Secession

In the months following Lincoln's election, seven states of the Deep South seceded from the Union. First to act was South Carolina, a state with a long history of political radicalism. To accept Lincoln's victory, its legislature declared, would place the future of slavery at the mercy of a party hostile to Southern values and interests.

In his first month as president, Lincoln avoided any action that might drive more states from the Union. But knowing that the risk of war existed, he strove to ensure that if it did break out, the South would fire the first shot.

This happened at Fort Sumter, an enclave of Union control in Charleston Harbor. On April 12, after learning that the North intended to replenish the garrison's supplies, President Davis ordered batteries to fire on the fort; two days later it surrendered. Lincoln called for 75,000 troops to suppress the South's "insurrection." Within weeks, four more slave states seceded.

"Both sides deprecated war," said Lincoln, "but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."

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