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1861 – Secession Completes and the Bloodshed Begins
South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860. In 1861, the Confederate States of America would gain its full roster of states. Here is a list of the seceding states and their dates of secession from the Union:

* South Carolina – December 20, 1860

* Mississippi – January 9, 1861

* Florida – January 10, 1861

* Alabama – January 11, 1861

* Georgia – January 19, 1861

* Louisiana – January 26, 1861

* Texas - February 1, 1861

* Virginia – April 17, 1861

* Arkansas – May 6, 1861

* North Carolina – May 20, 1861

* Tennessee – June 8, 1861

The Confederate States of America now exists. The blood of the Civil War starts flowing on April 12, 1861 as the Confederates fire on Fort Sumter. The Civil War begins.

Walt Whitman

To me, Whitman’s 1861 poem shows he knew the year of 1861 brought about a sea change. Before then, it was all about attempts at compromise, politicians debating and arguing, rattling of swords, and talk, talk, talk. Now the year 1861 brings about bloodshed and death with the gathering of men; "clothed in blue" and of "well-gristled body, and sunburnt face and hands," with "a knife in the belt at your side," and "bearing weapons." Whitman says there should be "No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses" for this "terrible year," of 1861. War and all of its evil, has arrived for North and South. It is for the reader to analyze and interpret Walt Whitman’s poem titled 1861, as he or she sees fit.

1861
Walt Whitman

ARM’D year! year of the struggle!
No dainty rhymes or sentimental love verses for you, terrible year!
Not you as some pale poetling, seated at a desk, lisping cadenzas
      piano;
But as a strong man, erect, clothed in blue clothes, advancing,
      carrying a rifle on your shoulder,
With well-gristled body and sunburnt face and hands–with a knife in
      the belt at your side,
As I heard you shouting loud–your sonorous voice ringing across the
      continent;
Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities,
Amid the men of Manhattan I saw you, as one of the workmen, the
      dwellers in Manhattan;
Or with large steps crossing the prairies out of Illinois and
      Indiana,
Rapidly crossing the West with springy gait, and descending the
      Alleghanies;
Or down from the great lakes, or in Pennsylvania, or on deck along
      the Ohio river;
Or southward along the Tennessee or Cumberland rivers, or at
      Chattanooga on the mountain top,
Saw I your gait and saw I your sinewy limbs, clothed in blue, bearing
      weapons, robust year;
Heard your determin’d voice, launch’d forth again and again;
Year that suddenly sang by the mouths of the round-lipp’d cannon,
I repeat you, hurrying, crashing, sad, distracted year.

A commentary about Walt Whitman by EnglishGuyinTexas.
EnglishGuyInTexas

Another post with information about Walt Whitman…

"[...] peace, order, tranquility and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole United States of America." –President Andrew Johnson   On August 20, 1866, President Andrew Johnson gave a proclamation declaring that the Civil War was now officially over.

Andrew Johnson

Earlier, with these words on April 2, 1866, President Johnson proclaimed that the insurrection was over:

"Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end and is henceforth to be so regarded."

Notice that Texas is not included in Johnson’s list of states where the "insurrection" had come to an end. Texas had not yet formed a new state government, and so it could not officially be said that its insurrection had ended. Texas was the 28th state to join the United States when it became a state in 1845. Texas seceded from the United States in early 1861, becoming part of the Confederate States of America. To once again become a state in the United States, Texas had to replace its Confederate-based state government.

President Johnson followed his April 2, words with a proclamation on August 20, 1866 finally declaring the insurrection to have ended, after Texas had established a new state government:

"I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole United States of America."

With these words of President Johnson, the Civil War was now officially decreed to be over.

Reconstruction was underway as the nation worked to rebuild all that had been destroyed in the Civil War. Healing the wounds of the nation from the Civil War continues on today, and we are still striving for "peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority" to spread completely "throughout the whole United States of America."

During the Civil War, soldiers would speak about "Seeing the elephant." The "elephant" was battle, combat, being under enemy fire.

Both the Confederacy and the Union had armies made up mostly of volunteers, with much fewer soldiers actually belonging to the Regular Army. Whether volunteer or Regular Army, the vast majority of these young men had never faced enemy fire. Many were away from home for the first time in their young lives. They had lived quietly and peacefully in small towns, farms, or cities. Now, they were learning to kill, and facing the great possibility of being killed. As these men trained and marched, preparing for battle, the thought of "Seeing the elephant" for the first time weighed on their minds.

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”It’s just like shooting squirrels, only these squirrels have guns.”
– A Federal veteran instructing new recruits in a musket drill.

