ll each th choice. So good luck jonathan I see what you got buddy. We'll start with your jumbo It only hurts like when you do like a lot And then like sometimes that might even hurt gross like be sore So bios and jesson crawford Uh jc young 499 sky blue paper Uh first refractor order 499 max anderson That's on that taggis jesson rhymer and alive and green Uh white lingford on the glass Govotrano and garret bowman Uh max anderson green grass to 99 Tigers again first ofland hemorrhatus and austin troser Nice colt emerson baseball factory extra auto That's pretty cool Take that all day It's not a bad one either. It's a very good one. I have to say Very good extra auto should count as an extra I'd imagine collin hawke and welvin francis. It might not I don't know if it's different. We've only hit a handful of those So far this year Sparkle come on. Come on. Have some ink Uh ariel cashtow sparkle short print for the twins Old keith jack hurley jackson chariot A patrick riley to 499 Looter glow andrew wolters First for the uh guardians scare forester micro merrow Might not be an extra then it might count as your second That's okay. That was not a bad one That is a blue wave cooper engle to 150 For the guardians again Guardians very nice all schemes Johnny formello and a Rainer rs Get up. I don't get to everybody tonight. I don't think I'm going to Uh, I will or kyle will be doing personals tomorrow morning. So that literally it's like an eight hour wait basically Uh, no one mclean solace jackson wiggins white cruel Well, uh first base subtle brock vredenberg. So yeah, that wasn't extra the coal timerson. Not bad Congrats on that there jonathan very nice Fallen celestine kyfer lord and kade dentin rock regio and base fracter of the kettle purple jason chariot is 250 for the guardians Mitchell redfield and sam zavala. So that is going to do it for your Jumbolas to your choice now, uh, jonathan Yeah, and 23 bonnet. Whoa, whoa, whoa Whoa Yes Pretty sure it doesn't no paper base shipped if over He popped in for two seconds Tom trashman dipped What baby 29 is alberto rios come back bofa Now said he met you on fall guys and then just took off I went to bed We've got uh lego for jake cutting him first base auto for the orioles Really his name's just matt l Yeah, that's why I didn't know if it was him That's why I didn't know it was him and that for the twins charlie soto choice exclusive to 150 Nice one there. Congrats on that one mr. jonathan That will do it for your break jonathan. Thanks as always for your support buddy. We do appreciate it Get him right out to my friend Mr. Steve no views coming up next Steve no views Come on man What do you need uh the leaf hockey ultimate Doing that reggie Finally god, that's so funny, dude The kid shoots him which is even funnier. I forgot about that Oh, thank you. All right, mr. No views or mr. Four views Oh, dude, robert stevens and he's come back to Tampa robert stevens and oh my god. No, he's actually really good Like I hope he doesn't go to like new york girl There because he's gonna be nice. Good luck steve Uh potentially steven if uh, they do there's still Uh two jerseys ahead of you and then uh one more break which is an eight boxer and then it's you So i'll let you know when we get to the eight boxer. What time we're looking at so good luck here, steve Not everyone sam here at latent sports cards ripping, uh one box of 23 at leaf ultimate hockey from mr. steve four views So good luck here steve. Let's see something sick come out of this man. Come on steve four views See a nasty lightning card. Oh, he's so awesome. They saw a snow on a uh cardinals union. It looks so bad That's a good pickup that's gonna be a good pickup for anybody anywhere he goes All right starting off with a matt sundine not bad at all there for a four ultimate uh on the quad matt sundine Next up is gonna be nice an auto of paul coffee. That is uh 16 of 25 The oiler I believe right now looks like more paul coffee or an islander and really nice one here steve three of six mario Lemieux Game used jersey auto that is awesome. Congrats steve very nice Mario lemieux lemieux lemieux of six that's gross. That's awesome, dude game used jersey auto very nice steve That will do it for your break uh steve. Thanks again for the sport buddy get him right out to you man All right got michael r coming up with a couple of joysies now Too easy. They have chair-based stuffing now Oh Really? It's like a pin up a lobster here.  There's no schedule. No, there really isn't it's when it's just like my It's like when I can I'll do it. We're going to sleep body. Okay j Wake up whenever. Yeah Like tomorrow not setting an alarm. I'll probably be up by like Usually like on most days I work at night. I'll set an alarm for 11 45 a.m. That is like my wake-up time And then tomorrow I probably because I have to drive to jacksonville. I probably won't fall wake up until like one And then I have two days where I have to wake up at like seven And then I come home take a nap and then stay up to like two two or three I've had days. I've had a day read like a couple weeks ago. I stayed up till 6 30 What doing what I just I couldn't fall asleep I was just like trying to sleep and I wouldn't be able to and I'd go on my phone and finally I fell asleep and dude It was miserable How did you wake up miserable? Uh 12 Probably All right, good luck Michael. Let's do it Going on everyone sam here with late sports cards have been two boxes of 2023 leaf autograph football jerseys for um Michael are so good luck here Michael 123 leaf 123 leaf good luck Only drink Saturday nights and wake up at 11 rest of the week. I'm up at like 5 30 a.m. Yeah No, that's fair. I try to go to like I'm I Because I always have my days off are always followed by my