This Day in History Entry #205

January 9th, 2013 by Wordsman

The relations were–well, let’s say “stressed”
So the ship’s timing wasn’t the best
Was’t in anyone’s fears
There’d be war for four years
When they shot at the Star of the West?

Event: Cadets at The Citadel fire on the Star of the West as it attempts to resupply Fort Sumter (considered the first shots of the U.S. Civil War)
Year: 1861
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West

Posted in This Day in History | 3 Comments »

3 Responses

  1. A(nother) Fan Says:

    As usual, Lincoln said it best, in the Second Inaugural:

    “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.”

    I’ve always thought that any President about to go to war should be required to re-read and meditate on that exact passage, but of course they never do.

  2. A(nother) Fan Says:

    There’s also the Shelby Foote anecdote about someone who said,as the war was starting, that all the blood to be spilled in the Civil War could be mopped up with a single pocket hankerchief.

  3. Wordsman Says:

    How many men fell at the First Battle of Bull Run? Nearly 5,000. How monocles were dropped in shock? They cannot be counted.

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