Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War

Foreward by Gene Smith, author of Lee and Grant

An original and deeply human portrait of soldiers and civilians caught in the vortex of war.

So vividly does Allegiance re-create the events leading to the firing of the first shot of the Civil War on April 12, 1861, that we can feel the fabric of the Union tearing apart. It is a tense and surprising story, filled with indecisive bureaucrats, uninformed leaders, hotheaded politicians, and dedicated and honorable soldiers on both sides.

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

David Detzer's decade-long research illuminates the passions that led to the fighting, the sober reflections of the man who restrained its outbreak, and individuals on both sides who changed American history. No other historian has given us a clearer or more intimate picture of the human drama of Fort Sumter.

Author: David Detzer
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 04/12/2001
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.64lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.35w x 1.31d
ISBN: 9780151006410

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/12/2001 pg. 190
Kirkus Reviews 02/15/2001 pg. 229
Library Journal 03/15/2001 pg. 93
Booklist 04/01/2001 pg. 1444
Choice 10/01/2001 pg. 374

About the Author
Detzer, David: - David Detzer is professor emeritus of history with Connecticut State University. He is the author of several books, including Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War; and The Brink: Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and several dogs.