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“Bang, bang, bang, a rattle, de bang, bang, bang, a boom, de bang…whirr-siz-siz-siz–a ripping, roaring, boom, bang!” – Confederate Sam R. Watkins describing a "fire fight." Sam Watkins was twenty-one years old and from Columbia, Tennessee when he joined up to fight in the Civil War. He kept a journal and recorded his experiences and thoughts during the war. His words give us great insight into the Civil War.   “It was eyes right, guide center! Close-up, guide right, halt, forward, right oblique, left oblique, halt, forward, guide center, eyes right, dress up promptly in the rear, steady, double quick, charge bayonets, fire at will, is about all that a private soldier knows of a battle.” – Confederate Sam R. Watkins.

I was a ploughboy in the field,
A gawky, lazy, dodger,
When came the conscript officer
And took me for a sodger.
He put a musket in my hand,
And showed me how to fire it;
I marched and counter-marched all day;
Lord, how I did admire it!
– This tune is "The Valiant Conscript" and it is sung to the music of "Yankee Doodle."

“Our men are not sufficiently impressed with a sense of honor that it is better to die by fire than to run.”
– General William Hardee of the Confederacy.

“War is at best barbarism…Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot, nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”
– William Tecumseh Sherman. These words are from his June 19, 1879 address to the Michigan Military Academy.

“We made a bargain with them that we would not fire on them if they would not fire on us, and they were as good as their word. It seems too bad that we have to fight men that we like.”
– Words of a Union soldier.

Perhaps some of you reading the LearnCivilWarHistory.com blog are veterans or soldiers who know full well what it is like to under fire. However, for most us, we can only wonder and imagine what it is like to be "Seeing the elephant," just as the young men of the Civil War wondered and imagined so many years ago.

Below are the experiences of being under Civil War fire as described by Captain Frank Holsinger. Try to imagine yourself in Captain Frank Holsinger’s shoes (or rather, brogans) as you read this stirring account of what it was like to be "Seeing the elephant” in the Civil War:

Excerpts from: How Does One Feel Under Fire?
by Captain Frank Holsinger, 19th United States Colored Infantry.

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"When the nerves are thus unstrung, I have known relief by a silly remark. Thus at Antietam, when in line of battle in front of the wood and exposed to a galling fire from the cornfield, standing waiting expectant with “What next?” the minies zipping by occasionally, one making the awful thud as it struck some unfortunate. As we thus stood listlessly, breathing a silent prayer, our hearts having ceased to pulsate or our minds on home and loved ones, expecting soon to be mangled or perhaps killed, some one makes an idiotic remark; thus at this time it is Mangle, in a high nasal twang, with “D—–d sharp skirmishing in front.” There is a laugh, it is infectious, and we are once more called back to life.

At the completion of Captain Frank Holsinger’s military service, he was given a brevet rank of major. Holsinger settled in Kansas.

The "Swamp Angel" is a Union 200-pounder Parrott Gun. It was used on August 22-23, 1863 on Morris Island in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina to shell nearby Charleston.

Quincy A Gillmore

Fort Sumter fell to the Rebels on April 13, 1861. By the summer of 1863, Fort Sumter had been bombarded by Federal artillery for two years, but it still stood and guarded Charleston. At the entrance to Charleston Harbor is Morris Island, and Union General Quincy A. Gillmore and his troops were stationed there. Gillmore wanted to construct a battery on Morris Island so he could bombard Charleston directly and force the city’s surrender, thus bypassing troublesome Fort Sumter and other forts in the harbor.

A big gun with the range to reach Charleston would allow Gillmore to get to the meat of the matter … force the Rebel stronghold of Charleston to surrender. The Swamp Angel is what General Gillmore needed.

This gun was huge. It was made at the West Point Foundry in New York and weighed 16,700 pounds. With an 8-inch bore, its barrel had an 11-foot bore depth. Even the construction of the battery and parapet needed for the Swamp Angel was impressive, merely getting this gun into place on the swampy, mushy, ground of Morris Island (with mud sometimes twenty-feet deep) in Charleston Harbor was a challenging engineering job. Construction began on August 2, and included:

• 13,000 sandbags weighing greater than 800 tons total
• 123 pine timbers, 45-55 feet in length and 15-18 inches in diameter
• 5,000 feet of 1-inch thick board
• 9,500 feet of 3-inch thick planking
• The spikes, nails, and iron required to hold it all together weighed 1,200 pounds
• 75 fathoms (450 feet) of rope, 3 inches thick

All this would allow the Swamp Angel to use a 17-pound powder charge to fire a 200-pound projectile 7,900 yards into the heart of Rebel Charleston. To top it all off, the projectiles could be filled with "Greek Fire," an incendiary fluid, that would set Charleston ablaze. On August 17, the Swamp Angel arrived at Morris Island. An awesome weapon of war was about to go to work.

