trained in artillery under none
other than Robert Anderson, the current commander of Sumter. Beauregard was so liked within the War Department that he had
been appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in January 1861, an assignment he was relieved of
a few days later when his Southern sympathies became starkly clear. With his widespread experience and general popularity—with
nearly everyone except Davis—Beauregard was destined to become the first great Southern hero of the conflict.
Beauregard received the news on April 10. By this time the tension among Charlestonians, among Anderson and his men in the
fort, and among patriotic Southerners and Northerners had reached a fever pitch. During the first week of April, a large crowd
gathered at Charleston’s waterfront battery. Anderson and his little garrison sat inside the fort and waited. Surrounding
them, scattered about the city and in various forts and batteries in the harbor, were more than six thousand secessionists
itching for a fight. 8
Not all Charlestonians agreed with the Confederate response. James Louis Petigru, a prominent attorney and statesman, said
that South Carolina was too small to be a nation and too large for an insane asylum. 9 But the majority of residents felt wronged by the North and saw no other way to react to Lincoln and the rest of the Yankees
than to fight. Virginian Roger Atkinson Pryor, a young lawyer, editor, and politician, gave a rousing speech in Charleston
on April 10. “I thank you especially that you have annihilated this accursed Union, reeking with corruption and insolent with
excess of tyranny,” he said. “Thank God! It is blasted with the lightning wrath of an outraged and indignant people.” 10
Advised to surrender by the local South Carolina militia and by representatives of the Confederate government, Anderson would
not budge. Instead he drew up a formal reply. “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding
the evacuation of this fort,” he wrote, “and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which that I regret that my
sense of honor, and of my obligations to my Government, prevent my compliance.” 11 Informally, Anderson told his potential enemies he was running low on supplies and that he would probably be starved out
in a few days if the Southern guns didn’t “batter us to pieces.” Men inside the fort rolled out powder kegs, worked on the
guns, and watched the various positions of Confederate weapons facing them, trying not to expose themselves on the parapets.
Night fell over the fort with the stars overhead and the gleam of lights on the horizon in Charleston. Inside the fort Anderson
had no oil for lamps, and so the three-story brick fortress stood in near-total darkness.
Early on the morning of April 12—around 1:30 a.m.—the fort’s officers were awakened by a boat bearing a white flag. Four emissaries
came: James Chesnut, Stephen D. Lee, Alexander R. Chisholm, and Roger A. Pryor. These aides brought a letter suggesting that
if Anderson agreed to evacuate the fort at a stated time without firing on Confederate forces, the transfer of the fort could
be accomplished bloodlessly. Anderson stated he would abandon Sumter by noon on April 15 only if his command and flag would
not be fired on and unless otherwise instructed by the Lincoln government. By 3:20 a.m. Chesnut and Lee concluded the terms
were not acceptable—they wanted the Yankees out of South Carolina immediately—and that the fort would be fired on beginning
in one hour. “By authority of Brigadier-General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States,”
wrote Chesnut and Lee, “we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one
hour from this time.” 12 If they never again met in this world, God grant that they may meet in the next, Anderson
other than Robert Anderson, the current commander of Sumter. Beauregard was so liked within the War Department that he had
been appointed superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in January 1861, an assignment he was relieved of
a few days later when his Southern sympathies became starkly clear. With his widespread experience and general popularity—with
nearly everyone except Davis—Beauregard was destined to become the first great Southern hero of the conflict.
Beauregard received the news on April 10. By this time the tension among Charlestonians, among Anderson and his men in the
fort, and among patriotic Southerners and Northerners had reached a fever pitch. During the first week of April, a large crowd
gathered at Charleston’s waterfront battery. Anderson and his little garrison sat inside the fort and waited. Surrounding
them, scattered about the city and in various forts and batteries in the harbor, were more than six thousand secessionists
itching for a fight. 8
Not all Charlestonians agreed with the Confederate response. James Louis Petigru, a prominent attorney and statesman, said
that South Carolina was too small to be a nation and too large for an insane asylum. 9 But the majority of residents felt wronged by the North and saw no other way to react to Lincoln and the rest of the Yankees
than to fight. Virginian Roger Atkinson Pryor, a young lawyer, editor, and politician, gave a rousing speech in Charleston
on April 10. “I thank you especially that you have annihilated this accursed Union, reeking with corruption and insolent with
excess of tyranny,” he said. “Thank God! It is blasted with the lightning wrath of an outraged and indignant people.” 10
Advised to surrender by the local South Carolina militia and by representatives of the Confederate government, Anderson would
not budge. Instead he drew up a formal reply. “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding
the evacuation of this fort,” he wrote, “and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which that I regret that my
sense of honor, and of my obligations to my Government, prevent my compliance.” 11 Informally, Anderson told his potential enemies he was running low on supplies and that he would probably be starved out
in a few days if the Southern guns didn’t “batter us to pieces.” Men inside the fort rolled out powder kegs, worked on the
guns, and watched the various positions of Confederate weapons facing them, trying not to expose themselves on the parapets.
Night fell over the fort with the stars overhead and the gleam of lights on the horizon in Charleston. Inside the fort Anderson
had no oil for lamps, and so the three-story brick fortress stood in near-total darkness.
Early on the morning of April 12—around 1:30 a.m.—the fort’s officers were awakened by a boat bearing a white flag. Four emissaries
came: James Chesnut, Stephen D. Lee, Alexander R. Chisholm, and Roger A. Pryor. These aides brought a letter suggesting that
if Anderson agreed to evacuate the fort at a stated time without firing on Confederate forces, the transfer of the fort could
be accomplished bloodlessly. Anderson stated he would abandon Sumter by noon on April 15 only if his command and flag would
not be fired on and unless otherwise instructed by the Lincoln government. By 3:20 a.m. Chesnut and Lee concluded the terms
were not acceptable—they wanted the Yankees out of South Carolina immediately—and that the fort would be fired on beginning
in one hour. “By authority of Brigadier-General Beauregard, commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States,”
wrote Chesnut and Lee, “we have the honor to notify you that he will open the fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one
hour from this time.” 12 If they never again met in this world, God grant that they may meet in the next, Anderson
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