(124) Life of Seward, vol. i., p. 672.
(125) A. Lincoln, Complete Works, vol. i., pp. 215, 240, 251.
(126) Seward's Works, vol. iv, p. 289.
(127) Hist. U. S. (Rhodes), vol. i, p. 469.
(128) Life of Parker (Weiss), vol. ii., p. 172-4 (406).
(129) Civil War in America (Draper), vol. i, 565-6.
(130) Speech of Henry Winter Davis, House of Representatives, Aug. 7, 1856.
(131) Zachariah Chandler, 1860.
CHAPTER II Sumter Fired on—Seizure by Confederates of Arms, Arsenals, and Forts—Disloyalty of Army and Navy Officers—Proclamation of Lincoln for Seventy-Five Thousand Militia, and Preparation for War on Both Sides
The Star of the West, a merchant vessel, was sent from New York, with the reluctant consent of President Buchanan, by Lieutenant- General Winfield Scott, Commander-in-Chief of the army, to carry re-enforcements and provisions to Fort Sumter. As this vessel attempted to enter Charleston harbor (January 9, 1861) a shot was fired across its bows which turned it back, and its mission failed. "Slapped in the mouth" was the opprobrious epithet used to express this insult to the United States. This was not the shot that summoned the North to arms. It was, however, the first angry gun fired by a citizen of the Union against his country's flag, and it announced the dawn of civil war. When this shot was fired, only South Carolina had passed an Ordinance of Secession; the Confederate States were not yet formed.