Civil War? Here?

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson, 2024 Large Print edition

I have never felt strongly drawn to reading about the United States Civil War during the 1860s. I watched the Ken Burns’ Civil War series on PBS and thrilled to the history he and his team brought to life. Books about the American Civil War abound, and as best-selling author Erik Larson says in an Introduction to his non-fiction book, The Demon of Unrest: “I suspect your dread will be all the more pronounced in light of today’s political discord….which has led some benighted Americans to whisper once again of secession and civil war.” Even knowing the outcome, the reader senses the attitudes and beliefs at play in the drama that led up to the attack on Fort Sumter.

As Covid unfolded in early 2020, Erik Larson began to wonder: “Exactly how did the Civil War begin? What really happened at Fort Sumter?” Ordering a bound copy of: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Mr. Larson found letters, telegrams, and reports that captured in vivid detail the march toward fratricide. He had his narrative spine for the book. As pandemic restrictions eased, he was able to visit the Charleston Historical Society, the Library of Congress, and consulted other primary source material archives. Secondary sources were also sought out and listed at the end of the book. Mr. Larson also informs the reader: “This is a work of nonfiction. As always, anything between quotation marks comes from some form of historical document…”

As I read the book, I consulted the April 1861 map of Charleston Harbor provided in the front of the book, and Google maps of the area for reference, as well as the National Park Service website, Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie: https://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm  Any legitimate material consulted will aid the reader’s imagination in picturing the events as they are described in the book.

First thing that struck me was that the 2020 United States census shows a total United States population of 331,449,281. The 1860 census lists 31,443,321 people in 33 states and 10 territories. Of this number, 3,953,760 were slaves and the states that had the greatest number of slaves by percentage, were: South Carolina, 402,406 (57.2%); Mississippi, 436,631 (55.2%); Louisiana, 331,726 (46.9%); Alabama, 435,080 (45.1%); Georgia, 462,198 (43.7%); Florida, 61,745 (44%); North Carolina, 331,059 (33.4%); Virginia, 490,865 (30.7%); Texas, 182,566 (30.2%); Arkansas, 111,115 (25.5%); Tennessee, 275,710 (24.8%); Kentucky, 225,483 (19.5%), Maryland, 87,189 (12.7%).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_census

According to Mr. Larson, there were 440 South Carolina planters who each held one hundred or more enslaved Blacks within a single district. They called themselves “the chivalry” and held jousting competitions and gave themselves military titles and loved elaborate uniforms. Honor was what they valued above all other human traits. When insulted, rage flared and duels commenced. After the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 (which sold 300,000 copies in the first three months), Mr. Larson writes: “In the North, it confirmed readers’ worst imagining about the true nature of slavery; in the South, it was spurned as yet another Northern failure to understand how slavery benefited the enslaved themselves…”

After John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry in October of 1859, the South was galvanized. State militias received new recruits, stockpiles of arms increased, vigilance committees were formed. Charleston’s inhabitants were incensed and stepped up the aggressive interrogation of outsiders and free Blacks. Traveling salesmen were required to get a license. Lincoln’s election in November of 1860 intensified Southern discontent about the Union.

Although shipping improved with steam power, and the telegraph speeded information access, these were early days for how people received information. Rumors and false assumptions were widespread. South Carolina kept trying for acceptance as a sovereign state, and Lincoln’s administration did not want to make any moves that could be seen as starting hostilities. 

When Major Robert Anderson moved his men and their families, on his own initiative, from Fort Moultrie to Fort Johnson, no one suspected that the real destination was Fort Sumter.  

As the sun set on December 26^th, he informed his officers what he had secretly planned and set in motion. It took two trips on three boats to get his two companies of soldiers to Fort Sumter. Once there, the vessel with the forty-five women and children set off from Fort Moultrie for Fort Sumter. By morning, smoke was rising from the Fort Moultrie burning gun carriages, and the flag was missing. Everyone was safely within the walls of Fort Sumter. 

Less than four months later, South Carolina weapons opened fire on Fort Sumter on April 12^th, 1861.

In “A Note To Readers” at the beginning of his book, Mr. Larson tells us that while watching the Jan. 6^th 2021 Capitol riots: “I was appalled by the attack, but also riveted. I realized that the anxiety, anger, and astonishment that I felt would certainly have been experienced in 1860-1861 by vast numbers of Americans…I invite you now to step into the past, to that time of fear and dissension, and experience the passion, heroism, and heartbreak – even humor – as if you were living in that day and did not know how the story would end.”

If you would like to hear and watch Erik Larson talk about The Demon of Unrest, click on this link from the Library of Congress (Sept. 4^th, 2024).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHQv5oQd3Zg&t=2294s