~ The Demon of Unrest ~
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~

In the lead-up to the Civil War, the long-simmering animosity between the North and the South was centered around Fort Sumter, in Charleston Bay. Fort Sumter was a federal fort, held by Union forces, surrounded by Southern troops and Southern sympathizers. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, so it was “all-in” for the South. The newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, seemed ill-at-ease in the role of commander-in-chief. He was afraid he was going to ignite an all-out civil war, so he didn’t know how to handle Fort Sumter. Should he evacuate the Union forces there to a safer location? Should he instruct the commander to surrender the fort? Should he resupply the fort with food and ammunition? (He couldn’t exactly let the people there starve to death, could he?) For a long time he did nothing because he didn’t know what to do.

Finally, in April 1861, after several months of suspense, the stalemate was broken when Southern forces attacked Fort Sumter. Federal forces fought back, but weakly at first. (They had used most of their ammunition in practice firing.) The “siege” of Fort Sumter lasted about a day and a half. The people of Charlotte, South Carolina, gathered on the beach to watch (and hear) the fighting, as if it was a sporting event or a celebration. When it was all over, it was a victory for the South, but the Federal commander in charge of Fort Sumter, Robert Anderson, was hailed as something of a hero by both sides for his perseverance and professionalism.

Fort Sumter was, of course, the beginning of the American Civil War. There was a belief in the beginning that it would be a short war and that both sides would quickly settle their differences. The South, especially, was overly confident. The truth was that it was a bitter, bloody, brutal war that lasted four years and resulted in the deaths of some 750,000 Americans.

The Demon of Unrest by Erik Larson is the true story of Fort Sumter in the long march to the American Civil War. It’s a long book, minutely detailed, but it never seems ponderous, as you might expect of a historical subject. It remains gripping and engaging throughout, even if we know what happens in the end.

Copyright © 2024 by Allen Kopp