This day in Charleston
3 entries · 1861–1864
Lincoln put the question to his cabinet in writing: would it be wise to attempt to provision Fort Sumter? Five of seven said no. Seward was already assuring Confederate commissioners, without authority, that the fort would be given up. Lincoln kept his own counsel for two more weeks.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 1
South Carolina, Georgia and Florida were constituted the Department of the South, to be commanded by Major General David Hunter. Hunter’s tenure would be brief, contentious and consequential: within two months he had declared the enslaved people of three states free and begun enlisting Black soldiers, and been repudiated by Lincoln for both.
Official Records, Series I, Vol. 6
All quiet, except that at half past ten the night before several musket shots were fired at the fort from the mouth of Vincent's Creek. Federal picket boats worked the creek behind Morris Island; Confederate boats worked the same water going the other way.
Fort Sumter post returns, OR I, 35, Pt. 1
Entries are dated from the War of the Rebellion official records, the naval official records and contemporary Charleston sources. Browse the whole year.