Storm over Sumter (review)

Book Reviews441 exorable approach to and invasion of the city. Sherman's rules of warfare, like those of Julius Caesar, Hadrian, Wüliam the Bastard, Bonaparte, and Bismarck , were relentlessly harsh but tacticaUy and strategicaUy equitable. Once captured, Atlanta became a Federal military base, and the commanding general proceeded accordingly. "I propose," he wrote to HaUeck on September 4, "to remove all the inhabitants of Atlanta, sending those committed to our cause to the rear, and the rebel families to the front. I wül aUow no trade, manufacture , nor any citizens there at all. ... If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I wül answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking." The message is clear enough. War is war. Sherman did not mention peace and reconciliation. They would come later, but not until the last shredded Confederate resistance was overcome. In the meantime, Sherman and the United States were stiU at war against a losing but stubborn enemy. As the losses on both sides grimly remind us, the famous March to the Sea was paid in blood every inch, every step, every müe of the way, but Sherman's troops split the Confederacy and hastened the final outcome in the spring of 1865. Charles T. Miller Allenspark, Colorado. Storm over Sumter. By Roy Meredith. (New York: Simon and Schuster. 1957. Pp. 214. $3.95. ) This review is reprinted from the New York Times by permission of the Book Review editor. in these days when southern states are angrily chaUenging Federal authority , Roy Meredith's book about Fort Sumter—his fourth volume on the Civü War—has a special timeliness. Fort Sumter, a sprawling fort in Charleston harbor, became in 1860-61 both symbol and focus of a long and growing conflict between national and state governments. At stake was not only the perpetuity of the Union but also the character of the Union and the federal system on which it rested. In the 1850's as now, the status of the Negro was a principal issue in the conflict, and race gave to the controversy an emotional intensity which worked against moderation and prevented compromise. When the secession of South Carolina brought the struggle to a head, James A. Buchanan, an old and irresolute politician, was President. In dealing with the secession crisis, Buchanan's only policy, according to Mr. Meredith, "was the negative one of averting conflict until his term was over." Buchanan considered secession unconstitutional but claimed the national government had no right to force a state to stay in the Union. His do-nothing course was supported by Southern intimates who included three Cabinet members, one of them John B. Floyd, Secretary of War. When South Carolina left the Union, secessionists launched an aU-out effort to obtain the withdrawal of Federal troops from the forts at Charleston, by negotiation if possible, by force if necessary. The occupying force, numbering about seventy and commanded by Major Robert Anderson of Kentucky , was stationed at Fort Moultrie, where they were utterly incapable of 442CIVIL W AR history resisting attack. Floyd and his Southern associates in Washington favored abandonment of the forts, and they expected no opposition from the peaceminded Buchanan as the showdown approached. The drift toward submission received a sudden unexpected setback on the night of December 26, when Anderson secretly transferred his troops from Moultrie to Sumter, a place much easier to defend. Buchanan, who had promised South Carolina authorities that the status of the forts would not be changed without prior notification, was dumbfounded; and Floyd angrily told the Cabinet that Anderson had acted without authority. Jeremiah Black, the new Secretary of State, countered this charge by presenting instructions, endorsed by both Floyd and Buchanan (the President apparently had signed without reading), that clearly sanctioned Anderson's move. When Buchanan refused to order Anderson back to Moultrie, Floyd, whose position was already shaky because of mismanagement in his department, dramaticaUy announced his resignation. The President's acquiescence in Anderson's bold move marked a turning point. Whüe Federal authorities subsequently yielded a number of forts, Anderson was encouraged to hold on at Sumter. When Lincoln attempted unsuccessfuUy...