Allegiance Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War [Paperback]

Original and deeply human, this tense and surprising story, filled with indecisive bureaucrats, uninformed leaders, hotheaded politicians, and dedicated soldiers, is a clear and intimate portrait of the prolonged drama that unfolded at Fort Sumter and incited the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

The six-month-long agony that began with Lincoln's election in November sputtered from one crisis to the next, and finally exploded as the soldiers at Sumter neared starvation. With little help from Washington, D.C., Major Robert Anderson, a soldier whose experience had taught him above all that war is the poorest form of policy, almost single-handedly forestalled the beginning of the war until he finally had no choice but to fight.

Skillfully re-created from a decade of extensive research,Allegianceexposes the passions that led to the fighting, the sober reflections of the man who restrained its outbreak, and the individuals on both sides who changed American history forever.

PRAISE FORALLEGIANCE

A splendid story of people, ordinary and extraordinary, living through
extraordinary experiences . . . Their story has never before been told so well. --James M. McPherson
Historical reporting at its best. --Richmond Times-Dispatch
Allegianceshould take a place as the definitive word on the first moments of
our greatest national tragedy. --William C. Davis