mornings So like I'm off Thursday and Sunday, but I work Monday Monday morning and Friday morning. So I usually try to go to bed relatively early. I try to be in bed by like 10 All right, I Spec it certified Jim Kelly For the bills. That's awesome. Congrats Michael. Nice one there, buddy fire very nice Mr. Jim Kelly Good start Hall of Fame QB And under your second one. Oh the days God I get I'm excited for some good coffee. Hell yeah That is nice a Niners Jersey Christian McCaffery. That's cool dude 23 CMC. Yes, sir. That's gorgeous with the the cherry red That's awesome. Nice one there two very nice jerseys for you, uh, Michael not too shabby at all That will do it for your break my friend. Thanks again for the sport as always get them right out to you, buddy Should be eight there if I'm not mistaken right 234 here And then one two three four it perfect All right, Stephen, we should be able to get to your masterworks. I would think Because again, these aren't super bass heavy any of these This come from just two of them. There's another one over here. I've been like Rude run heavy on waddle. All right. I'm in. All right. Good luck. Uh, tom. Let's do a buddy What's going on everyone? Sam here at late in sports cards ripping eight boxes for tom c We've got one 23 bowman draft baseball choice One 23 museum 123 inception 123 leaf exotic 123 chronicles 123 chrome black 123 gilded and 123 definitive. So good luck here. Yeah, I don't think so kobe I think we'll get to steven m steven h. You'll probably go tomorrow Because you've got what a choice and uh super jumbo. So yeah, you'll probably end up going tomorrow steven h I do apologize on that but um Yeah, good luck here tom. We'll start with 23 leaf exotic Remember don't let me throw away the inception Now that's probably a rerun No, no, actually it might be live because I agree. They started at 10, but it's probably a rerun, but We can throw it off if you want 23 leaf exotic 23 leaf exotic Gavin cross That is one of nine true Nice one there one of nine gavin cross got uh, uh, jason chariot nine of nine That's jackson's brother the guardian And ellie dala cruise two of nine Ellie rats on that one at tom not too shabby at all. Good start here. Can we go to chronicles next? 23 chronicles, huh? All number tonight Yeah, that's weird Chris Chris kind of a bot too. Yeah, what's he doing parado? Yeah, ricky teetaman I just won there 11 to 25 two color to uncard patch auto He's a stud too Lujays he's teetaman. I know where you're going for one of five tori under I'm trying to think of a good way to put it. That is uh, seven to 99 joe carter.  What's up, Nathan? Yeah, good morning is right through What's up, Nathan? Very true Jeff bagwell one of 10 studio auto that's cool One of the killer beads very nice Add nothing. There's nothing shady ellie Uh carlos by air got to 199 jc young and cal rick and jr God, there is no better feeling than that Absolutely deleting a ice cold water Thirsty.  Oh, it's so good Don't know that feeling but cray rod. Oh nice tiger eyes jackie robinson on the short print. Those are dope, man I love these and these are super short printed. They should like want a case 16 bucks case. So not bad congrats on that, Tom of jackie Masarovsky alvarez bobby witt and a rod 250 nice appreciate that, Nathan. Hell, yeah appreciate that very much First break here a couple years ago and always alert. Hell, yeah, thank you, Nathan. Welcome.  I should say That is a lube uh bedro to 100 That is lance berkman Two thirds now the killer beads to 99 status game used jersey Mason win sessel fielder david cone and brady house I'm actually kind of excited for nt baseball with the vets that are gonna be in it I'm sure they're gonna they're gonna not hold back on the vets going on Tyler sodastrom on card auto Nice one there to 199 The ace dodge base bobby witt to 199 curvy pocket Oh, hello, anthony. Oh, that's a gold vinyl 101 Say gold vinyl 101 jake boy. Look at that Look at it.  That's dope. That's One of one for the blue jays pretty cool Very nice one of one Crisade that's clean too with the crusade man. We'll get that into a mag for you tom. Good stuff, buddy Joe cat it Very nice. All right, we'll do inception now One 23 tops inception Yes, shady is a uh big dolphins fan for sure I'm glad you didn't say anybody in the afc east, uh, nathan lindor Let's not do that because Look at that. It's ruined the mic last time. It's still here Louise Uh freak freak man chris bryant Vladdy and josh smith jace move 24 25 the videocall sent that day That is so funny Congrats on that one josh smith. Uh, what do we want to do next top's going black probably I'll do top's going black now Good luck tom. Yeah, we're gonna be able to get to your masterwork for sure Uh, steven steven m So if you're i'm assuming you're still awake make sure to continue to stay up Yeah, that'll be the last one steven h you will go tomorrow morning with kyle Tomorrow morning with kyle right mount castle blue cj abrams to 75 And baby rookie your honor here tom is going to be nelson valasquez for the cubs to 150 in the city connect jersey Very nice. Very nice. All right 23 bowman draft choice The dolphin's losing the AFC championship. Who do you have him losing to? That'll be an important, uh Answer as well. Nathan Hopefully picked the right team for this Got a xander mooth first base auto for the pirates Xander mooth To 150 marcus brown choice exclusive for the gnats Boy rock vradenberg first base auto as well. Nice one there Damn, I don't know if the bills are gonna make the playoffs to be honest though, nathan I really don't know that's a 23 museum bills and cowboy super bowl.  