A slave hands over a Confederate vessel to the Federal blockade fleet off South Carolina, along with key information about Confederate positions around Charleston.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
A slave hands over a Confederate vessel to the Federal blockade fleet off South Carolina, along with key information about Confederate positions around Charleston.
South Carolinians want to seize Fort Sumter, but they need the new Confederate government to back them up.
A convention opens in Montgomery as delegates from the seceded states start working to form a new nation.
South Carolinians and the Federal garrison in Charleston Harbor settle into an uneasy truce; for how long, nobody knows.
The merchant vessel Star of the West arrives at Charleston Harbor to relieve the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter. But the South Carolinians have other ideas.
The new year opens with South Carolina commissioners responding to President James Buchanan’s refusal to withdraw the Federal troops from Fort Sumter.