious printed sources on the Confederate side, or looked beyond Sumter. The Lincoln-Sumter story, explained in elaborate detail by numerous historians,4 is too well known to be recounted here. It probably has been overtold already. What has been neglected—what historians have missed-is how events at Fort Sumter were determined by what happened and by what failed to happen at Fort Pickens. In March, 1861, the only significant forts within the Confederacy still occupied by Federal forces were Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and Pickens, near Pcnsacola, Florida. After a badly planned and bloodless attempt by Alabama and Florida militia to capture Fort Pickens in early January, President James Buchanan and the Confederate government agreed to a truce. Stephen R. Mallory, a former United States senator from Florida, announced that southerners had no intention of attacking Fort Pickens, "but, on the contrary, we desire to...