And nice masataka Yoshida one of 99. There you go. Tom nice one there, buddy The yoshi game used at joisy off Scherzer to 150 for the rangers Moreno Shohei and flattie jr 25 of 60 The blue jays nice one again there, uh top Niners, if not the cowboys with the bills in the AFC. Okay. I don't hate it. That's not I wouldn't want to play buffalo in the playoffs Yes, bro Right's hapa George springer and a quad of the angels. That is a shohei no one Ryan rod crew and Mike trout Very nice all game used 32 of 99 some jersey and some bat Right now. We got gilded coming up. Tom. Good luck, buddy 23 top gilded collection in a minute Yeah We're not much of this we had we just got through all of it, dude Awesome. This is the last case. Is it really we're opening out of? Yeah geez See a cut out of the last case. Why not make David Ortiz to 99 or the Red Sox to 75 say a Suzuki Nice 25 to 25 on the lava or the ray wave. I should say he's gonna be lubeb The lubeb and then auto is a rocky. It's a zikil tovar. Nice one there 67 to 75 Tova tova frame card That is gonna be josh young 28 to 50 on the rookie Gold frame very nice. Congrats on that time. That'll work josh young 20 8 of 50 josh young All right, and we'll go on to 23 definitive hobby 23 definitive hobby. Look nasty Vladimir Kuro Jr 240 That's nasty one of one letterman Dansby swanson Yeah Yeah, that's Dan's be swanson for the cubs The n in swanson Not so I love these freaking letterman, dude So awesome that and when they do it in sterling too. It's just freaking insane Uh jersey auto is gonna be austin riley 5 of 25 I hope so. I'm going to that game shady. I hope so but one of 50 that is brett baby I want to see what this last card's all about. I think it's gonna be nasty Um, I mean there wasn't anything like super like anything we haven't seen yet JT Like note. There wasn't a super in it. Unfortunately um there was like Probably in the entire thing we mag like 50 cards at least so And true orange and rike bradfield a couple other ones that were pretty dope Uh, this is kind of gross that is going to be a ryan howard Uh five of five on the patch auto ryan howard five of five rookie of the year God redemption is gray rod defining rookie patch autograph For the orials grace and rodriguez That's pretty nasty. It's the next one. Is that the one you're talking about? That's the one behind it. I think it's nasty. I think it's really nasty if I think it's what if it's what I think it is Okay, talk to me talk kind of is yeah, uh 12 of 15 brice harper On the gold frame. Yeah, that's nasty. So you can make this one and the next one over That's insane, man That is going to be 10 of 15 dual autograph relic Mike trout and one soto 10 of 15. Wow That's awesome because we're off the random That's true Congrats on that one tom great ending to this personal 10 of 15 trout and soto. It's gross soto the new yanky Game used dual relic auto very it's so sick That'll go into a mag. Thank you again tom as always. We'll get them right out to you buddy All right, steven. Let's do your masterwork as well. Go grab them for up for you It's tough to repeat in baseball man It's so tough to repeat in baseball So hard It might be the hardest part to repeat hardest sport to repeat Repeat in I guess you could have arguments for Football basketball football is very hard to repeat in the easiest is basketball basketball because you see it all the time Football's Also, virtually impossible Oh god Oh god, anthony anthony, please tell us dawn on stream for uh Love to know uh, let me take a snag a pic of that trout Trout honey I know dude Both freaking ravens game. I've been to is freaking rain in florida in november in december like what are we doing? Take a better game to go to I guess dude. Come on.  I'd be better man You gotta be better Yeah, that was a hell of an ending is right man.  Uh, steven m again.  I'll be right back It's perfectly fine man. Here take this and put this on cortis's disc Oh, thank you. Uh, can you grab this sticky note that has the guy's name on it? This yeah Oh, it is live. No, it's we can't wait to see tuck or kick a 30 mile an hour winds That's funny. Men doesn't mess with the goat. Dang right, man I'm lucky golf keep going got me almost 60 points this week. So I lucked out a little bit Starting my playoffs this week. Yeah, honestly I had I had golf so Might not come down to that point I'm about fantasy in the lines You have a buy Would you finish record wise nathan Your league to get a buy What did he what did he say that? Oh Shady's going off right now Shady's going off 10 and a four and a 10 man that's pretty good Pretty solid 40 shots good It is a uh You're playing for over at 1k for not bad. Yeah, that's pretty good He's dude and I wouldn't even do that first year and This is like this is like my I want to start playing probably when I was 14 or 15. Yeah, so six seven years And this is my first year actually playing for money and the top prize. I think it's like 200 or something. No It's not bad. It's pretty solid. It was a 50 book 50 buy in All right. Good luck here, steven Pitched in to 200. That's not bad. Yeah Pretty solid. Good luck, steven. Let's do it, buddy Going on everyone. Sam here with late sports cards ripping two boxes 22 star wars masterwork hobby for mr. Stephen m. So good luck here, steven Let's do it. And there you go. Let's see a sketch, man That first person Yeah, I don't know I would say okay because if it's it's 50 bucks.  I don't think that's terrible And a saw guerrero 250 Yeah, I don't think it's I don't think that's terrible Come on, steven. Let's see it. I want to see a sketch for you, brother Kylo Ren blue Cabean d'Arcidius and alpha trawler the auto Blue agent tyranny and mando on the stamp relic. So I got two hits in this one. Not bad. Not bad Hunter on the blue. That is nice. Ah, so katano 41 of 99 Rosario Dawson. Wow That's nasty. That's huge. Oh my god, that's huge Steven let's go Steven. Whoop So katano. Wow Man, Rosario Dawson.  