As Tennessee-born, Yale-educated historian Bell Irvin Wiley would (and did) put it, the Confederacy lost the American Civil War at the bombardment of Fort Sumter in South Carolina, commencing on this day 150 years ago. However, it took four years, emancipation of American slaves and more than 600,000 American deaths to play out.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Czar/Tsar Alexander II's Крестьянская реформа 1861 года / Emancipation Manifesto of 1861 began freeing privately-held serfs there, a pragmatic resolution giving freedom and some (mostly collective) land to large numbers of peasants; government-held serfs were emancipated within the next five years.
An earlier bombardment: artillery assault on Vera Cruz (Veracruz) Mexico by United States forces in March, 1847. The US officer corps planning and directing this particular bombardment included Pierre Gustave Toutant "G.T." Beauregard -- the very man who commanded Confederate forces against Fort Sumter and its US garrison fourteen years later.
Images: Library of Congress. Note: Bell Irvin Wiley wrote several ground-breaking social histories of the American Civil War era. Some of his key works: Southern Negroes, 1861-1865 (1938); The Life of Johnny Reb: The Common Soldier of the Confederacy (1943); The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union (1952); Confederate Women: Beyond the Petticoat (1975).
Today's Rune: Breakthrough.
6 comments:
I think the Civil War began thousands of years ago, when man first began to struggle against the city-state. Inside, each of us fights for control and order on the one side, and freedom from restriction on the other.
Bell Irvin Wiley wrote several ground-breaking social histories of the American Civil War era.
Personally I don't think slavery ever ended, lately the face of it has changed but I don't think it ever really ended. Not in my reading of American history.
I just watched the PBS episode of The Civil War about the Fort Sumter affair. Interesting stuff.
I've been to Fort Sumter, not much left of it. Still ... I loved South Carolina as well as North Carolina.
Thanks all for the comments -- much appreciated!
WM, except that former slaves might have a foot cut off when captured trying to escape, generally I agree with you. Wage slavery, with a bit more freedom of movement.
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