Old times there are not forgotten...

In the wee hours of the morning on this date, 145 years ago, the first cannon fired in a conflict that would claim over 600,000 American lives. On April 12-13, 1861, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard's forces in Charleston, South Carolina, compelled the surrender of Ft. Sumter before ships dispatched by President Lincoln could bring fresh provisions to the Union soldiers inside.

The bloodless battle (only a horse was killed in two days of artillery exchange) ended a tense standoff that had lasted nearly five months. After Lincon's election, the lower South had determined to leave the United States. Those States sought to take possession of federal property within their territory and effect a political divorce. Lincoln decided to contest this dissolution by holding on to Ft. Sumter, which controlled access to Charleston harbor. By doing so, he manuvered the Confederates into firing the first shots of a war he had every intention to prosecute if necessary to prevent secession. This, coupled with the later focus on emancipation, provided emotional support to the Unionist perspective. The victor went on to write the history, and the South was forever cast as the evil slaveholding aggressor.

So goes the standard narrative. That narrative neatly sidesteps certain issues:

- The main war motive for the North was Unionism, not emancipation. As Lincoln himself told the editor of the New York Times:

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."

- Lincoln was true to his word - the Emancipation Proclamation was not issued until January 1, 1863...over 18 months after the war began. It was a political masterstroke, placating the abolitionist lobby in the North, and complicating efforts by the Confederates to gain British and French diplomatic recognition. It was not, however, of much practical value to the slaves themselves. It only declared free those who lived in states in rebellion against the Union--in other words, where it could not be enforced. Lincoln actually countermanded early field orders by Union generals freeing slaves in their areas of operation. The slaves in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri, which remained in the Union, were not affected, and slavery continued there until passage of the 13th Amendment -- after both the war and Lincoln's death.

- The idea of Union-by-force flew in the face of the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and even prior U.S. precedent. In 1814, New England States dissatisfied with the War of 1812 had proposed at Hartford, Conneticut, to leave the country. Secession was considered a viable state option, and was even taught as such in textbooks used at West Point. What changed? In part, the realization that if the South left, the North would lose a lucrative tariff source that funded much of the (non-Constitutionally authorized) Federally-funded internal improvements cris-crossing the North. These tariffs, and much else about national economic policy, was as much of a flash point between the sections as slavery ever was.

- The slaveholding Upper South, while concerned about the election of Lincoln, did not immediately seceede, despite history's painting of all southerners as rash rebels. It was not until Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteer militia to subdue the Lower South after Ft. Sumter that Virginia, North Carolina, Tennesee and Arkansas chose to leave a Union they now saw as a threat to State and individual liberty.

In the end, the misnamed 'Civil War' is not a neat morality tale as many would believe. There were racists and rogues, heros and villans on both sides. History involves understanding why ordinary people did what they thought was appropriate at the time. For many in the South, the answer to the Northerner's question "why are you fighting?" was simple: "because you're down here."