January 31, 1861 - An offer to raise a free black company in Georgia

Surviving Walls of Fort Cusseta, Alabama

January 31, 1861

Newspapers across the South included a fascinating little item at the end of January, 1861. A free black barber in Columbus, Georgia, had extended an offer to raise a company of free blacks to fight in the service of his state:

Joe Clark, a colored barber of this city, has written a letter to Gov. Brown, offering to raise a company of free colored men, to be enlisted in the service of the State of Georgia in the present crisis. Whatever may be thought of the policy of enlisting soldiers of this cast, the offer is a patriotic one, and ought to show the "philanthropists" of the North that the free colored population of the South do not appreciate their efforts in behalf of the negro race. Joe served in the Indian war of 1836, and still limps occasionally from a wound received in that campaign. - Columbus Enquirer, January 1861.

Although the topic of black Confederate soldiers is quite controversial today, there was actually a long-standing tradition of military service by free blacks and slaves as well to their home states in the South during the years before the Civil War. Numerous Southern blacks had served in the American Revolution and Andrew Jackson had gladly accepted the services of Louisiana's free blacks at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. In fact, he had stood in their behalf and ordered that they be paid at the same rate as his white soldiers, something the Union did not do for its black troops for much of the Civil War.

While Clark's offer was not accepted by Governor Joseph E. Brown of Florida, the note of his service in the "Indian war of 1836" is quite interesting. The conflict in question was the Creek War of 1836, fought when the Yuchi branch of the Lower Creeks launched attacks on both whites and blacks in Alabama and Georgia in a desperate last stand against their forced removal to what is now Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears.

Numerous white citizens and slaves were killed in attacks at locations across the region, most notably at the Roanoke Massacre in Stewart County, Georgia.  Both whites and blacks, including free blacks like Joe Clark, served in the fighting along with many of the Creeks themselves. This mixed race force eventually prevailed over the outnumbered Yuchi and Lower Creeks, most of whom were captured while those who were not were either killed or driven into the swamps and eventually across the line into Florida. 

Uniquely, a surviving log fort of the Creek War still stands in the small community of Cusseta, Alabama, not far from Clark's home city of Columbus, Georgia. To learn more about it, please visit www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortcusseta.

January 28, 1861 - Developments on the Gulf Coast

Fort Pickens in 1861, by a Union officer.

January 28, 1861

A series of events that took place 150 years ago today in Louisiana and Florida resulted in the loss of several facilities to the U.S. government, while another was all but guaranteed to remain in Union control for the duration of the coming war.

From Pensacola, recently resigned U.S. Senator Stephen R. Mallory telegraphed still serving senators from Louisiana, Virginia and Pennsylvania in an effort to avoid bloodshed over Fort Pickens on Florida's Santa Rosa Island. If President James Buchanan would agree not to reinforce the fort, Mallory offered, Florida would not attack it. While Mallory's intent was noble, the move would lead to the Fort Pickens Truce on the next day, an agreement that gave U.S. forces the time they needed to prepare Fort Pickens for battle. Once the guns of the fort were mounted, any hopes Southern forces might have had of taking it were all but over.

To learn more about the events that took place in Florida in 1861, please visit our sister site, Civil War Florida.

In Louisiana, meanwhile, state forces took Fort Macomb east of New Orleans while also seizing military supplies in the Crescent City. One of the two forts located at the Rigolets, a channel leading from Lake Borgne into Lake Pontchartrain and to the "back door" of New Orleans, the masonry fort was a vital defense of New Orleans.

January 27, 1861 - An Alabama Professor goes to War

Raw Troops at Pensacola, 1861

January 27, 1861

A remarkable account of the early days of an Alabama professor as a soldier originated from Pensacola, Florida, in January 1861 and was carried by newspapers around the South. If anyone can provide more information on this individual, I would love to hear from you!

