Prelude to Civil War – The Star of the West Incident

With the election of Abraham Lincoln as President on November 6th, 1860, politics in Charleston, South Carolina took on a decidedly belligerent tone. Within four weeks, the state had called a Secession Convention and unanimously voted itself out of the Union. In the view of South Carolinians, all things belonging to the Federal Government in the state were then expected to be turned over to the new Republic of South Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, commander of the small Federal garrison at nearby Fort Moultrie, pleaded for reinforcements in the face of the rising tensions. President

James Buchanan, however, was not known for decisive action and only wanted to end his term without starting a civil war.

With no help forthcoming, Major Anderson took matters into his own hands. During the evening of December 26th, he surreptitiously moved his garrison, along with 45 women and children, to the unfinished Fort Sumter on a man-made island a mile away. Within hours, enraged South Carolinians had telegrammed Washington with news of Anderson’s move. Secretary of War and future Confederate general John B.

Floyd ordered Anderson to return to his post. Anderson could not comply because in leaving he had rendered Fort Moultrie indefensible. He reported to South Carolina Governor Pickens that he “could not and would not” return to Moultrie. Even Anderson’s confidants in Charleston chided him for making such a move when agents of South Carolina were in Washington to negotiate purchase of the Federal properties.

Buchanan was disappointed that Robert Anderson had created such a stir, but he could no longer sit back and bide his time until he could turn the South Carolina problem over to his successor Abraham Lincoln on March 4. As commander in chief, he avowed he would not abandon US troops. On New Year’s Eve he ordered the commanding general of the United States Army, Winfield Scott, to reinforce the Fort Sumter garrison.

Scott informed the President that he had fewer than 500 troops in reserve and most of them were new recruits at Fort Columbus on Governors Island in New York harbor. The question was how to get them to Sumter. Movement overland by rail would be fast, but to get the men to the fort upon reaching Charleston was problematic. An expedition by sea gave Scott his best possibility of success without starting a war with South Carolina. He considered using the warship USS Brooklyn but realized that would lack the element of surprise and appear belligerent. In New York harbor a merchant ship, the Star of the West, had just returned from New Orleans. The wooden hulled side-wheel steamship was sturdy enough for the ocean voyage and at 228 feet could accommodate several hundred soldiers. Since she was used regularly to make runs to the south, it was thought that another southern run would not attract undo notice. The government chartered her for the mission to Charleston. On Saturday night, the 5^th of January, 1861, while she held her position near the Verrazano Narrows, four officers and 200 men with provisions for Fort Sumter were secretly embarked from steam tugs that brought them from the recruiting depot on Governors Island. The soldiers, commanded by Lt. Charles R. Woods of the 9^th US Infantry Regiment, were not told of their destination until they were aboard the ship.

Once loaded, the Star of the West left New York around 9 pm and headed down the coast to Charleston.  Under ideal conditions the Star of the West could make 10 knots. Capt. John McGowan plotted a 780-nautical mile course that would have her enter the harbor at night when she would be unlikely to be detected. Arriving off Charleston at 9 pm on January 8th, they got the first hint that reinforcing Sumter would not be so easy. While they saw the navigational light at Fort Sumter, the harbor entrance light had been extinguished and the outer buoy had been removed. It appeared that the secret mission was no longer a secret. The captain could not risk crossing at night the treacherous sandbars guarding the harbor entrance, so he waited for first light, at which time their presence was discovered by a lookout ship. The lookout steamer headed back to Charleston showing signal lights and firing rockets to alert the South Carolinians that the resupply ship they were expecting was off the harbor entrance. Unknown to those aboard the Star, her secret mission had been discovered, and within hours the news had been telegrammed to Charleston. When the sun was high enough, Captain McGowan brought the Star through the channel near the south end of Morris Island. He was now only five miles from his destination and ordered the soldiers to remain below deck out of sight. Little did he know what was waiting for him.

