From: turrell@violet.berkeley.edu (David Turrell)
Newsgroups: alt.war.civil.usa
Subject: Secession Crisis Lit (Re: ...secession of Virginia.)
Date: 12 Sep 1992 06:42:04 GMT
Organization: Cobol Pacific University
NNTP-Posting-Host: violet.berkeley.edu

In article <1992Sep8.162415.11132@news.iastate.edu>
pholland@iastate.edu (Paul J Hollander) writes:

>In article <1992Sep7.162105.1@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu>
>cowan@ssrl01.slac.stanford.edu (P. L. Cowan) writes:
>
>> (Deleted)
>>
>>I have previously bemoaned my inability to read Lincoln's mind during 
>>the first half of 1861. Let me appeal again, if anyone knows of a good
>>biography or history that treats this period in detail, I would be
>>anxious to read it. Authors seem to want to rush through this period
>>to get to the "good stuff".
>
>Second the request.  Foote gives the *impression* that Lincoln knew
>exactly what he was doing in order to force the Confederates to start the 
>shooting.  IMHO, everyone was stumbling in the dark, trying to make sense
>of confused signals from the other side, half of which they didn't believe
>were seriously meant.


Richard N. Current's _Lincoln and the First Shot_ is both a vivid
narrative and scholarly analysis of the decision to resupply, and not
to surrender, Fort Sumter. It follows in the footsteps of Stampp's
_And the War Came..._ in that it regards Lincoln's second inaugural as
containing a succinct and true characterization of the crisis - that
both sides preferred war to compromise - and that Lincoln himself was
neither warmonger nor pacifist but felt, finally, that to compromise
on Fort Sumter without, say, Virginia promising to dissolve its
secession convention was futile appeasement.

Shelby Foote seems to be following what Current calls the
Ramsdell-Tilley thesis, which portrays Lincoln as the real aggressor,
who tricked the South into starting the war. Current thinks the thesis
lacking in balance and perspective, making Lincoln too much the
warmonger, and Jefferson Davis too much the peace lover. If Fort
Sumter was of no strategic value to the Union except to provoke the
South into firing the first shot by its resupply, it was also of no
value to the Confederacy, which would have lost nothing, and gained
much, by showing restraint.

Current also finds fault with the so-called Randall-Potter thesis,
which, at the other extreme, confuses Seward's much more conciliatory
approach with Lincoln's March-April thinking. On April 4, 1861,
Lincoln, in a very oblique way, offered to trade Sumter for Virginia's
staying in the Union; but the Old Dominion's representative, John
Baldwin, wasn't astute enough to detect the overture; and Lincoln
blundered by expecting a stranger to understand his veiled language.
After that failure, Lincoln was determined to hold Sumter, even though
he knew that resupply would probably be resisted; but he felt his
position would be strong if the southeners did open fire.

A bit of trivia learned from the book: the Supreme Court has held that
the Civil War started on April 19, 1861, when Lincoln proclaimed the
blockade of Confederate ports. I suppose Johnson's May 10, 1865,
proclamation declaring a cessation of hostilities marked the end.

I've attached a bibliography. I've included the diary of O.H.
Browning, Lincoln's close confidante, which reveals much about
Lincoln's thinking. If you can get ahold of the Current book, do so,
it's very enjoyable.

-David

--------
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865.
     The collected works of Abraham Lincoln / The Abraham Lincoln Association,
   Springfield, Illinois ; Roy P. Basler, editor ; Marion Dolores Pratt and
   Lloyd A. Dunlap, assistant editors.  New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers
   University Press, 1953-55.

Browning, Orville Hickman, 1806-1881.
     The diary of Orville Hickman Browning ... edited with introduction and
   notes by James G. Randall ..  Springfield, Ill., The trustees of the
   Illinois State Historical Library, 1933.
     Series title:  Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library,
   Lincoln series vol. XXII. vol. III.

Current, Richard Nelson.
     Lincoln and the first shot.  [1st ed.] .  Philadelphia, Lippincott [1963].
     Series title:  Critical periods of history.

Stampp, Kenneth M. (Kenneth Milton)
     And the war came; the North and the secession crisis, 1860-1861, by
   Kenneth M. Stampp.  [Baton Rouge] Louisiana State University Press [1970].
     Series title:  Louisiana paperbacks, L53.

Ramsdell, Charles W.
   "Lincoln and the First Shot", in the Journal of Southern History,
    III (1937), 259-88.

Tilley, John Shipley, 1880-
     Lincoln takes command, by John Shipley Tilley.  Chapel Hill, The
   University of North Carolina Press, 1941.

Randall, J. G. (James Garfield), 1881-1953.
     Lincoln, the liberal statesman.  New York, Dodd, Mead, 1947.

Randall, J. G. (James Garfield), 1881-1953.
     Lincoln, the Presdient.  New York, Dodd, Mead, 1945-55.
     Series title:  American political leaders.

Potter, David Morris.
     Lincoln and his party in the secession crisis / by David M. Potter.  New
   York : AMS Press, 1979, c1942.
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