Star of the West,
A steam merchantman, sent to relieve
Major Anderson in
Fort Sumter.
It having been resolved, on the advice of
Secretary Holt and
General Scott, to send troops to reinforce the garrison at
Fort Sumter, orders were given for the
United States steam-frigate
Brooklyn—the only war-ship available then— to be in readiness to sail from
Norfolk at a moment's notice.
This order
Jacob Thompson,
Secretary of the Interior, revealed to the early Confederate leaders.
Virginians were ready to seize the
Brooklyn; the lights of the shore-beacons in
Charleston Harbor were extinguished, and the buoys that marked the channel were removed.
Informed of the betrayal of his order,
President Buchanan countermanded it, when
Thompson threatened to resign in consequence of such an order.
The President promised him that none like it should be given “without the question being first considered and decided in the cabinet.”
It was soon evident that there were members of the cabinet who could not be trusted.
Dangers were thickening; and the
President, listening to the counsels of
Holt and
Scott, resolved to send supplies and men to
Sumter, by stealth.
The stanch merchant steam-vessel
Star of the West was chartered by the government for the purpose and quickly laden with supplies.
She was cleared for
Savannah and New Orleans, so as to mislead spies, and left New York at sunset, Jan. 5, 1861.
Far down the bay she received, under cover of thick darkness, four officers and 250 artillerists and marines, with their arms and ammunition, and proceeded to sea, under her commander,
Capt. John McGowan.
On the morning of Jan. 9 she reached Charleston Bar, before daylight.
Finding all the shore-lights put out, she extinguished her own. Just at dawn a scouting steamboat discovered her, burned colored lights as signals, and ran for the inner harbor.
the
Star of the West had all her soldiers concealed below and was in the guise of a merchant vessel.
The deception was fruitless: her errand was already known.
Alexander Jones, a telegraphic correspondent of the
Southern newspapers, had informed the
Charleston
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Mercury of the sailing of the vessel from New York, and
Secretary Thompson, in possession of the secret, imparted it to the authorities at
Charleston.
“As I was writing my resignation,” he afterwards wrote, “I sent a despatch to
Judge  |
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The Star of the West. |
Longstreet that the
Star of the West was coming with reinforcements.”
He also gave a messenger another despatch to be sent, in which he said, as if by authority, “Blow the
Star of the West out of the water.”
The messenger patriotically withheld the despatch.
When the vessel was within 2 miles of
Fort Sumter, unsuspicious of danger, a shot came ricochetting across her bow from a masked battery on
Morris Island, three-fourths of a mile distant.
The national flag was flying over the
Star of the West, and her captain immediately displayed a large American ensign at the fore.
As she passed on, a continuous fire was kept up from
Morris Island, and an occasional shot from
Fort Moultrie was hurled at her. Two steam-tugs and an armed schooner put out from
Fort Moultrie to intercept her.
Captain McGowan, finding himself hemmed in, powerless, and in imminent danger of capture, turned his vessel seaward, after seventeen shots had been fired by the insurgents, and returned to New York, Jan. 12.
This firing on the flag of the
United States was the first overt act of war that marked the inauguration of the great
Civil War of 1861-65.
Had
Major Anderson, in
Sumter, then known that loyal men were in power in his government, he would have opened the great guns of the fortress, and the
Star of the West and her precious freight would not have been driven to sea.
There was great exultation in
South Carolina because of this act of war. The legislature resolved that they “learned with pride and pleasure of the successful resistance this day by the troops of this State, acting under orders of the governor, to an attempt to reinforce
Fort Sumter.”
The Charleston
Mercury, Jan. 10, said, exultingly: “Yesterday, the 9th of January, will be remembered in history.
Powder has been burned over a decree of our State, timber has been crashed, perhaps blood spilled.
The expulsion of the
Star of the West from
Charleston Harbor, yesterday morning, was the opening of the ball of revolution.
We are proud that our harbor has been so honored.” . . .
South Carolina “has not hesitated to strike the first blow, full in the face of her insulter.
Let the United States government bear or return, at its good-will, the blow still tingling about its ears— the fruit of its own bandit temerity.
We would not exchange or recall that blow for millions.
It has wiped out half a century of scorn and outrage. . . . If that red seal of blood be still lacking to the parchment of our liberties—and blood they want—blood they shall have, and blood enough to stamp it all in red. For, by the God of our fathers, the soil of
South Carolina shall be free!”
