Title: The Demon of Unrest
Rating: 5 Stars
I’m a huge fan of Erik Larson. He’s the best narrative history writer that I’ve encountered. I haven’t read quite all of his books, but I’ve read close to a half dozen. When I saw that he’d written a book about the events leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter, effectively starting The Civil War, I knew that I was going to have to read it. It’s fair to say that I was not disappointed.
Let’s get the blog title out of the way. As I’ve written about before, there was a whole generation of primarily Southern historians that managed to take over the narrative of the Civil War. They worked hard to sell the image of the South as a bunch of oppressed states that were just fighting for their rights and their honor. The Southern states fought their noble fight (the “Lost Cause”) to protect their agrarian life from the oppressive Northerners. When you see someone proudly flying the Confederate battle flag from their pickups, it’s this noble heritage that they’re showing pride in.
Luckily, in more recent decades, historians have called bullshit on that narrative. I’ve read several books about either the Civil War or the antebellum period that puts the lie to the Lost Cause. I wrote a post entitled It’s The Slavery, Stupid and another post called Seriously, It Was About Slavery.
Here is another book fighting the good fight to put the Lost Cause myth to bed once and for all. Larson directly quotes from key documents. Take, for instance, the Mississippi secession declaration, where it says “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery – the greatest material interest in the world”. In that same document there are fifteen claims. Every single claim is related to slavery.
The South Carolina statement of secession specifically called out that Lincoln being elected President meant that the North planned to wage war against slavery. This was despite the fact that Lincoln honestly thought and repeatedly said that he had no constitutional right to interfere with slavery in those states in which it already existed. In the period of time between when he was elected to when he was inaugurated, he was at his wits end trying to figure out why this very simple truth could not be understood by the South.
Who knows? Probably not in my lifetime, but maybe in another fifty or so years, people will understand that the Confederate battle flag is not only a symbol of slavery but also the symbol of Americans that took up arms and actually shot soldiers defending the American flag. Oh yeah, and they’re also losers. The actual Confederate battle flag should be the white dish towel (currently stored at the Smithsonian American History Museum) that General Lee’s troops used to surrender.
Be that as it may, back to the book. It starts with the election of Lincoln as President. That sets into motion a whole chain of events. Before the twentieth amendment was ratified in 1933, the inauguration date was March 4th. This meant that there was a four month gap between when a President was elected and when he (and yes, it’s always been a he) took office. This kind of made sense in the days of old, especially before railroads, where it might take weeks for the elected President to get to the capital.
However, in 1860, this was a pretty disastrous gap. Lincoln was champing at the bit to get started but felt that any moves that he’d make before his inauguration would be seen as a usurpation. On the other hand, the lame duck President, James Buchanan, was paralyzed with indecision and fear. He could see that the country was splitting apart. His fondest wish seemed to be that it wouldn’t split apart on his watch. Therefore, he did virtually nothing. His dithering let the secessionists get the upper hand in many of the Southern states. Even worse, several of his cabinet appointees were Southern men that were openly supportive of the secessionist movement.
When Lincoln finally was inaugurated, things were at a perilous state. Several states had already voted to secede. Charleston, South Carolina, was in a particularly dire state. Having previously seceded, rebel troops were already beginning to form. Major Robert Anderson, commander of the Union forces in Charleston Harbor, tried in vain to get direction from the federal government regarding whether he should fight or not. Given ambiguous orders, he consolidated his men to Fort Sumter, effectively ceding control of the other nearby forts to the secessionists. They promptly occupied and started fortifying them, clearly planning to attack at some point.
This is the story of that time. It’s almost a day by day accounting of the drama unfolding in Washington DC, in the town of Charleston, and Fort Sumter. As it gets closer to the shelling, it becomes an hour by hour retelling.
Here’s just a few of the things that I noticed as I was reading this book:
Southern plantation owners seemed to consistently have two conflicting perspectives. They believed that their enslaved were happier being enslaved than being free. On the other hand, they lived in perpetual fear of a slave insurrection. If they were so happy, why would they rise up?
Our thirteenth amendment famously outlaws slavery (well, except for that whole prisoner loophole). Did you know that the great abolitionist William Seward, during this time of national danger, actually proposed a different thirteenth amendment? This one explicitly stated that slavery would continue where ever it currently existed. In other words, instead of an amendment freeing the enslaved, it would have been an amendment guaranteeing slavery. If passed, that would have put a twist into our constitution.
Larson draws parallels between the 1860 inauguration and the 2020 inauguration. It is interesting. The 1861 VP, John Breckinridge, was from the border state of Kentucky. When the Civil War started, he fled to the South and was a general in the Confederate army. Not only that, but he was also one of the losing candidates in the 1860 election.
Yes, this was the man that was supposed to certify the result making Lincoln President. Despite the fact that he was a secessionist and a disappointed seeker of the office, he did his duty and certified Lincoln’s electoral count. He was basically an 1861 version of Mike Pence.
There were rumors that secessionists were going to try and disrupt the inauguration. The head of the army, Winfield Scott, was not going to allow that to happen. He stationed troops and cannon around the city, thus very effectively ending any insurrectionist threats. Perhaps we could have used a General Scott on January 9th?
General Scott was much abused by secessionists for these actions. In public, they vilified him with names such as “Old Dotard” and my favorite, “Free-State Pimp”. It’s no “Codfish Aristocracy” or “Moddlecoddling Flapdoodle” but as a nineteenth century burn, Free-State Pimp is pretty awesome.
The battle and surrender of Fort Sumter kicked off the Civil War. Over 600,000 soldiers were killed. It’s by far the most deadly war the US has ever fought. It’s interesting to note that there was only one death in the Fort Sumter battle. After Major Anderson and his soldiers surrendered, as part of the terms the secessionists agreed to let Anderson’s soldiers fire off a hundred gun salute. Well, on the 47th firing, a cannon exploded, tearing one soldier’s arm off, killing him. So, the only mortality was after the battle during the surrender ceremony.
Erik Larson definitely did not let me down. I found it interesting, compelling reading that I could barely put down. It is narrative history at its best.
dorkenstein 