Jacob D. Cox

The controversies surrounding the issues of slavery and states' rights led to the secession of several Southern states from the Union in the winter and spring of 1860–61. Southern legislators withdrew from the United States Congress, and a Confederate government began meeting in Montgomery, Alabama. The people of the Northern, nonslave states prepared themselves for open war with their former countrymen from the South. Although the crisis appeared serious, and fighting inevitable, many still hoped that some kind of compromise could be worked out.

Then, on April 12, several batteries of artillery under the control of Southern officers opened fire on Fort Sumter, a U.S. Army base in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, the commander of Fort Sumter surrendered the next day. The Civil War had begun. It was now up to the...