Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Four Years Of Hell...!


It was a time of utter madness!

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was the day that the bloodiest page in our history actually began. By the time it was over, the country would remember this time as one of staggering losses on both sides! North and South, healing would take decades! In fact, some say that the healing process is still going on!

The one thing that did come out of this conflict was a nation much stronger than before...a nation forged from battle, tempered with blood, and ultimately able to stand as one of the strongest nations in the world!

The bloodiest four years in American history begin when Confederate shore batteries under General P.G.T. Beauregard open fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay. During the next 34 hours, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. On April 13, U.S. Major Robert Anderson surrendered the fort. Two days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to quell the Southern "insurrection."

As early as 1858, the ongoing conflict between North and South over the issue of slavery had led Southern leadership to discuss a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans, the anti-slavery party, won the presidency. Following Republican Abraham Lincoln's victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina immediately initiated secession proceedings. On December 20, the South Carolina legislature passed the "Ordinance of Secession," which declared that "the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." After the declaration, South Carolina set about seizing forts, arsenals, and other strategic locations within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern states--Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana--had followed South Carolina's lead.

In February 1861, delegates from those states convened to establish a unified government. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was subsequently elected the first president of the Confederate States of America. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861, a total of seven states (Texas had joined the pack) had seceded from the Union, and federal troops held only Fort Sumter in South Carolina, Fort Pickens off the Florida coast, and a handful of minor outposts in the South. Four years after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, the Confederacy was defeated at the total cost of 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead.

During this day at some point, please take the time to pray that something like this is never allowed to happen again on our shores! With all of the enemies facing off against our great country today, we should concentrate all our efforts in putting forth the once solid united front we had in our past!

Let's get some fresh coffee and sit on the patio this morning. Just a moment of silence to remember the start of our deadliest conflict to date, OK?

8 comments:

chinasyndrome said...

Brother,I think your post says it all.

China
III

Anonymous said...

Our talk radio station big topic yesterday was of the American Civil War. One of the facts mentioned was that this one war alone had more dead than all of our other wars - combined! That doesn't sound so civil to me . . . :^(

The topic was the reason for the war in the first place. Was it over slavery or state's rights? Some felt the North felt threatened that the South was tired of having the North as their 'middleman' in receiving exports, and wanted to have a port where they could deal directly with Europe. A possible explanation why the blockade of Fort Sumpter occured, and where (I think) the 1st shots happened.

Whatever the reason was, it sure was bloody.

Momlady said...

Although it started over states' rights it ended up also over slavery. Thank God slavery is no longer legal. States' rights are in jeopardy, though. May we never see war again.

Dizzy-Dick said...

I believe the real reason was over State's rights. The same problems are brewing today. I believe that the Federal Gov should take care of world affairs and things that affect the entire country only and leave the States and locals govern themselves.

Bob from Athens said...

Oh, this country is united allright, we're all against the politicians.

HermitJim said...

Hey China...
Thanks for the nice comment today, my friend! I always appreciate your visits!

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Anon 7;23...
It was indeed the bloodiest of wars. The first shots fired at Fort Sumter signaled the start of a very long and brutal nightmare!

Let's hope that we learned enough from this and other conflicts to realize that peace should always be the first path, with war being a last choice!

Let's hope that we have learned enough from our history to avoid such devastation again!

Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Momlady...
I'm afraid that the major struggles looming on the horizon right now are taxes and states' rights! Sound familiar?

You would think that alarm bells would be ringing in all the halls on the beltway!

I really appreciate you coming by today!


Hey Dizzy...
It seems to me that the founding fathers knew that very thing...and tried to lay out for us the proper path.

Too bad that the PTB choose to ignore all the warnings and rumblings of anger, both from the past and the present!

Going to be an interesting election time, I think!

Thanks, Dizzy, for coming by today!

Wildmud said...

Right now we are more divided than anytime in my 64 years (including the Vietnam and civil rights era). I see more anger and venom than I can ever recall seeing.I've never seen politicians that were this intractable in their positions. Every move they make seems to be to infuriate the other side for maximum political effect.I hope it cools off and starts returning to normal but I think we are closer to a civil war than anytime in the last 150 years. What event will save us? What event will set it off?

jb007 said...

Let's hope that we learned enough from this and other conflicts to realize that peace should always be the first path, with war being a last choice!