Allegiance : Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the beginning of the Civil War / David Detzer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Detzer, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fort Sumter (Charleston, S.C.)--Siege, 1861.

Fort Sumter (Charleston, S.C.).

South Carolina--Charleston--Fort Sumter.

Charleston (S.C.)--History--Civil War, 1861-1865.

Charleston (S.C.).

Physical Description:

xiii, 367 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harcourt, [2001]

Summary:

So vividly does Allegiance re-create the events leading to the firing of the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, that we can feel the fabric of the Union tearing apart. It is a tense and surprising story, filled with indecisive bureaucrats, uninformed leaders, and hotheaded local politicians who surrounded some dedicated and honorable soldiers on both sides.

The six-month-long agony that began with Lincoln's election in November sputters from one crisis to the next until Lincoln's inauguration began the march to secession. As the South gathered forces around the Union outpost, a nerve-wracking standoff finally exploded into battle as the soldiers at Fort Sumter neared starvation. At the center of this dramatic narrative is the heroic figure of Major Robert Anderson, a soldier whose experience had taught him above all that war was the poorest form of policy. With little help from Washington, he almost single-handedly forestalled the beginning of the war until he finally had no choice but to fight.

David Detzer's decade-long research on these people in this place at this time illuminates the passions that led to the fighting, the sober reflections of the man who restrained its outbreak, and the individuals on both sides who changed American history. No other historian has given us a clearer or more intimate picture of the human drama of Fort Sumter.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Asunder 1

Chapter 2 A Gentle Man 16

Chapter 3 Salad Days 29

Chapter 4 The Fulcrum 46

Chapter 5 Twilight of the Old Union 65

Chapter 6 Commanders and Chiefs 80

Chapter 7 Slim Pickens, Stout Fort 93

Chapter 8 Eventide 108

Chapter 9 Dueling Flags 123

Chapter 10 The Wolf at the Door 137

Chapter 11 Hostages 162

Chapter 12 The Boys on the Beach 192

Chapter 13 Takes Two to Tango, But One Can Do the Twist All Alone 210

Chapter 14 The Yellow Brick Road 232

Chapter 15 That Little Bridge 254

Chapter 16 A Mere Point of Honor 268

Chapter 17 Ashes and Dust 287

Mystic Chords of Memory: a Postscript 311.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 344-356) and index.

ISBN:

0151006415

OCLC:

45201972