This Month in the War: 13th Amendment, South Carolina Secedes, Mason and Slidell Released

From the December 2022 American Battlefield Trust calendar.

DECEMBER 18, 1865

**  The 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, becomes a part of the U.S. Constitution.

DECEMBER 20, 1860

**  South Carolina adopts  an Ordinance of Secession.

DECEMBER 22, 1860

**  Major Robert Anderson evacuates Fort Moultrie and goes to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor.

DECEMBER 26, 1861

**  The U.S. releases Mason and Sliddell, ending the Trent Affair.

DECEMBER 30, 1861

**  Banks in New York suspend specie payments.

DECEMBER 31, 1862

**  The Battle of Stones River (Murfreesboro), Tennessee, begins.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT): Forts Discussion

Robert Anderson raised the same flag he lowered in surrender that flew over Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865.

FORT McALLISTER on the Ogeechee River in Georgia.  Built to prevent Union troops from landing on dry land and marching to Savannah.

An earthen fort which was attacked by ironclads several times but no damage to the earthen walls and none to the ironclads.

The Confederate privateer Rattlesnake, formerly CSS Nashville (commerce raider),  ran aground in the Ogeechee River on 5 November 1862 and was destroyed by the monitor USS Montauk.

The discussion topic for the April 23 discussion group will be artillery.

That is, of I can afford the gas to drive there.

--Old Secesh

Fort Wood, N.Y. Harbor-- Part 2: Its Troops Used to Quell New York Draft Riots

In January 1861, the fort was regarrisoned as war loomed.  It continued to serve as an ordnance depot but took on added duty as a recruit center.  Fort Wood itself never fired a shot during the war, but troops stationed there were called upon to quell the New York City draft riots in 1863.

Following the war, Fort Wood was placed under caretaker status and in the 1880s was chosen as the site of the Statue of Liberty.

Several people who wrote to the Civil war Talk Forum said they had visited the Statue of Liberty but had no knowledge of the base having been a fort.

One person said Robert Anderson and Henry Halleck served there.

--Old Secesh

That Problem in Charleston Harbor-- Part 4-- Major Robert Anderson

As March turned to April, rations in Fort Sumter began running low and Lincoln decided to resupply it. A message was sent to Anderson on April 4th and at the same time, Confederate authorities were informed of the intention.

On April 10th, Confederate Secretary of War Leroy P. Walker informed Beauregard that if there was an attempt to resupply Sumter by force, he was to demand its evacuation and if that was refused to proceed as he saw fit.


MAJOR ROBERT ANDERSON

Was born in the slaveholding state of Kentucky on June 5, 1805 and graduated from the US Military Academy in 1825. During the Black Hawk War of 1832, he served as colonel of the Illinois militia and mustered one A. Lincoln into and out of military service.

He participated in the Second Seminole War and was badly wounded in the Mexican War

As tensions continued to mount and the Buchanan administration was inspecting situations at military installations, it was decided to send Anderson to Fort Moultrie to replace its elderly commander, Col. John L. Gardner.

Anderson was regarded as a very competent and discreet officer and since he was a Southerner it would be seen diplomatically as nonhostile. He was staunchly pro-Union, but had no quarrel with slavery.

And It Gets More Intense. --Old B-Runner

Dixon and the Civil War: Some Famous People At Fort Dixon Before the War

I've been in Dixon, Illinois, since Tuesday and preparing to leave tomorrow with perhaps a Civil War encampment on the way home in Franklin Grove.

Today, we mostly had talks and one was on Dixon's history. Obviously no battles were fought here, but there were some Civil War coincidences going back to the Black Hawk War in 1832. A major staging and supply fort was located here called Fort Dixon, named after the town's founder and ferry operator John Dixon. It wasn't all that much of a fort, an earthen wall surrounding two wooden blockhouses.

The fort's commander was one Zachary Taylor who went on to become president. He was in command of the regular army troops and had a Lieutenant Jefferson Davis who went on to become president of the Confederate States. Others at the fort included Robert Anderson, the Union commander at the fall of Fort Sumter, Winfield Scott, W.S. Harney and future Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnson.

One other man was there as well, a lanky Illinoisan who was captain of the militia by the name of Abraham Lincoln.

Whether or not the two met while there is not known, but our speaker said that the regular army didn't have much to do with the militia, so probably not.

The only statue of a young Abraham Lincoln from his Blackhawk War days stands on the site of Fort Dixon on the Rock River. I believe at one time I heard it is the only statue of Lincoln in his younger days.

Wouldn't That Have Been Something Had Lincoln and Davis met? --Old B-Runner