Yeah, sure. It's up there. It's top five I would say for sure Get that into a mag for you And then we've got a dried and boss that is going to be a shirt source fabric relic So katano, man. Hell yeah Yes, that is an on-card auto. Yes, it is JT Can't type he's running around his crib right now probably Would not blame him no not at all.  Let's go Steven. Good stuff, dude That is a ninth sister. Love to see it. Absolutely Steven. Thank you, buddy Zero and general Merrick two at 99 on the green. Let's go Steven. See a sketch now. There it is. Got a sketch Let's go. What a two boxer man Count two kubulu It was a kuhl. That's uh, toro calican two two ninety nine And nice. We got a sketch Uh, neil brady Co man That's dope. So sick One-on-one sketch card again. You were the only one who has this. That's dope. That's awesome, dude What a two boxes, man. It's a massive auto today out of this stuff, dude Gideon and the uh soca zero blue foil r2 d2 and c3 p0 to 299 and Rends our mulk base. That is a green cannon jarrus 299 r2 maren and imperial comms officer. Very nice there as well That will do it for your break there. Steven. Congrats, buddy. I mean that was awesome. Um, we'll get him right out to my friend I was sick, dude. Yeah, those are nasty, man Dude that same one sold for 450 Steven 450 450 dude, dude the wood at a tensile for a g Unbelievable man. Let's go. Come on, Steven. Hell yeah, dude Dude, that sold for 450 on bids too.  We got to that Steven. That was fun, dude Yeah, that was that was nuts, man. That's a huge w. Hell yeah. No, no, I wouldn't honestly if that's pc That's a great pc card I'm just saying value-wise man. That's that's wild Yeah, yeah, I am shady. It's gonna be fun, man. All right, that is gonna do it for tonight everybody Let me drop you a link to uh tomorrow Kyle will be live at 10 a.m with personals Um, and then uh forest and jake will be live at 5 p.m With sunday funday breaks including the of course bless you The sunday funday nfl week 15 regular season 20 box mixers already at 27 spots to go So a bunch of come in five come in already. So thank you all again I will see you guys again on monday night forest and i are switching monday morning and monday night So he will be on monday morning. I will be on monday night Um, and then we will be back to the regular schedule. Then I will be gone on next saturday I will be gone from saturday till uh friday. Well, technically wednesday, but I don't think I'll work again till friday So have a good one everybody. Thanks again, and I will see you on


Every time I teach a new class at school I look at the class list first and see if there are any difficult names to pronounce of the kids and if there's just one I purposely mispronounce all of them so that one kid doesn't get embarrassed.


What's going on and welcome to the NBA DFS Q&A show. My name is Tom Vecchio. I'm here every Wednesday at 4 p.m., taking your questions about the night's slates. As always, you can find this on the Fandle, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook pages. You can follow me on Twitter at DFS underscore Tom. Let's hop right in. We have a loaded slate. We don't have too many injuries to worry about. We already have some questions waiting, so let's jump right in. Starting off, Born to Laugh is asking any objection to playing Vitt Creechy or Keon Johnson, or should I try and save up for campaign? So we're talking about players that are slightly apart in salary. The first two, Johnson and Creechy, are down at $35, $3600 for those two players. So if you're going with the Stars and Scrubs build, I prefer Johnson over Creechy, but realistically, you wanna be getting up to campaign. He's one of my core value plays on tonight's slates. He's gonna be super popular in all formats. That's really a spot that you should be going. Of course, Chris Paul is out. Devin Booker was ruled out earlier today, so I think if you can find that extra $5, $600 to get up to campaign, that's really what you wanna be doing, but I do prefer Johnson over Creechy among those two. Also, the next question from Born to Laugh is, start Laurie Markman or Brandon Ingram? So this question is an interesting question because they're a little bit far apart in salary. Laurie Markman's $5,500 while Brandon Ingram is $76, so we're talking about players that are, it's not like a natural pivot. It's not like you're choosing one or the other. It's like, okay, if you choose marketing, what are you doing with that extra $2,000 of salary? So I prefer Ingram who's in a game with a very solid overrun. We're talking $2,000, $3,500. This is the highest on the slate. So I would prefer getting up to Brandon Ingram, but it's like, what are you doing when the line of changes with the $2,000 of salary differential? It's not just like a direct swap from one to the other. So I prefer Ingram, out of those two I think is a higher ceiling, better usage, better game environment, those sorts of things. Grimm on YouTube is asking, start Isaiah Roby or Isaiah Jackson? Now this is a close question. It comes down to a lot of potentially who you're prioritizing, what types of game environments you were prioritizing. I think Isaiah Jackson is fine. He's been consistent option for the most part for the Pacers just because their rotation has changed sub-bonus, moving on to the Kings, et cetera, et cetera. I think Roby is also a solid option as well.  