The letter was datelined from the camps near Fort Barrancas, where soldiers from Florida, Alabama and Mississippi were in a standoff with the small U.S. garrison of Fort Pickens across Pensacola Bay:

Professor Day is just six and a half feet high in his stockings. His weight is three hundred and ten pounds, and he measures seven feet in the girth. He is the tallest and biggest man in the regiment, and is noted for his great strength as well as for his huge proportions. --He has been known to shoulder a six hundred bale of cotton, and has frequently taken a whiskey barrel by the chines, raised it at arms' length, and drank at the bung hole. On one occasion he threw a mustang pony and his rider over a ten-rail fence. For this offence he was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court of Lauderdale county, and fined five hundred dollars. This remarkable man is the youngest and smallest of seventeen brothers. His father is two and a half inches taller than he is, but not so thick set. His brothers are taller, but none of them are so stout as the Professor. It is necessary to remark that his father has been twice married, and has eight children by his first wife and nine by his present wife. 

The Professor is the Principal of the Marion High School, and is a learned man in every sense of the word. He is master of six languages, and as a mathematician he has no superior. He is, besides, one of the best men living, and is noted for his good nature. He never had but one fight in his life, and then he killed a horse and nearly murdered a man. 

January 26, 1861 - Louisiana Secedes

Old Capitol in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

January 26, 1861

Celebrations erupted in Baton Rouge 150 years ago today when the State of Louisiana seceded from the Union. In declaring its independence from the Union, Louisiana became the sixth Southern state to do so, joining South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Georgia in becoming an independent republic.

The following account of the key day of the state's secession convention was written by a correspondent of the Richmond Daily Appeal:
 

Baton Rouge, Jan. 26.

--The vote on submitting the ordinance to the people was taken this morning — ayes 45, nays 84.

John Perkins addressed the Convention on the passage of the Secession Ordinance.

The debate closed, and a vote was ordered.

The galleries and lobbies were intensely crowded, and a deathlike silence prevailed.--On the call of the roll many members were in tears.

The Clerk announced the vote — ayes 113, nays 17--and the President declared Louisiana a free and sovereign republic.

Capt. Allen then entered the Convention with a Pelican flag, accompanied by Governor Moore and staff, and put the flag in the hands of the President, amid tremendous excitement.

A solemn prayer was then offered, and a hundred guns were fired.

The Convention adjourned to meet in New Orleans on the 29th inst.

Before the Convention adjourned the resolution accompanying the ordinance, declaring the right of free navigation of the Mississippi river and tributaries to all friendly States, and the right of egress and ingress to boats of the Mississippi by all friendly States and Powers, passed unanimously.

A gold pen was given each member with which to sign the Ordinance of Secession. 

January 25, 1861 - An Account of the Seizure of the Augusta Arsenal in Georgia

January 25, 1861

Augusta Arsenal, Barracks in 1936.

The following report of the capture of the Augusta Arsenal by Georgia Militia forces began circulating in Southern newspapers 150 years ago today. The seizure had taken place on the 24th:

The seizure of the United States Arsenal at Augusta.,Ga., occupied by Capt. A. Elzey and 70 U. S. troops, has been noticed. The number of Georgia troops under arms was over 800, and large numbers of country people came in to see the expected difficulty. The arsenal was surrounded on the 23d, and the State troops were ordered out. The Governor however, would not order an assault until the next day. In the meantime, no answer was receive to the summons, and the next morning the troops were again assembled. The of 11 o'clock was first fixed for the assault but it was changed to 2 o'clock. Before that hour arrived, a note was received from Captain Elzey asking for an interview with Gov. Brown, of Georgia, and the Governor required to the arsenal, where terms of surrender were agreed on. - Widely reprinted newspaper account, January 25, 1861.

Augusta Arsenal, Armory in 1936

The arsenal would provide the South with the first part of what would become a massive military manufacturing center in Augusta. The city would emerge over the next four years as one of the Confederacy's key military supply points. Gunpowder from Augusta supplied Confederate armies throughout the war.

The surviving buildings of the complex are located on the campus of today's Augusta State University. They survived Sherman's March to the Sea, thanks to the decision of the Union general to pass just south of Augusta while on his way to Savannah, instead of aiming directly at Augusta.
 

January 24, 1861 - Mississippi mounts cannon at Vicksburg

Mississippi River at Vicksburg

January 24, 1861

Word spread across both North and South 150 years ago today that the newly independent republic of Mississippi had aimed cannon across the Mississippi River at Vicksburg and started intercepting river traffic.