Major Anderson’s move from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter while the South Carolina commissioners were negotiating in Washington had been viewed as a provocative action and immediately put the state on a war footing. Accordingly, within days troops of the South Carolina Militia seized all of the other harbor forts and Charleston’s United States arsenal without firing a shot and quickly began readying the forts for action. They knew that if more men were sent to Fort Sumter, the ships would have to pass along Morris Island.  Anderson soon saw men inspecting Morris Island, but, perhaps to assure Washington that he had solved his problems, he alerted the government that he did not need any supplies. That assurance caused the President to attempt to halt the Star of the West expedition, but it was too late. The ship was already at sea. At a point on Morris Island about a half mile from the ship channel but out of the range of Fort Sumter’s cannons, cadets from the Citadel, South Carolina’s Military Academy, were ordered to build a gun battery in the sand dunes. From this position, the cadets would have a broadside shot with their 24-pounders at any ship entering the harbor. An even greater threat to shipping were the guns of Fort Moultrie, which included several 8-inch cannons that could deliver a smashing 65-pound cannon ball well over a mile. The site for Fort Moultrie had been selected early in the Revolutionary War because to enter the harbor, ships would have to head directly toward the fort and then turn in front of its guns. Anderson had ordered Moultrie’s cannons disabled by burning their carriages and sealing their firing vents with metal spikes. However, South Carolinians proved amazingly adept at rebuilding the carriages and reopening the vent holes. By January 9th they had nine 8-inch cannons covering the approach to Fort Sumter.

It appears the only forces who were not aware of the Star of the West expedition were the officers and men of Fort Sumter. With the warning signals of an approaching ship alerting the South Carolinians, the fort’s lookouts sounded the general alarm. Robert Anderson ordered the few cannons that he had mounted on the parapet facing the channel to be loaded and prepared for firing. Through their spotting scopes they could tell that a US flagged vessel was entering the harbor. 

Capt. McGowan, moving at full speed, would have come within range of Fort Moultrie’s guns in about 20 minutes after entering the channel. He was not aware that the Citadel cadets were positioned to fire upon him from the side within only 15 minutes. Like the soldiers at Fort Sumter, the Citadel cadets, under the command of Superintendent Peter F. Stevens, were up and at their cannons the minute the alarm was given. They proudly flew their large red flag with a white palmetto emblazoned in its center. Cadet George E. Haynsworth held the lanyard of the first cannon. When Stevens gave the order to fire, Haynsworth pulled the lanyard that sent the ball on its way. As if to say, “Hey we are an American ship,” Captain McGowan had a huge American flag raised on the foremast in response to the shot.

When the cadets opened fire, Major Anderson was faced with a dilemma. He was under orders not to fire unless fired upon. However, Captain Abner Doubleday argued that the ship flying the American flag should be protected by him. But Lt. Richard Meade, a Virginian, reminded Anderson that firing would initiate a civil war. Anderson determined not to fire and later wrote that, had all the circumstances been known, his decision would have been vindicated. One of the circumstances was that Major Anderson and his men had not been directly fired upon. Another was the presence of women and children in the fort.

As the cadets continued to fire at the Star and Fort Moultrie began firing to get the range of the vessel, Capt. McGowan realized that the plan was not going to work and that his unarmed ship was about to be seriously damaged or sunk. He immediately swung the Star around and headed back to the channel entrance. By 8:50 am Captain McGowan had the Star out of harm’s way and headed back to New York. The cadets had hit the vessel in two places. One left a large dent in the hull, and the other had broken through the railing of the ship.

Cadet Haynsworth became enshrined in Citadel lore as having fired the first shot of the Civil War. Had Fort Sumter responded differently, the claim might have become true. Ironically, as an artillery lieutenant, Haynsworth survived many battles in the Civil War only to be killed in the Sumter South Carolina court house where he was serving as magistrate when a gun battle erupted between two feuding parties on December 30, 1897.

The mission of the Star of the West to reinforce Fort Sumter had been a failure but was not without consequences. The incident was viewed as coercion by Southern secessionists and strengthened their determination to call for secession of other states. By the end of January, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, and Louisianna had joined South Carolina in declaring secession from the United States. They, along with Texas, formed the Confederate States of America thus setting the stage for the actual first battle of the Civil War three months later. President Buchanan lamented, “The Star of the West was only happy in one respect, and that was that she was not sunk and no blood was shed.” More excitement awaited Fort Sumter and the Star in the months ahead.