South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. Residing in Fort Moultrie, located near the Charleston Harbor, United States Maj. Robert Anderson and his force of less than a hundred soldiers found themselves in hostile territory. Maj. Anderson’s resolution was to relocate to a nearby post called Fort Sumter. They did so on December 26 and held position. Just after the inauguration of President Lincoln on March 4, 1861, Anderson reported that he had only a six week’s supplies left in the fort, and the Confederates where getting antsy with a foreign force being in their territory. April 11, 1861, Confederate Brig. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard demanded Fort Sumter’s surrender. Maj. Anderson’s refusal brought upon fire by Confederate batteries that following morning; the first shots of the American Civil War.
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The short answer is slavery. The long answer is tensions involving slavery between Northern industrial states and Southern agrarian states over a long period. This act of liberty imprisonment wove its long impressionable fingers into political, geographical, economical, and moral facets of the emerging Union, constantly picking a fight between its supporters and rivals. It was a notable topic tossed to the side in every debate that dealt with the economy, states’ rights, and land expansion; as told by Andrew Jackson’s comments pertaining to the Missouri Compromise of 1820: “Considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It (slavery) is hushed indeed for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and help up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper.”
The short answer is slavery. The long answer is tensions involving slavery between Northern industrial states and Southern agrarian states over a long period. This act of liberty imprisonment wove its long impressionable fingers into political, geographical, economical, and moral facets of the emerging Union, constantly picking a fight between its supporters and rivals. It was a notable topic tossed to the side in every debate that dealt with the economy, states’ rights, and land expansion; as told by Andrew Jackson’s comments pertaining to the Missouri Compromise of 1820: “Considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It (slavery) is hushed indeed for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived and help up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated; and every new irritation will mark it deeper and deeper.”