Disunion Feed

"Friday, the 12th day of April, 1861, will be recorded as the Black Day in the history of our Republic. United States Forts firing upon United States Forts. American citizens directing the implements of death upon American citizens. The Civil War commenced. What a shocking record! [...] We have no “subjects” in this country. We are equals, or we have no REPUBLIC."

The Democratic answer to the same morning's news: the war is Lincoln's doing, the four weeks of peace talk were a trick, and the Union cannot be held together by force. Note what the paper's proposed settlement actually was — a territorial line with Southern rights guaranteed south of it. Two passages joined with [...]. Compare se-052, printed the same day.

Read it in the original — Hartford Daily Times, Apr 13, 1861 ↗

"Ten thousand troops, completely armed with diabolical enginery, deliberately and in cold blood prepared for months past, with all the skill that could be commanded, confronting about three score half starved but brave soldiers under the heroic Anderson. What remarkable chivalry is here! [...] The gallant little garrison may be starved out, they may see the walls of Sumpter reduced to dust by the iron balls and shells of infernal machines [...] but this will be but the first scene of the first act of a drama, which bids fair to become immortal."

The same news, read the opposite way from se-051: an unprovoked attack on a starving garrison, and the beginning rather than the end of the matter. The source spells the fort "Sumpter" throughout — a common period variant, left as printed. Three passages joined with [...].

Read it in the original — Newark Daily Advertiser, Apr 13, 1861 ↗