So in that toss up of the Isaiah as I prefer Jackson over Roby, Grimm is also asking Tyrese Maxi or Darius Garland. So technically Darius Garland is still listed as questionable. We would just have to get confirmation on that. I prefer Garland ahead of Maxi. Travis Porter on YouTube is asking, take McCollum or Donovan Mitchell? So this is a close match in terms of the salary for the two players. I personally prefer CJ McCollum tonight for the Utah Jazz. We're dealing with a 15 point spread now. I think it opened up at 12 and a half or 13 last night. It jumped up to 15 points. We're talking about some pretty serious blowout potential in this game where Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz could probably cruise through the first three quarters and him not playing a whole lot or at all in the fourth quarter is a real possibility in this matchup. And that's what I'm ultimately worried about for some of the games on tonight's play. Like I'm worried about Joketstein. I'm worried about Donovan Mitchell. So I am leaning towards McCollum, 10 times out of 10 in that matchup.  That's one of the three bets I have. I'm shooting for some big plus money. He's been looking really solid for the Pelican. So I'm leaning McCollum in that one to one, 10 times out of 10. McCollum has been hot from downtown. We know he gets up plenty of threes. This game environment overall is super, super favorable. Sacramento, terrible on defense throw. So a very fast pace team. And we do see the Pelicans playing up in pace. So McCollum four plus threes is one of the bets that I made. I also took the Cavs minus three and a half. The line moved a little bit at four. Now I got the Cavs a little bit earlier this morning. And then I took Cam Johnson for the Suns. The over on his points rebounds and assists. I think it's sitting at 25 and a half or 26 and a half, whatever it is. Down to 24 and a half now. So I think I got a 25 and a half. So I like Cam Johnson overall, kind of just like his game. I think that the extra usage will be there for him with Devon Booker ruled out. A player that we know can put up 20 plus real points in some of these recent matchups. So Cam Johnson, small forward. He's getting up some points recently and that's great to see. Getting up the shot volume, no Chris Paul and no Devon Booker now. So I like the over on Cam Johnson points rebounds, assists tonight. DJ is asking Herb Jones worth a look tonight or go with Bojan Bogdanovich. Herb Jones really isn't my favorite player to go with just because of his lower usage rate overall. Bogdanovich, like this a player that we know can get, this is a small sample size. So you have to take the 1.14th, a bit of a grain of salt. If we look at the season overall like Herb Jones can be a bit, his consistency isn't always there. Like we see him fluctuating a little bit. That's why he's you know, well under one finger point, we're missing a 0.77 and a low usage rate. So I'm not like super in favor of Herb Jones on most nights. So Bogdanovich has like a super soft matchup and a player that could put up 20 plus points based on threes, you know, by halftime almost versus the rocket. So at that lower tier, mid tier, at the forward position, I would take Bogdanovich, Jared Allen or go bare at Senate tonight. I would go with Allen. You know, what I said about Donovan Mitchell, you know, kind of along the same lines as Yolkich, a little bit along the same lines as Embiid and Hardin, like there's some real blowout factor in these games. And we look to the matchup at center tonight for Allen versus Charlotte. They're terrible. They're the third worst team against center. So we want to be actively attacking at this game as a, what is it? 218 over-under, all right? 218 and a half over under four point spread. It's also a massive pace up spot for Cleveland, 29th in the league and pace while Charlotte is sitting up at one. So I'm taking Allen in that matchup over go bare. DJ is asking Kevin Porter, Jalen Suggs, Evan Fournier or Mike Conley start two. So Kevin Porter, he's listed as questionable still, he's probable now. Okay, so Kevin Porter lists as probable. I think that's always a fine option. It's Suggs, Fournier or Mike Conley. So Mike Conley would definitely be last for me on that list. I would take Suggs, I would take Porter and Suggs ahead of Fournier. We know Fournier can get high from downtown sometimes for the Knicks, but his overall usage is just not something that I love going to. Like we could realistically get maybe 30, 50 points a lot from Fournier, but 30, 35 points from him is certainly within the range of outcomes, but also getting like 20 or 22 is viable for Fournier. And that's not something that helps you in any capacity. I would take Porter and Suggs as the top two. So we're dealing with these higher spreads, right? In what is it? One, two, three, you know, this game's okay. I think we still can look to campaign, you know, pretty comfortably. Mikhail Bridges, Deandre Heaton, pretty comfortably, but 14 and a half, 15 and 10 and a half are pretty big spreads with these two leading the way. You know, realistically, when it comes to Yolkich on tonight's slate, I don't have a whole lot of interest in him. He's $11,000. If we look at some of these recent game blogs, like this is probably a realistic outcome for him tonight, playing, you know, less than 30 minutes, but he still could put up, you know, 45 to 55 Fandal points. And, you know, at that rate, he's not really reaching fantasy value. You know, we could see the Denver Nuggets win this game wire to wire against the Thunder. I don't think anyone's gonna be surprised that that happens, but Yolkich wouldn't reach value at that point. I, you know, same thing about Embiid, somewhat along the same lines as Hardin. If I have to choose among these top options, it would be going to Hardin to spend that amount of salary. And I guess I would prefer Embiid over Yolkich. Android on Facebook is asking, who do you prefer between a BAM and Jimmy Butler? BAM and Jimmy Butler just straight up. Oh, Jimmy Butler has been a little bit slow