Status Updates From First Blood: The Story of F...

An interesting, but older style book on Fort Sumter reminding me of the American Heritage style of history. States rights - nonsense! Traitors all over false demagoguery that drove them to the illegal act of secession and 4 years of needless bloodshed.

Buchanan's lame-duck Presidency before Lincoln's inauguration is a fascinating period. Even after Sec of War Floyd's resignation, the efforts to deal with the Ft Sumter situation was hampered by Buchanan's own reluctance to offend either side by taking decisive action and by Southern sympathies within the administration. Maj Anderson was put in an unfair position in ultimately deciding how events progressed.

As the influential characters are introduced and the stage is being set, it's intriguing to consider how the Fort Sumter series of events would have played out had there not been so many government officials in Washington who whose loyalties were to the South instead of the Union in the months leading up to the first shots of the war. SC would have still seceded, but the war possibly would have started elsewhere.