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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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Just before sunrise on the morning of April twelfth,eighteen-sixty-one, the first shot was fired in the American CivilWar. A heavy mortar roared, sending a shell high over the harbor atCharleston, South Carolina. The shell dropped and exploded aboveFort Sumter, a United States fort on an island in the harbor.

The explosion was a signal for all southern guns surrounding thefort to open fire. Shell after shell smashed into the island fort.

The booming of the cannons woke the people of Charleston. Theyrushed to the harbor and cheered as the bursting shells lighted thedark sky.

VOICE TWO:

Confederate leaders ordered theattack after President Abraham Lincoln refused to withdraw the smallforce of American soldiers at Sumter. Food supplies at the fort werevery low. And southerners expected hunger would force the soldiersto leave. But Lincoln announced he was sending a ship to Fort Sumterwith food.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis ordered his commander inCharleston, General [Pierre] Beauregard, to destroy the fort beforethe food could arrive.

VOICE ONE:

The attack started from Fort Johnson across the harbor fromSumter. A Virginia Congressman, Roger Pryor, was visiting FortJohnson when the order to fire was given. The fort's commander askedPryor if he would like the honor of firing the mortar that wouldbegin the attack. "No," answered Pryor, and his voice shook. "Icannot fire the first gun of the war."

But others could. And the attack began.

VOICE TWO:

At Fort Sumter, Major Robert Anderson and his men waited threehours before firing back at the Confederate guns.

Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons. They were inthe open at the top of the fort, where there was no protection forthe gunners. Too many of his small force would be lost if he triedto fire these guns.

So Anderson had his men fire the smaller cannon frombetter-protected positions. These, however, did not do much damageto the Confederate guns.

VOICE ONE:

The shelling continued all day. A big cloud of smoke rose high inthe air over Fort Sumter.

The smoke was seen by United States navy ships a few milesoutside Charleston Harbor. They had come with the ship bringing foodfor the men at Sumter. There were soldiers on these ships. But theycould not reach the fort to help Major Anderson. Confederate boatsblocked the entrance to the harbor. And confederate guns coulddestroy any ship that tried to enter.

The commander of the naval force, Captain [Gustavus] Fox, hadhoped to move the soldiers to Sumter in small boats. But the sea wasso rough that the small boats could not be used. Fox could onlywatch and hope for calmer seas.

VOICE TWO:

Confederate shells continued to smash into Sumter throughout thenight and into the morning of the second day. The fires at FortSumter burned higher. And smoke filled the rooms where soldiersstill tried to fire their cannons.

About noon, three men arrived at the fort in a small boat. One ofthem was Louis Wigfall, a former United States senator from Texas,now a Confederate officer. He asked to see Major Anderson.

"I come from General Beauregard," he said. "It is time to put astop to this, sir. The flames are raging all around you. And youhave defended your flag bravely. Will you leave, sir?" Wigfallasked.

VOICE ONE:

Major Anderson was ready to stop fighting. His men had done allthat could be expected of them. They had fought well against a muchstronger enemy. Anderson said he would surrender, if he and his mencould leave with honor.

Wigfall agreed. He told Anderson to lower his flag and the firingwould stop.

Down came the United States flag. And up went the white flag ofsurrender. The battle of Fort Sumter was over.

More than four-thousand shells had been fired during thethirty-three hours of fighting. But no one on either side waskilled. One United States soldier, however, was killed the next daywhen a cannon exploded as Anderson's men prepared to leave the fort.

VOICE TWO:

The news of Anderson's surrender reached Washington lateSaturday, April thirteenth. President Lincoln and his cabinet metthe next day and wrote a declaration that the president wouldannounce on Monday.

In it, Lincoln said powerful forces had seized control in sevenstates of the south. He said these forces were too strong to bestopped by courts or policemen. Lincoln said troops were needed. Herequested that the states send him seventy-five-thousand soldiers.He said these men would be used to get control of forts and otherfederal property seized from the Union.

VOICE ONE:

Lincoln knew he had the support of his own party. He also wantednorthern Democrats to give him full support. So, Sunday evening, aRepublican congressman visited the top Democrat of the north,Senator Stephen Douglas.

The congressman urged Douglas to go to the White House and tellLincoln that he would do all he could to help put down the rebellionin the south. At first, Douglas refused. He said Lincoln had removedDemocrats -- friends of his -- from government jobs and had giventhe jobs to Republicans. Douglas said he didn't like this. Anyway,he said, Lincoln probably did not want his advice.

The congressman, George Ashmun, urged Douglas to forget partypolitics. He said Lincoln and the country needed the Senator's help.Douglas finally agreed to talk with Lincoln. He and Ashmun wentimmediately to the White House.

VOICE TWO:

Lincoln welcomed his old political opponent. He explained hisplans and read to Douglas the declaration he would announce the nextday.

Douglas said he agreed with every word of it except, he said,seventy-five-thousand soldiers would not be enough. Remembering hisproblems with southern extremists, he urged Lincoln to ask fortwo-hundred-thousand men. He told the president, "You do not knowthe dishonest purposes of those men as well as I do."

Lincoln and Douglas talked for two hours. Then the Senator gave astatement for the newspapers. He said he still opposed theadministration on political questions. But, he said, he completelysupported Lincoln's efforts to protect the Union.

Douglas was to live for only a few more months. He spent thistime working for the Union. He traveled through the states of thenorthwest, making many speeches. Douglas urged Democrats everywhereto support the Republican government. He told them, "There can be noneutrals in this war -- only patriots or traitors."

VOICE ONE:

Throughout the north, thousands of men rushed to answer Lincoln'scall for troops. Within two days, a military group from Boston leftfor Washington. Other groups formed quickly in northern cities andbegan training for war.

Lincoln received a different answer, however, from the borderstates between north and south.

Virginia's governor said he would not send troops to help thenorth get control of the south. North Carolina's governor said therequest violated the Constitution. He would have no part of it.Tennessee said it would not send one man to help force southernstates back into the Union. But it said it would send fifty-thousandtroops to defend southern rights.

Lincoln got the same answer from the governors of Kentucky,Arkansas, and Missouri. For several days, it seemed that all thesestates would secede and join the southern confederacy.

VOICE TWO:

Lincoln worried most about Virginia, the powerful state justacross the Potomac River from Washington. A secession conventionalready was meeting at the state capital. On April seventeenth, theconvention voted to take Virginia out of the Union.

Virginia's vote to secede forced an American army officer to makea most difficult decision. The officer was Colonel Robert E. Lee, acitizen of Virginia.

The army's top commander, General Winfield Scott, had called Leeto Washington. Scott believed Lee was the best officer in the army.Lincoln agreed. He asked Lee to take General Scott's job, to becomethe army chief.

Lee was offered the job on the same day that Virginia left theUnion. He felt strong ties to his state. But he also loved theUnion.

His decision will be our story in the next program of THE MAKINGOF A NATION.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THEMAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Stuart Spencer and JackMoyles. THE MAKING OF A NATION can be heard Thursdays.