The Bombardment of Fort Sumter -- The War Starts

April 12, 1861 is a day I will always remember. It was the day I was commissioned as the U.S. Federal Marshal of the District of Columbia. Other probably will also remember the day but for a very different reason.

In the early morning hours, before the sun came up, cannons started the bombardment of Major Anderson and his men at Fort Sumter in the Charleston harbor.  Thirty six hours later, the fort surrendered.  The war had begun.  It was only thirty-nine days into Mr. Lincoln’s presidency.

Mr. Lincoln did not have time to think about what might have been.  His leadership skills were being pressed to the limit. Congress did not meet until the fall. Technically only Congress could declare war.

On April 15, a call went out to all the states to send 75,000 men to help defend the Union. No one thought a war would be long and drawn out. Men were asked to enlist for 90 days. That seemed to me to be all that would be needed.

I personally think the attack on Fort Sumter woke a sleeping Northern population and quickly united them in purpose. The newspapers and the people blamed the South. The North, who seemed to be just hanging around, certain that there would be no war, were suddenly alarmed. Men and boys enlisted from every state to heed the president’s call.

I volunteered to raise a regiment myself. I was going to go into Maryland and try to raise a unit of Virginia boys willing to fight for the North.

W. H. Lamon

the President sent provisions to Fort Sumter -- Knowing the possible repercussions

Mr. Lincoln told me of a ship President Buchanan had sent to Fort Sumter in January, 1861 that was fired on and turned back by the South Carolina troops. That ship, The Star of the West, carried two hundred fifty soldiers to help reinforce Major Anderson’s eighty-five men.

Mr. Lincoln was determined to help Anderson and his men, but took a different tact. On the morning of April 4, 1861, President Lincoln gave the order to send provisions to the fort, and inform Governor Pickens that only provisions, not men, were being sent. That way, whatever Governor Pickens did in response would be deemed a provocative action. If the South fired first, they would be blamed to have started the war.

I was not real sure that Mr. Lincoln was not only counting on that, but that may have even been part of his plan. No matter what the South Carolinians did, Mr. Lincoln would have the upper hand.

Before leaving that meeting, Mr. Lincoln told me that I would be accepting my commission as U.S. Federal Marshal on April 12. I would be serving with him his entire four years as president. And that he wouldn’t actually be starting his job as marshal until July 26.

That evening I relaxed for the first time while in Washington City. I sat in the portico of the White House, within shouting distance of my friend the president, and softly strummed a tune on my banjo.  I thought perhaps the country was going to soon explode into a war, and that this night was perhaps the last time I could take a quite reprieve in preparation for the days ahead.

W. H. Lamon

Passing on the information from Fort Sumter to the President

Upon my return from Charleston, South Carolina and my visit to Fort Sumter, I passed on to Mr. Lincoln everything that I had seen and heard in Charleston.  The information, I could tell, was not comforting to the president. He paced back and forth in front of me, his hands clasp together behind his back, an action I had seen hundreds of times in the courtrooms of Illinois. I knew not to interrupt. 

I had known the man who was president since 1848. I knew that he often asked advice from all those around him, but rarely actually took it. He knew the decision at Charleston rested on his shoulders. He was the president. It was his decision and his alone. He was processing the pros and cons as I watched silently.

I was always amazed by how this man processed information. Thousands of times he asked the advice of the men around him. In court, he sought that input from other lawyers and his law partners. I got the feeling each and every time that it made no difference what that input was. Mr. Lincoln made up his own mind, often in complete opposition to what the majority had told him. Yet more often than not, what he decided on the subject turned out to be the most effective and fair decision.

He continued to march back and forth, negotiating as he did so expertly with others, only this time he appeared to me to be negotiating with himself. He was looking for a way to do what needed to be done while at the same time coming out on top.

It is my humble opinion (and I haven’t been drinking tonight) that before he wore a path in the carpet on the floor, he would figure this whole Fort Sumter out to his advantage.

W. H. Lamon

My Visit with Major Anderson at Fort Sumter

I arrived by train at the station in Charleston, South Carolina the morning of March 24, 1864. What I thought was to be a “secret” mission wasn’t quite what I thought. The first newspaper I picked up announced that Colonel Lamon was arriving from Washington City. (I am often called Colonel as just before I let Illinois the governor named me Colonel of a local Zouaves unit, an honorary title, for sure.)

The next morning I met with Governor Francis Perkins. I anticipated a give-and-take conversation. That’s not what happened at all. Governor Perkins informed me that “Nothing can prevent a war except acquiescence of the president of the United States in secession and his unalterable resolve not to attempt the reinforcement of the Southern forts. To think of South Carolina remaining any longer in the Union is simple preposterous. We have five thousand well-armed soldiers around this city. All the states are arming with great rapidity. This means war with all its consequences. Let your president attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, and the tocsin of war will be sounded from every hill and valley.”