this side of the all-star break. You know, it's consistent, but it's not super high production. I will say I really do like Jimmy Butler tonight based on the salary and based on the game environment. Overall, if I have to choose between them, I might take BAM because I think he's gonna be less popular compared to Jimmy. I think Jimmy's gonna be pretty popular, so I'm just giving his salary at only $8,400. So I would take BAM up at $9,900, because I think Subonius should be a little bit more popular than him just because that game environment is super strong and the matchup against the Pelicans is easy. So I'd just be shooting for the tournament aspect. That's the way I normally view things, which player is gonna be least popular and has a similar projection. So it would be BAM in that case. So tonight's slate, you wanna be focusing in on players that we know have locked-in usage or extra usage, like a player like Campaign. This is really where I'm starting off a lot of core, this core group of value plays. I don't think that's gonna be a surprise for anyone to see a lot of these players very popular. Drew Eubanks, the one thing I'll say about him for Portland, he has centered power forward eligibility. So if you are looking to play Embiid or Jokic or Valenchunus or any player that has center-only eligibility or Deandre Aitin, make sure to select Eubanks as a power forward in the optimizer for using one because you don't wanna block the center position. So that's one thing I'm making sure to do. If you're rostering Eubanks, Subonius, Atabio, whoever it might be and they have multi-position eligibility, that won't be an issue. Dre is asking R.J. Barrett or Brandon Ingram. I'm taking Brandon Ingram in that matchup. I love this game overall. This is probably one of my favorite games on the entire slate. I think a lot of people are gonna be going to Indiana and Orlando, a lot of the options on the Cavs because Charlotte's not playing any defense this year. It's also a huge pace-up spot. We should see some of the options in this game be popular, but I mean Sacramento and New Orleans with a two, 33 and a half over under, it's a six and a half point spread like that's close enough and no defense from the Sacramento side of things is just a matchup we love to attack night in and night out. You know, we get consistency from Ingram, McCullum, Ballantunus, all of those are in play. Andrew's asking thoughts on Trey Lyle's night given he starts. Yeah, so Lyle's is kind of in my core along the assumption that he will be starting as he did the other night against OKC. You know, $3,600 if he's gonna be out there seeing 30 plus minutes, like this is kind of where I'm starting off a lot of my builds. I wanna be going to attend to Kupo. I think realistically attend to Kupo is in the game versus the heat with a four point spread that among the players at the top tier when we're comparing him to just the salary overall for the players all the way up to the top, like he's in the game that's probably gonna stay the closest. There's blowout factor for Yokic and Bede and Harding. So why would we be looking to spend the salary there when we can spend it on attend to Kupo? So I'm big on attend to Kupo tonight. I'm big on CJ McCullum, as I said, I already took him four plus made threes. I find myself going back to Jimmy Butler, like I said, I really like his salary. And this leaves you with great value options, Vincent, Payne, given that Trey Lyle starts as Andrew is referring to. That's what we're kind of hoping for. We go for a stars and scrubs build. Through you banks we know should be in the starting lineup. And then this leaves you flexibility. If you wanna go to eight in, you wanna try and jam in another top tier point guard and leaves you that flexibility. So as I've said before on this show, I kind of narrow down my value pool and then I prioritize the players at the top tier. So I am prioritizing attend to Kupo over Yokic over and Bede. I want plenty of CJ McCullum, Hallibur in going to Jimmy Butler, like these really, really consistent options that are in these closer spread games compared to spending up for players, that are in these higher spread games. Grim is asking any three by twos you like take the heat spread. So let's look at some three by two. So the heat, the number one seed to the east, this is obviously a very close matchup. I kind of like the heat four and a half. If it gets a little bit lower, I probably wouldn't go there, but I would certainly take the heat before I take the bucks. We know that they're struggling a little bit on defense. Three by twos four tonight. So this obviously has a lot of juice. I would say the Rockets and the Jazz, that'd be a good spot. The Kings and the Pelicans, you know, McCullum can certainly get it done. Darren Fox, if he gets hot from three, that's certainly a viability. And then the Suns, like these would be my top three because Anfordi Simons, Mikhail Bridges, Jay Crowder, Cam Johnson. So I would say Rockets, Jazz, if you're using it potentially in a parlay, like you don't want to be paying, like the 160, the 164 juice is a little bit too much. But if I have to choose one, it'd probably be Blazer, Suns, get that plus money a little bit, or look to add those in a parlay. And the Charlotte spread, I'm actually on the Cavs. That's one of my three bets I made today. So I'm on the Cavs. If you want to go to the Hortens, that's fine. I already have the Cavs minus three and a half. I've Cam Johnson over 25 and a half points rebounds assist and I have Cedric McCullum plus four plus made threes sitting at, was it plus 200 or plus 192 right now? I think it was plus 198 or plus 200 before.  