This weekend, while taking a mini-vacation with the family to Stone Mountain in Georgia, I read on one of the displays there in the Memorial Hall museum that, “the Civil War started when Confederate soldiers fired on federal troops at Fort Sumter.” Now that’s just not a fair statement. It is severely biased and not a little misleading. It disturbed me to see such a misrepresentation of the facts, such an ignoring of the context, surrounding the start of the war between the states (and that at a Confederate memorial park no less). Never mind the utter disappointment there on the whole with regard to enthusiasm or recognition of Southern heritage, but that’s another blog entry, for another time, I reckon.
So why does this statement bother me? Is is that the statement is not technically accurate? No, Southern boys did fire the first shots. Why though? That’s the question not answered, the reason not explained, that yields a whole different perspective than the one a body is likely to walk away with otherwise after reading the display in question. You see, simply put, Fort Sumter was the property of the sovereign, then independent, state of South Carolina. It had previously been in the hands of the federal government while still in union. Yet, when South Carolina lawfully seceded from the Union, ownership of the property naturally reverted. However, federal troops refused to leave or surrender the property to it’s rightful owners, thereby threatening the peace and safety of the people.
Lincoln’s plan to invade South Carolina, and resupply the fort with loyal troops, was no secret. Nor was it the first attempt of the same. Still, though warned not to try and resupply the fort, Lincoln used it as an opportunity to force the South to draw first blood. You see, that way he could claim we started the war; the same shameful spin and guile perpetuated by the modern state of Georgia in it’s administration of the Confederate memorial park at Stone Mountain today.
To put this in terms we can better identify with, imagine a communist nation or coalition of nations invading American soil. What would our government do? Why they would warn them not to invade our borders, nor threaten our peace and safety, explaining that such an act would be deemed an act of war and would be met with hostile resistance. Well, that’s essentially what Confederate troops did at the battle of Fort Sumter. In fact, that is more or less what they did throughout the entirety of the war.
So, what really started the war? The occupation and invasion of a sovereign people, or state, by a now foreign power. More specifically, the aid and support of federal troops in continuing to occupy Ft. Sumter, threatening the sovereignty of the people of South Carolina. That’s what started the war!
So yes, we shot first. You would too if someone was invading your home, property, and privacy!
Then while it is fair to say we fired the first shot, it is not fair to say we started the war; at least not without explaining that we only fired because we were being unlawfully occupied and invaded by armed forces of a now foreign power. We left peacefully, and would have remained so if we had not been provoked through Northern aggression and invasion. THAT is what really started the war.