LINCOLN and the FIRST SHOT (Critical Periods of History Series) by Richard N. Current
Fort Sumter immediately after its surrender to South Carolina troops in April, 1861. Published in 1963. 27 years ago I took a night class about the Civil War offered by Ball State University in a middle school off campus. It was a great class and this was the first book that we discussed. The book covers the two month period from the day that Lincoln arrived in D.C. after he was elected President and the day that P.G.T. Beauregard opened fire on Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. When the Confederate states seceded they took over all Federal property, including forts and military bases. Two forts were not surrendered - Fort Pickens in Pensacola and Fort Sumter. Fort Sumter was always the most argued over because of the symbolism of being smack in the middle of the main port of the first state to secede. Lincoln refused to give up the fort because he refused to give up any of the seceded states. South Carolina demanded the fort because they insisted they were part of a new co