Yes, 7,100. The defensive matchup isn't the best in the world going up against Cleveland. We also see it as a large, large pace down spot for Charlotte. They play super fast all the way down to Cleveland who plays super slow is pretty solid on defense. If he's not going to be popular for that reason, he makes a viable option at small forward. I will say, at least in some of the initial like kind of roster builds throughout the optimizer, I see myself taking Milton and Oshaber set a lot more often and even Tyler Hero over Miles Bridges simply due to their game environments being closer, not that Charlotte Cleveland isn't close. I just don't like the pace down spot and the better defense on the Cleveland side of things. DJ is asking, do I like Jackson Hayes tonight for the Pelicans coming in at a modest salary overall of 4,900? I think he's fine tonight. Like he is in the initial like player pool but just based on the lineups that I've been building, I like to savings a little bit more with Lyles and Eubanks. This is not to say I don't like Jackson Hayes tonight. I think he's totally viable tonight. As I've said, this is probably my favorite game environment overall on the slate. So yes, Hayes is in play for me tonight. It just depends on where else I'm trying to find the savings and realistically, I mean, 36, 39 hundred. So swapping in Hayes for one of those two is like, one of those two players like really doesn't do a whole lot. It doesn't change that much when it comes to your lineup build. You can still go to, I said to Kupo, we could still get to small forward. You could still get to Butler. You could still get to CJ McCollum and you have plenty of salary left. So yes, I like Hayes tonight. It's just a little bit more savings always helps when you're really trying to jam in a few top tier stars. So the injury news on tonight's slate, really the main one that I'm concerned about would be Garland. Like is he actually gonna play? He went through shoot around this morning. He's missed a couple of games for the Cavaliers. Those are Thursday games, nothing important. So Garland's really the one that I'm mainly worried about. These other players are probable, which is always good for them. If Cole Anthony magically doesn't play, which there's no indication that he won't, I guess this could open up more minutes for Mark Helfoltz, who we know played 16 minutes or just shy of 16 minutes in his first game back. He was productive in that time. So maybe the rotational minutes and it's not gonna be a surprise to see Mark Helfoltz just see more minutes overall. Grimm is asking the classic Wednesday question, who's your sixth man tonight? This is a question I've been asked a few times for anyone who hasn't heard it before. It's like, who's that player that's not gonna be in the starting lineup, who's going to be in a spot to produce? Like who's gonna be the player that's gonna be a bit overlooked under the radar, like whatever you wanna call it. Who's that sixth man tonight? Obviously Tyler Hero, a player that is probably gonna win the sixth man of the year is always a viable option. I specifically like Hero tonight because of the matchup against the Bucks. There's a close spread, high over under all of those sorts of things, but the Bucks, they are dead last in the league for the most three-pointers allowed per game to their opponents. What is Tyler Hero really great at? Hitting three-pointers. So when he comes off the bench and he's running the offense with no Jimmy Butler out there, no Bama DiBio, whatever the court may look like at the time, Hero is in a phenomenal matchup to knock down multiple threes tonight. So Hero would be number one for me right off the bat. I would then say, you know, Devante Graham's in a great game environment. You could always look there. You know, Emmanuel quickly can always get hot for the Knicks, but it might actually be Markel Fultz. Like he's gonna continuously play more and more minutes. And then Kevin Love. Kevin Love is always in the mix. So it's gonna be Tyler Hero, Kevin Love, you know, Markel Fultz, hopefully his minutes will increase and then Devante Graham. Like we wanna be taking players that have, you know, offensive usage when they do come on the court and some of those starters come off the court. Andrew was saying, Andrew on Facebook was saying, I find myself getting a lot of Malcolm Brogdon tonight. He looked great. And I feel this may be a shootout and he worries about any restrictions. Yeah. So Brogdon has obviously been dealing with a ton of injuries this season. And that's a concern because the, you know, a cap of like 30 minutes is realistic for him. Even though like you said, he did look great in these first two games. This side of the All-Star break, he's putting up consistent production. Like will he push past, you know, 35 minutes? That's a concern. I think that we all have. Unless there's some like definitive update that there's going to be a cap on him. I have no problem going to Brogdon. It's more about who would I be him taking him over at the point guard position? Like I find myself taking Simons ahead of Brogdon 10 times out of 10. There's no one below him in service salary that I'd be prioritizing. It'd be mainly taking Simons and maybe Trayman just because of the, you know, roster scarcity or the lack of players that the Thunder have right now. Like Trayman is going to be in for plenty of minutes. Booker is out. Do you think Mikhail Bridges has 20 points tonight? Is that what his prop is sitting at? Let's see, four points. Mikhail Bridges, obviously a bit of a three and D guy for the 16 and a half, a little bit of juice on the over. Bridges, a bit of a three and D guy for them. So, Bridges plus money on over one and a half, eight, three. So, yeah, I do like Bridges tonight. You know, it's a kind of a toss up between him, Cam Johnson and Jake Crowder. Like I said, I already took the over on Cam Johnson's points rebounds assist prop, but I'm certainly fine with Mikhail Bridges, his ability to step out and hit some threes is always there. If he's going to get some extra shot volume with Bridges out, with Booker out, Bridges this is, he can certainly get to 20 points. Alexi Pokubeski for six man or no, yeah, that's certainly possible. Poku, obviously again, just due to the lack of players for the Thunder, they have so many players out. Like him going for over one fan to point per minute as he's done in some of these recent games is totally a realistic possibility. It's kind of what we saw from him last year when the Thunder were kind of doing the same thing where they just had a lack of players.  