For once in my life, I had mostly “no comment.” I did ask to see Major Anderson. Governor Pickens provided me with a pass and an escort (which I could have done without) and passage on board the steamer Planter.  Major Anderson presented his situation as “tenuous”. He said that he and his 85 men would have to surrender within a month even if no shots were fired, because they would be out of food.

Upon returning to shore, I actually did meet with Mr. Huger, the postmaster, to act on the guise of my travel there.    

It was my intent in returning to Washington City, to inform the president that Major Anderson either had to be reinforced or evacuated.

W. H. Lamon

My Assignment to Visit South Carolina for the President

It seemed with each passing day, that war was imminent.  Mr. Lincoln polled his Cabinet members as to what their thoughts were on the situation at Fort Sumter in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor.

On the morning of March 16, 1861, Mr. Lincoln called me into his office.  He said the Cabinet couldn’t decide what needed to be done and on top of that, General Winfield Scott didn’t have the men to reinforce the fort. Scott recommended Mr. Lincoln abandon the fort.

Mr. Lincoln told me he needed me to travel to Charleston to be his “eyes and ears” and to assess the situation up close.  He made it quite clear that I was not to speak for him.

He ended our conversation with the following: “Hill, if Major Anderson evacuates Fort Sumter, then I shall have to evacuate the White House.” I think he said that because he wanted me to get the directions straight.

I was to carry a pass indicating that I had business with the postal authorities in Charleston. That was a guise. I was actually scheduled to meet with South Carolina Governor Pickens and even try to see Major Anderson at the fort. My duties were information gathering only. He made it very clear. I understood the assignment. And I prepared to leave.

My Appointment as U.S. Federal Marshal

I got a few minutes by myself following the Inauguration, and wandered the streets of the nation’s capital seeking a place to live.  I decided to seek a rental unit for now, because my wife Sallie was still pouting that she wasn’t able to go to Paris. I wasn’t sure what Paris looked like, but I am sure she would not be impressed by Washington City.

When I met with Mr. Lincoln, he told me that I was to be the United States Federal Marshal of the District of Columbia.  My job, he said, would include having authority over the jails and prisons and being the host of many of the town’s social functions. I would get a fair salary and would be allowed to enhance that with monies derived from transporting and feeding the prisoners. Best of all, Mr. Lincoln would be my sole supervisor. I would report directly to him, with no one else in the way. He assured me that he would also use me for “whatever was needed at the time”.

Not everyone was thrilled with me becoming U.S. Federal Marshal. Local politicians opposed the appointment because I was not a resident of the District. My hometown newspaper, the Bloomington  Pantagraph supported me, by saying in an editorial “Hill will make a good Marshal, we have no doubt. We believe was have never heard of his attempting anything he didn’t accomplish.”

The Washington Bar organization produced over 140 signatures supporting my appointment.

Mr. Lincoln, realizing that every federal job would now turn over since his was the first Republican administration, opened the White House to anyone and everyone. Lines formed as people filed in to see him all day, every day.  I urged that he let me at least check their persons for weapons, but Mr. Lincoln nixed the idea. “People of this country,” he reminded me, “have the right to bear arms.” Yes, but that being true, didn’t make my life any easier.

W. H. Lamon

The Inaguration of President Lincoln

The Inauguration on March 4, 1861 was another logistical nightmare.  Benjamin French asked me to be an assistant marshal for the event. Our job was to work with General Winfield Scott to use all the resources that we could muster to insure that no one would disrupt the ceremony.  That entailed posting sharp shooters on the roofs of buildings, having military personnel, some in uniform and others in civilian clothes, guarding the intersections and standing both on and in front of the platform where the president would speak.

Cavalry were assigned in front, in back and alongside the carriage that carried Mr. Lincoln and President Buchanan to the capitol.  I was uncomfortable with all the potentially disastrous situations. I was serious about being aware and alert and even took the day off from my usual proclivity toward alcoholic beverages.

Fortunately, the day went off without a hitch. Mr. Lincoln seemed comfortable with the new responsibility. Mrs. Lincoln took me aside and asked me if I remembered that she had predicted, probably a dozen years ago, that Mr. Lincoln would someday be President.  I certainly do remember.  She had told me, “He is to be President of the United States someday. If I had not thought so I never would have married him.”  

The day ended with the Inaugural Ball. I was exhausted, but encouraged that our intense planning had made the event safe for the chief executive.

The newspaper reporter writing about the event, mentioned that the presidential carriage was guarded by a cavalry troop that included “a giant, garbed in a coat of military cut, with two pistols and a bowie knife in his sash of red, mounted on a splendid horse in the center of the guards in the rear of the vehicle.”  The man he was describing was me.

W. H. Lamon