The following report from the Memphis Appeal was carried in numerous newspapers on January 24, 1861:

The order of the Governor of Mississippi to place a battery of guns at Vicksburg for the purpose of hailing steamers and causing them to land, has been complied with, as we learn from one of the clerks of the Simonds, who informs us that four guns are placed at the foot of the bluff, a quarter of a mile above the wharf-boat; that while the Simonds lay there on her trip up the river, blank cartridges were fired to bring to and cause to land the Gladiator, the Imperial, and the A. O. Taylor, and that it was understood that if the summons were not attended to, the next gun fired would be shotted. The object of the surveillance has not been made known.- Memphis Appeal, January 1861.

The interdiction of river traffic on the Mississippi at Vicksburg followed numerous reports that abolitionist groups were sending weapons and other supplies south that would be used to arm slaves. There also were reports that troops would be sent to reinforce or recapture forts and other facilities on the Gulf Coast. You can learn more about Vicksburg and its history at www.exploresouthernhistory.com/vicksburg5.

U.S.S. Brooklyn

Also on January 24, 1861, The U.S.S. Brooklyn steamed out from Hampton Roads, Virginia, with reinforcements for the beleaguered Union garrison of Fort Pickens in Florida. The soldiers, commanded by Captain Israel Vogdes were under orders from President James Buchanan to reinforce the fort, an action that could lead to an immediate start of war between the Union and the new Southern republics.

In Georgia, 150 years ago today, the U.S. soldiers at the Augusta Arsenal surrendered to a force of some 800 state militiamen led by Governor Joseph E. Brown in person. Brown was prepared to launch an assault on the arsenal at 2 p.m., but the soldiers surrendered just hours before the attack was to take place.

 

January 23, 1861 - Castle Pinckney, Charleston's Forgotten Fort

Castle Pinckney from the Air

January 23, 1861

As South Carolina troops moved to prepare for war in Charleston Harbor, one of the key installations they occupied was Castle Pinckney.

Built in 1809-1811 on the site of an earlier work that was destroyed in the Hurricane of 1804, Castle Pinckney was a horse-shoe shaped masonry work located on the southern tip of Shutes Folley Island about one mile off the Battery at Charleston. At the time of its completion, it was considered the strongest of Charleston's forts and due to its location in the inner harbor, it was the city's final line of defense against an attacking warships.

Castle Pinckney Interior in 1861

The old fort was placed in inactive status after the War of 1812, but played a role in the "Nullification Crisis" of the 1830s. By the time South Carolina seceded from the Union in 1860, however, Castle Pinckney was considered much weaker than nearby Fort Sumter and Major Robert Anderson opted to consolidated his available force in the latter installation. State troops quickly occupied the work and began the task of mounting guns and repairing the fort.

By January 24, 1861, the work on Castle Pinckney had progressed well and, along with Fort Moultrie and Fort Johnson, it provided state forces with a good ability to defend the harbor from an attack by the U.S. Navy, despite the fact that Federal troops still held Fort Sumter.

Charleston Zouaves at Castle Pinckney

Unlike the other primary forts of Charleston Harbor, Castle Pinckney is difficult to see today. There is no bridge connecting Shutes Folly with the mainland and special permission is required to even land on the island. The fort itself is badly deteriorated, although there have been some recent efforts to at least protect it "as is." Oddly enough, it was a National Monument from 1933-1956, but  the status with withdrawn and the fort left the care of the National Park Service. It is now owned by the South Carolina State Ports Authority.

The fort can be seen from the tour boats that cruise Charleston Harbor and is usually pointed out on the voyage out to Fort Sumter. Its unique semi-circular or "horseshoe" design was common in forts of its day. Two similar forts can be seen in New York Harbor, where Castle William survives at Governor's Island National Monument and Castle Clinton National Monument can be visited in Battery Park at the tip of Manhattan.

If you would like to read more about the fort, I recommend this excellent summary of its history:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/10/pruning-parks-castle-pinckney-national-monument-1933-19564731