ABOARD THE BALTIC

Ovation

THURSDAY, APRIL 18

BY THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 18, THE BALTIC, CARRYING CAPT. Gustavus Fox, Major Anderson, and the Sumter garrison, lay off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, a prominent waypoint for ships bound for New York Harbor. While still aboard, Anderson dictated a 109-word summary of the whole Sumter ordeal that for its rueful simplicity spoke worlds about the futility of the affair. He addressed it to Lincoln’s then secretary of war, Simon Cameron, and sent it by telegraph at ten-thirty A.M. after arriving in New York:

“Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of power only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns.”

As the Baltic entered New York Harbor it was greeted with the same kind of exultation that had erupted in Charleston after the surrender of Sumter. “All the passing steamers saluted us with their steam-whistles and bells, and cheer after cheer went up from the ferry-boats and vessels in the harbor,” Captain Doubleday wrote.

Lincoln issued a formal note of gratitude to Anderson and his men through the War Department, then followed it on May 1 with a personal acknowledgment to Anderson alone. “I now write this, as a purely private and social letter, to say I shall be much gratified to see you here at your earliest convenience, when and where I can personally testify my appreciation of your services and fidelity; and, perhaps, explain some things on my part, which you may not have understood.”

Two months later, in Washington, Lincoln would tell an aide, “Of all the trials I have had since I came here, none begin to compare with those I had between the inauguration and the fall of Fort Sumter. They were so great that could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”

GENERAL BEAUREGARD WAS PLEASED with how things turned out and was proud of how his soldiers had performed, and in a letter on Wednesday, April 17, he made sure that Confederate War Secretary Walker knew it. “With such material for an army, if properly disciplined,” Beauregard proclaimed, “I would consider myself almost invincible against any forces not too greatly superior.”

Mary Chesnut wrote in her red leather diary, “Must try and remember every thing about that wonderful siege and write it as soon as I have leisure.”

WITH VIRGINIA NOW SECEDED, Edmund Ruffin decided to rescind his self-banishment, as he noted in a simple declaration in his diary on Friday, April 19: “The formal act of secession, and withdrawal from Lincoln’s government, terminates my voluntary exile.” He watched with satisfaction as the nation began tilting toward war. “Strange events, or reports of, press on us fast,” he wrote.

Citizens crowded the bulletin boards at the Charleston Courier and other city newspapers to read the latest telegraphic reports. Northern troops marching toward Washington were attacked in Baltimore, leaving four soldiers and a dozen civilians dead. Virginia forces seized the Norfolk Navy Yard and the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Maryland stayed in the Union, but secessionists in the state burned railway bridges and shut down all telegraphic communication between Washington and the North, leaving the city isolated. Confederate War Secretary Leroy Walker declared that the “Confederate flag would float over the Capitol at Washington before the 1st of May.” Virginia’s governor asked Confederate President Jefferson Davis to authorize sending two thousand Carolina troops to the state to prepare for an attack on Washington. Ruffin resolved to go with them.

He reached Richmond on April 23 at six in the morning after a thirty-one-hour journey. He exulted in the change in atmosphere and the warmth with which he was received. Troops were everywhere; some three thousand volunteers were said to be in the city, and many more coming, including the Palmetto Guard. President Jefferson Davis was in town. A new general, a former U.S. Army colonel named Robert E. Lee, had taken charge of Virginia forces.

War seemed inevitable. Ruffin’s sons Edmund, Jr., and Thomas set off to join their regiments, each for a twelve-month stint. Ruffin doubted the war would last even six months and expected a quick Southern victory.

He was especially pleased when a third son, Charles, asked his approval to join the Palmetto Guard, which Ruffin gladly gave. This son had long been a disappointment. “God grant that this step may be a new direction and turning point in his progress, leading to usefulness and honor,” Ruffin wrote in his diary. “So far, he has lived for no good purpose, and has thrown away his time and opportunities. May he now deserve and achieve success, and acquire justly an honorable reputation, if not distinction and glory. But if not—an early and honorable death in fighting for his county’s rights and defense is preferable to a useless and inglorious life extended to old age.”

Like most of the volunteers gathering in Virginia, Charles had no military experience; by the end of May, he was encamped with the Guard at a point eighty miles north of Richmond, thirty west of Washington, called Manassas Junction, at the intersection of two major rail lines. A nearby stream was called Bull Run.