South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on 20 December 1860, but in the weeks that followed President James Buchanan refused to withdraw the garrison from Fort Sumter that protected the harbor at Charleston. Meanwhile the 80 soldiers under the command of Major Robert Anderson were beginning to run short of supplies, and a solution to their situation had to be found.
Keen to avoid any action that might provoke violence, the government decided to relieve the fort using a civilian ship. They chartered the two-decked, side-wheeled, schooner-rigged merchant ship Star of the West. It departed New York on 5 January, with soldiers and supplies placed below decks under cover of darkness.
Shortly after the ship left port President Buchanan’s Secretary of War, Joseph Holt, received news from Major Anderson that Fort Sumter could survive for the foreseeable future. He also warned the government that the South Carolinians had built gun emplacements overlooking the entrance to Charleston Harbor, which placed the recently dispatched ship in danger. Attempts to alert Captain John McGowan and abandon the voyage failed, while newspaper reports of the ship’s mission were confirmed by officials. Consequently, by the time the ship arrived at Charleston, the secessionists were waiting.
As Star of the West approached Fort Sumter on the morning of 9 January it was met with cannon shots from cadet George E. Haynsworth on nearby Morris Island. The ship suffered minor damage and was forced to return to New York. Meanwhile tensions remained high at Fort Sumter over the next three months, when it became the location for the opening battle of the Civil War.