Gillmore sent a message on August 21, to Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard (the commander at Charleston) demanding the evacuation of Confederate posts on Morris Island and Fort Sumter, or else shelling of Charleston would start. The Yankees had sighted the Swamp Angel in on the steeple of St. Michael’s Church.

Beauregard gave no reply to Gillmore’s demands. At 1:30 A.M. on August 22, the Swamp Angel began to roar with its first shot at Charleston. Following the first shot, bells, whistles, and alarms from Charleston could be heard on Morris Island. Before daylight came, fifteen more shots rained down on Charleston from the Swamp Angel, 12 of the shots filled with Greek Fire.

Charleston was receiving the wrath of the Union in the form of horrible huge shells filled with fire, shot from a huge monster of a cannon 7,900 yards away. On August 23, the Swamp Angel belched out 20 more shells onto Charleston. It looked like the Confederacy would lose Charleston to surrender as the Swamp Angel rained its hellish shells full of fire down on the city. As the Swamp Angel fired its 36th shell on August 23rd, it did something cast-iron Parrott guns were known for, despite their distinctive wrought iron reinforcing bands placed around their breeches. On the 36th shot the Swamp Angel’s breech blew out and the gun’s barrel flew on top of the sandbag parapet. Although it had suffered some damage and a few fires were set by the Swamp Angel, Charleston was now safe. The great Swamp Angel was dead. No further huge guns like the Swamp Angel were placed on the Union’s Morris Island battery.

Learn More Civil War History… The Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865 On April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was fired on by the Confederate batteries located around the Charleston Harbor. Within thirty-four hours, the fort had surrendered. From that moment on, the recapturing of Fort Sumter became one of the Union’s most important objectives. Nearly four years elapsed before the Northern forces were successful. The Siege of Charleston provides the complete history of those four important years in the history of the Civil War.

The Swamp Angel Picture courtesy of: CivilWarAlbum.com

The Swamp Angel’s military career was over, the fate of the great gun was for it to be sold as scrap iron. However, instead of being used as scrap iron and physically lost to history, the citizens of Trenton, New Jersey bought the Swamp Angel and made it into a monument. If you visit Trenton today, you will find the Swamp Angel at Perry and Clinton streets. Even if it could still fire, and despite its might, the Civil War Swamp Angel could not reach Charleston from Trenton. People of Charleston, rest easy.

Learn More About Civil War Artillery…

Confederate Edmund Ruffin fires the first shot of the Civil War at 4:30 in the morning of April 12, when he fires a single mortar upon Union held Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. It is questionable that Ruffin actually fired the first shot of the Civil War. Strangely, it might be said that Ruffin fired one of the last shots of the Civil War when he committed suicide in April, 1865 after he learned of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.

The Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter for 34 hours. During the bombardment, the Confederates and the Yankees combined fired approximately 4,000 shells. The formal surrender of Fort Sumter takes place on April 14.

Oddly, not a single Johnny Reb or Billy Yank died during the intense bombardment. However, there was an accidental explosion that took lives during the formal surrender ceremonies at Fort Sumter. A big gun was fired as a salute and somehow a burning piece of debris (most likely part of a powder bag) landed on a pile of cartridges. These cartridges exploded, instantly killing a Yankee private, and badly injuring another five. One of the injured Yankees died a few days later.

On Sunday, April 14, President Abraham Lincoln learned Fort Sumter had surrendered. Lincoln met with his cabinet and advisors from the military.

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On April 15, Lincoln issued a proclamation declaring that an insurrection existed, and that 75,000 militia were being calling out from the Northern states. President Lincoln also stated that a special session of Congress would convene on July 4.

The Civil War had begun.

Quotes about Fort Sumter:

"We shall be in one of the bloodiest civil wars that history has recorded."
-Alexander Stephens was the Confederate vice president, this is his prediction after Fort Sumter.

"What a change now greets us! The Government is aroused, the dead North is alive, and its divided people united…The cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end, and war till the traitors are effectually and permanently put down."
-Some words of Frederick Douglass in May of 1861, after the Civil War began with the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

"The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen…you will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet’s nest which extends from mountains to ocean. Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."
-Robert Toombs, his words to Jefferson Davis regarding Fort Sumter. Toombs was Confederate Secretary of State but later resigned this position to become a Brigadier General and fight in battles for the Confederacy.

"Abe Linkhorn,

We received your proklamation, and as you have put us on very short notis, a few of us boys have conkluded to write you, and ax for a little more time. The fact is, we are most obleeged to have a few more days, for the way things are happening, it is utterly onpossible for us to disperse in twenty days. I tried my darndest yisterday to disperse and retire, but it was no go."
-Bill Arp. When Fort Sumter was bombarded, Abraham Lincoln put out a proclamation asking the Rebels to "disperse and retire." The above is a letter to Lincoln that appeared in a newspaper. "Bill Arp" is the pen name of humorist Charles Henry Smith.