Fort Sumter April 12, 1861: The Day the World Changed

Bombardment of Fort Sumter; courtesy Library of Congress

If you do nothing else today - April 12, 2011 - pause and think about the fact that on this day one hundred and fifty years ago, the world shifted on its axis after the Confederate States of America fired on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. A long and bloody battle over slavery and over states' rights began in the United States, sending shock waves throughout both economy and collective conscience on a global level. The Civil War - or the War of Aggression, depending upon your perspective - started us on a journey toward the Civil Rights Movement.

To jump start your reading on Maine and the Civil War, you can check out my prior Civil War postings or my posts on civil rights. Then check out the "Fate of the Union" article in this weekend's Portland Press Herald that highlights happenings at the Maine State Archives and the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum, as well as the development of the Civil War Trail.

Fire of Patriotism by Colin Woodard in Down East Magazine offers an overview of how the Civil War brought a sea change to the state of Maine.

Also, a fleet of articles on the Civil War published in Smithsonian Magazine offers insights into a number of interesting themes.

Fifth Maine Lecture by Herb Adams Herald Start of Maine Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemoration

Kim MacIsaac (5th Maine Director) and Herb Adams

For those living in the latter half of the 19th century, April 12th on the calendar conjured up as many images and emotions as December 7th and September 11th have for those of us living in the 20th and 21st century, respectively.

Historian, former State Representative, and lecturer Herb Adams reminded an overflowing crowd at the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum that one hundred and fifty years ago today, Portland circled around "Market Square" (see below) rather than "Monument Square." On April 10th, 1861, the Civil War had not yet started. More than 70,000 men had not yet left from Maine to serve in the war.

Herb Adams lectures on his "Day by Day" project at 5th Maine

When Monument Square was Market Square

Four years later, close to 10,000 of these soldiers had lost their lives in battle or to disease, giving Maine the highest per capita loss of any other state in New England and creating the need to memorialize the dead with monuments such as the one that renamed Market Square as Monument Square.

Herb Adams' lectured on his "Civil War Day by Day" project - a research and e-access project on two, politically-opposing Portland newspapers, the Eastern Argus and the Portland Advertiser. One of Adams' startling discoveries was that Lincoln's future assassin, John Wilkes Booth, was performing in a Shakespeare play here in Portland in April of 1861.

Since December 3rd of 1860 the "Victorian internet" had arrived in Maine. Washington and Portland were in telegraphic connection for the very first time. Four months later, Maine would learn of the Confederate firing on Fort Sumter, South Carolina with surprising speed. John Wilkes Booth would have read about the start of the war here in Portland. Adams commented that "The facts were always there, buried in Portland’s newspapers. The newspapers are keepers of the memories of their times." Now that Adams has restored this chapter in history, it has been quoted in a new biography of the Booth family, “My Thoughts be Bloody.”