[The following takes place shortly after the fall of Fort Sumter in the first stages of what would later be called the American Civil War. Specifically, it details the handing over of the fort to South Carolinian forces.]
Lieutenant Davis went in to Charleston to pick up Annie, but Beauregard decided that the lieutenant should not be permitted to enter the city. Later that day Beauregard’s aide Chisholm brought her to the fort. Davis thanked him emotionally. Chisholm and Annie asked him about the experience of the bombardment. He tried to tell them, then broke down weeping. Tension and exhaustion require a toll.
[…]
At 2:30 the fort’s guns were ready to give their final salute to the American flag. Several of the garrison had worked furiously that morning sewing cartridges. The proper number was a delicate question. Someone asked Anderson if he planned to fire a thirty-four-gun salute, ignoring the fact of secession, and he replied, “No, it is one hundred, and those are scarcely enough.”
He broke into sobs.
Note:
A quick Google search didn’t do much to help me figure out he meaning behind a 100-gun salute. I did find one article that mentioned its use here and a few more times during the Civil War, but only described it as a ‘unique celebration.’ Anyone have a better idea of the significance behind the 100-gun salute?
Source:
Detzer, David. “Ashes and Dust.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 307. Print.
Original Source(s) Listed:
The morning: Courier and Mercury, April 15-18, 1861.
Alexander Robert Chisholm, Journal, Special Collections Library, Duke University.
Thomas Smythe, “The Battle of Fort Sumter: Its Mystery and Miracle,” SCL.
Samuel Wragg Ferguson, “Fort Sumter,” typescript, SCHS.
Further Reading:
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