The young Senator Garfield was one of the first to realise the true position of affairs. During his first year in the State Senate he had made his mark, in the next he became by the mere force of his character and the intensity of his feelings its leader.
The President of the United States at the time was James Buchanan, a Democrat and a friend of the slave-owners. He, with others in high places, seemed bent on giving the South every opportunity to strengthen itself against the North.
In many of the Northern States, it was hoped by the timid that war could be averted by passing laws which would please the South. But Garfield knew better. He saw that war must come, and he urged his friends to be prepared. One night he said to a fellow-Senator, Cox, who shared his lodgings, "Cox, war is inevitable."
"It is, as sure as you live," was the reply.
Then said Garfield, "If it comes, you and I must fight; let us then pledge our lives to our country in her hour of peril." And standing there, these two men, grand types of the Young America which was rising above the shame of its dark past, pledged themselves to fight for the old flag and for human right.
Abraham Lincoln succeeded Buchanan in the Presidency of the United States, and the Confederates withdrew from the Union, and elected a friend of the slave-owners, named Jefferson Davis, as their President. Then the first blow was struck. At Charleston was a stronghold called Fort Sumter, which commanded the bay and harbour. The fort was held by Major Andersen for the Federal Government. The garrison was small, consisting only of some seventy men, who were without provisions.
The defense of Fort Sumter.
The Confederates demanded possession of the fort. Anderson held out for a day or two, until the walls were beaten down about his ears, and then surrendered the fortress to the rebels. This was the beginning of war.