Mid-April --- written from my hiding-place under a tree-root, Charleston Harbor, SC The shiprats are frantic! Fort Sumter was bombarded! Rats hate getting caught in battles, especially sea-battles! A desperate human is called "a rat on a sinking ship." Right! DEAD right! And the shiprats are saying this attack may be just the beginning!! Rumors were flying that states, after seceding, would seize local forts and property in the South, owned by the Federal Government. Major Anderson was in command of Federal Forts in Charleston Harbor. His family is Southern, but he’s a Union officer, which made him really want to avoid war. So on a late-December night, Anderson secretly moved into empty Fort Sumter, to prevent it’s seizure. SC was angry, demanding the US and Anderson leave. President Buchanan refused. (Lincoln was elected in November, but Buchanan stays President until Lincoln’s inauguration in March. Between November and March, Lincoln is called a "lame duck!" I wonder why?) The South calls him a rat, not a duck! (Which I find quite flattering, even if my Southern cousins are insulted!) So SC immediately began building batteries (fortifications with artillery) on the shoreline all around Fort Sumter - which was very successful, because in February, their guns forced away a Northern supply ship - bad news for Major Anderson, whose supplies were dangerously low. Ft. Sumter has brick walls (ramparts), instead of wood -- 8 to 10 feet thick. (Rats couldn’t live in THOSE walls!) And it sits on a man-made "island" of seashells and granite, blocking the middle of the ship channel into Charleston Harbor -- a perfect defense against foreign attack by sea. BUT no one planned for a CIVIL attack by land! Northerners believe Lincoln was trying to avoid war. Southerners do not! At his inauguration, Lincoln said he had no plans to end slavery (Southerners didn’t believe that for 1-minute). He said he would NOT accept secession (which had already happened), NOR would he abandon Federal property (nearly all Federal forts & navy yards in the South had already been seized, except a few like Fort Sumter). Lincoln’s speech sounded like war to Southerners! The seizures looked like war to Northerners. Lincoln tried again to send steamers with supplies to Ft. Sumter, this time protected by warships - first notifying SC that this was not an attack! Gen. Beauregard took command of the Confederate Army in Charleston, in March, and continued fortifying the harbor. (After serving just 5 days as superintendent of the US Military Academy, or West Point, Beauregard was fired for saying he’d join the South, if war started). The South feared Lincoln’s supply ships were a trick. In April, Confederate leaders telegraphed orders to Beauregard: demand evacuation of Fort Sumter, or reduce it to rubble! Anderson replied: he’d evacuate in 5 days, when he had run out of supplies. Beauregard said he’d open fire in 2 days, unless Anderson left. Anderson stayed. The Confederates fired the first shot of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, on April 12th. A signal gun was fired at 4:30 am, then all the Confederate mortars and batteries began firing. (A General’s house rat told me "mortars" were canons with short, wide barrels that throw shells at high angles - like over fort walls). The first round landed in Fort Sumter’s deserted parade ground. The Civil War had begun! Actually, Ft. Sumter was unfinished. Only 1/3rd of it’s guns were working. Without reinforcements, Anderson had very little ammunition or food, only 8 officers, 68 soldiers, 8 musicians, and 43 workmen. (Musicians? Defending a fort?) Anderson fired back about 7 am - after realizing half his working guns were exposed up on the ramparts, and most of his men would be killed by bombardment if they tried to fire them. (The rats said one brave soldier snuck up and fired a couple guns anyway). Anderson expected help, but a communications error sent most of the supply ships too far South, and 3 ships sighted by early afternoon were kept away by bad weather. Ammunition became so scarce, only 6 of Fort Sumter’s guns were in action. The Confederates fired all night, while Anderson’s guns were silent. On the 2nd day, Confederates used "hot shot," and fires raged inside Ft. Sumter’s walls. By afternoon, the staff holding the US flag was shattered, and Anderson raised a white flag of truce. Beauregard wrote: "in recognition of gallantry, I cheerfully agreed that on surrendering the fort, the commanding officer might salute his flag." Anderson had surrendered with "honors of war," meaning he could evacuate, taking his men, weapons and flag with him, to NY. 4000 shells had fallen on the badly damaged fort, but incredibly, no one on either side had been killed. At noon the next day, April 14th, Anderson set up a flagstaff and lowered the "Stars and Stripes" during a planned, 100-round, gun-salute. However, on the 50th round, powder exploded behind the salute gun, and the first Federal soldier of the war was killed, by his own gun, in an accident. The Confederate flag was then raised over Fort Sumter. Rats were IMPRESSED by the gentlemanly behavior during battle! Imagine a General telling the enemy the exact time he’ll start shooting, sending a note offering to rescue enemy soldiers endangered by fire - and "cheerfully" allowing the enemy a flag-ceremony, their weapons, and loaning them a steamer to get to their ships off-shore, instead of taking them prisoner! I wonder if THAT will last long?