Historical Notes
Timothy Donovan's Story
by Carolyn Reeder

Chapter One

"Don't tell me you never noticed the local militia units drilling at the far end of the island—and other places around the harbor, too. They've been at it since before last month's election." South Carolina's leaders had been threatening to leave the Union for years, and they began making military preparations in July 1860 when it seemed obvious that no candidate favored by the South would win the presidency. The "hot heads" made it clear that if Lincoln became president, they would secede from the Union, and when he was elected without winning a single electoral vote in the South, they called a secession convention. (Because of an epidemic in the state capital, the convention was moved to Charleston.)

There were more hired laborers working to repair the run-down fort than there were soldiers to safeguard it! Fort Moultrie had held off the British during the American Revolution, but since the War of 1812 there had been little threat of foreign attack, so Moultrie—and the other harbor forts—had been allowed to fall into disrepair. The U.S. Army was not a large one during peacetime, and most of its men were stationed in western forts to protect settlers and the pioneers along the emigrant trails, leaving the eastern forts with small garrisons. It wasn't until the summer of 1860 that efforts began to make the forts in Charleston Harbor more effective.

Parade Ground — the open area enclosed by the fort's walls. (In some cases, simply the open area where the army assembled and drilled.)

Drill Call — One of the many "calls" sounded by buglers, drummers, and fifers (either alone or in combination) to signal activities on the daily schedule in a camp or fort. For the artillery, there were 39 calls, including some which were used to direct the men during battles. (At this time, most of the daily calls for the artillery and the infantry had the same names but different "tunes." It wasn't until 1867 that bugle calls were standardized for all branches of the military.)

...turned over to army recruiters — In the mid-nineteenth century, orphaned boys were often taken into the army and trained as field musicians (drummers, buglers, or fifers) as a way of providing care for them.

Ever since Major Anderson took command . . . Major Robert Anderson was ordered to replace the elderly commander at Moultrie and to be in charge of improving the military readiness of the men and the forts in Charleston Harbor, which included the unfinished Fort Sumter, the abandoned Fort John, and Castle Pinckney, which was under repair. The War Department thought that since Major Anderson was a southerner, it wouldn't upset the local people to send him to the Charleston area. (Some believe that the Secretary of War, who was a southerner, sent Anderson to Fort Moultrie with the hope that his southern sentiments would influence him to turn the fort over to the rebels.)

Guard Mount — Each day, men were selected for guard duty. They were divided into three groups and served as sentinels for rotating two-hour periods for the next 24 hours. Each group was under a corporal (the corporal of the guard) and they were all under the command of a sergeant (the sergeant of the guard). Guard Mount, or the "changing of the guard," was often a formal ceremony at which the band played. Like other events of the soldiers' day, it was announced by a field musician sounding a call.

The war with Mexico — The Mexican War (1846-48) began after the U.S. annexed Texas (which was part of Mexico) and American troops occupied an area along the Rio Grande. The treaty that ended the war gave the U.S. two-fifths of Mexico's territory-including the present states of California, Nevada, Utah, parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, and most of Arizona. This set the stage for the American Civil War, because it raised the question of whether slavery would be allowed in states formed from the newly acquired territories in the southwest. It was this issue, rather than the existence of slavery in the original southern states, that led to the secession crisis.

Chapter Four

March 4 inauguration — Today, presidents are inaugurated on January 20, but the Constitution originally had fixed the date as March 4 in order to allow time for the new president to receive word that he had been elected and to travel to the capital city. Because of improvements in communication and transportation, the Constitution was amended in 1933 and the January date was set so that there would be less time between the president's election in November and his taking office.

Chapter Eight

"Beauregard was my student at West Point" — Major Anderson's statement is one example of the fact that military men on both sides knew each other well and often had been friends or comrades-in-arms. Because so many of the generals had fought together in the Mexican War, they knew each others' strengths and weaknesses and were often able to predict each others' reactions or decisions on the battlefield.

". . . Sumter and that fort off the Florida coast are the only United States property I know of that these 'Confederates' haven't helped themselves to." One by one, the arsenals, forts, and other U.S. government property in the seceded states had been turned over to the rebels without a fight. Only Fort Sumter and Florida's Fort Pickens (which guarded the harbor at Pensacola Bay on the Gulf of Mexico) remained in Union hands. But Fort Pickens didn't create the same public interest that Sumter did—partly because of its more remote location, partly because the newspapers and political orators had focused everyone's attention on Major Anderson's "bold and patriotic deed" and the fate of his cold, hungry garrison surrounded by rebel batteries. (Fort Monroe, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, was held by the Union throughout the Civil War, but at this time Virginia was still part of the Union.)

Chapter Nine

Moments later, he heard the unmistakable whistle of an approaching shell. Terrified, he ran for the safety of the closest gun room, but instead of the expected crash of metal into solid brick, he heard a splash. Some sources say that the shell actually hit the wharf. This is just one example of how first-hand accounts of an event can differ.

Chapter Ten

". . . thirty guns and eighteen mortars aimed at Sumter." Guns refers to what we commonly call cannon. Mortars are similar to cannon that have a high but shorter trajectory. They are used to fire over the walls of forts and onto the tops of bluffs.

Chapter Thirteen

"I heard a rumor about some kind of a mix-up in the fleet's orders." The rumor was correct. A large warship and the ship bringing the smaller boats that would have been used to transport men and goods to Sumter under the cover of darkness received orders to take provisions and reinforcements to Fort Pickens, in Florida. These orders appeared to replace the earlier ones to proceed to Sumter, so the ships continued on to Pickens.