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| Maj. Peter F. Stevens |
In early 1861, a corps of Cadets from The Citadel fired 17 shots at a
non-military merchant steamer, Star of the West, chugging toward federally held
Fort Sumter. The steamer's mission was to deliver supplies and men to the fort, a symbol of the Union. South Carolina’s Gov. Francis Pickens
had been warned about the covert mission.
Naturally this displeased the leader of the first state to
secede from the Union back in December.
Near daybreak, cadets from the Southern military academy fired the first hostile shots
leading up to the Civil War. Maj. Peter Fayssoux Stevens commanded the unit of the Citadel, located at the tip of the Charleston peninsula. Stevens, 30, graduated first in his class from the Citadel
in 1849. Smart, religious and respected, Stevens went on
to become the academy’s superintendent and later first bishop of the Reformed
Episcopal Church.
In my interview scenario, I
approach Major Stevens, organizing his young men on the Charleston waterfront with
the demeanor of an aristocrat and of a top-drawer military leader.
“Major Stevens, sir, why are you doing this?” I asked.
“I am a soldier," he answered. "I follow orders. Governor Pickens
ordered it. He was duly elected by the people. The governor expects me to carry out
the will of the people.”
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| Historic Map of Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter sits mid-harbor. Citadel cadets fired from Sullivan's Island just north of the fort. |
“But, sir, the majority of
the people of South Carolina – 57 percent – are slaves. They can’t vote,” I
pointed out “And women, sir… they
make up about half of the free population in the state. They can’t vote either.“
“Yes, ma’am, but leaders of
our state voted unanimously to walk away from the Union, which we freely
joined," Stevens said. "What we can freely join we can freely leave."
“When you speak of the political
leaders of the state, you mean representatives in the Secession Convention in 1860?” I asked.
Stevens managed a nod of
agreement then barked directions to his cadets.
“But, sir," I ventured, "one hundred percent of
the 171 delegates voting at that convention were white males… and 90 percent of them owned slaves. Even in South Carolina, most people
didn’t own slaves, so how…..?
"It’s called democracy,” Stevens said, obviously
wishing I would leave Sullivan’s Island, where the cadets had set up base. “Besides,
ma’am, this country is so big and states are so different, did anyone really
think one government could run the whole thing?” he snapped. “As for the
Constitution, it preserves our sovereign rights as a state. That includes our
right to walk away from the Union.”
“A gentleman’s agreement?” I
wondered aloud.
Stevens couldn’t let that remark slide.
“War is inevitable,” he
said above the clamor. “Blame it on our Founding Fathers. Our democracy
preserves states’ rights – and slavery."
I scribbled the word “democracy,” in my notebook. Stevens had a point. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 compromised with Southern leaders to ensure economic security, accommodated by slavery, to get the Constitution signed. The founding document allowed slaves to be counted as three-fifths of a
person for the purpose of representation.
More to Stevens' point, representative democracy allows
Americans to hand over to their political leaders their hard-won, “by-the-people”
privileges, to the point that most don’t even vote. In the hotly contested presidential election of 2008,
only 57 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot, but that marked a record high.
The first promise of sunlight shot across the black-violet sky. The Star of the West bobbed on distant waves.
“Sorry, ma’am,” Major
Stevens said in an imperious yet courtly manner. “You must hasten to depart.” The Citadel men scurried about the
battery, giddiness mingling with the sobering reality that their actions might provide a flashpoint for war.
They readied the cannons. The Star of the West eased into range.
“Commence firing!” Major
Stevens yelled.
First Classman George Edward
Haynseworth pulled the lanyard on Gun Number 1. Cannons exploded again and
again for ten minutes from Morris Island. Ear-splitting ordnance swished
toward the bow of the merchant steamer. Although avoiding a direct hit, the
Star of the West’s supplies never reached Fort Sumter. The ship turned back.
Within days, the handful of
Union troops who had fled Charleston to Fort Sumter, reduced nearly
to rubble, ceremoniously left it. Fort Sumter stayed in Confederate hands
throughout the war, an inspiring symbol of defiance.
Some historians consider the cadets' surreptitious actions under the command of Major P. F. Stevens the first shots of the American Civil War. Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter followed in April 1861, escalating the standoff that would devastate the South, threaten to collapse a country not yet 75 years old, and claim the lives of about 620,000 Americans.
It was the will of the
people.
RESOURCES: U.S Census of 1860; Bordewich, Fergus
M. “The Civil War Begins,” Smithsonian, 2011. “ Major Peter F. Stevens, SCM
(1859-1861), The CITADEL online. Citadel cadets participate in Civil War reenactments and living history events through the Citadel Living History Society. For information go to Citadel Living History Society.
NOTE: Because of a storm-related electrical outage on Tuesday, this blog was posted a day late.