Poku is also an option, only 5,200 really does it, you know, break the bank in any capacity, could go for 30 plus points, 35 points, especially if it turns into a blow. I mean, I would say when it turns into a blow out this game has a 14, 15 point spread, whatever it is for 14 and a half point spread for the Nuggets. Any interest in Cole Anthony, assuming he plays at 5,700? Yeah, I have interest in Cole Anthony. It's not like we're worried too much about the Pacers defense overall, right? This is not 5,700 for Cole Anthony, assuming that he does play correct. Yeah, we're not worried about the Pacers defense overall, as we, I don't think we have been at any point in the season. His shot volume is something that, you know, we have to kind of latch onto is what we want to be seeing him pushing past the inconsistency. As of late, isn't great, but when he does get up the double digits, that's where he really reaches towards the ceiling. The lack of consistency recently when it comes to filling up the stat sheet is, you know, it's what gives him normally a high floor point, so then the shot volume gives him a nice ceiling. So yeah, there's nothing wrong with Cole Anthony, it's a one possession game with a solid overunder going up against the Pacers. Like there's nothing wrong with basically any player in that game in Sacramento, New Orleans, in Milwaukee, Miami, maybe outside of Grayson Allen or Duncan Robinson. Andrew's saying with it being a back-to-back, a higher chance of a blowout thoughts on G-League B's Alperine Sangoon. Yeah, Sangoon has been super solid for the Rockets, at least when he sees playing time. Obviously, one of their younger players that they're trying to get into the mix a bit more, it comes down to his minutes. You know, if we're gonna be seeing 20 plus minutes for him, this is a player that we've known to step into starting lineup, especially when Christian Wood is out and produce plenty of fantasy points, be it an awesome value play at a point per dollar basis. Him seeing only 16 or 18 minutes is also a viable outcome. If you wanna take some tournament shots with him, this is probably one of the players I'd be most comfortable with going to, that's an off-the-bench player that is highly variable, but like you're shooting for that upside. Like this would be a tournament-only play. Andrew on Facebook is asking, like you're shooting for that upside. Like you're not looking for consistency because he's not in the starting lineup and you're working that blowout angle for this game. So Sangoon would fit the mold, a player that they'd like to get involved into the offense when he's out there. So totally a viable option for tournaments. Like you are taking on the risk, but that's, I mean, that's what you have to go for when it comes to tournaments. That's, you know, I only play tournaments. So I'm totally on board with that for Alperine Sangoon. Yeah, he has been a beast in the G-League. When he gets in the starting lineup, he's a player that can push past, you know, 30, 40, fainted points plenty of times.  You don't wanna be expanding your player pool. You can play everyone on the slate. You wanna be focusing in on the top tier of stars. As I said, I am going to attend Kumpo, ahead of Yokic and Embiid when it comes to the high dollar spend, the spreads in some of these games are very concerning.  Like that's a very, very realistic outcome. So I'm prioritizing attend to Kumpo, Jimmy Butler, lot of CJ McCollum. You know, he's one of my favorite plays on the entire slate, Halibur in those sorts of players. Upper on YouTube is saying, what's your opinion on Vitt Creechy and is Garland playing tonight? So Garland is still listed as questionable. That's something we need to, you know, officially get clarity on because if he's not gonna be in there, I guess I haven't specifically touched on if Garland misses. If Garland misses, it's gonna be brained in Goodwin again for the starting point guard for Cavaliers. Big production out of Goodwin when he's in the starting lineup. Heavy minutes for him. So, you know, is Garland playing tonight? That's to be determined. We all have to wait on that news. But if he's out, go to Brandon Goodwin as a very, very solid value option. Vitt Creechy for, okay, see, he's okay. You know, in the grand scheme of things, I think he's okay. If you were like, if you were really trying to take the value at point guard, that's fine. I would really, really try to find the extra salary from 3,500 to get up to 4,100 to get to campaign. Like that's what I would realistically or ideally, you know, want you to do is like get up to campaign who we know is gonna be super popular tonight should be in the starting lineup. No Chris Paul, no Devin Booker, like, et cetera, et cetera. Like no matter where you look tonight in any lineup, you're gonna see campaign so, so popular. So I would say try and find the five, $600 to get up to campaign tonight. Like that's the best outcome. And as Garland playing tonight, we all have to wait on that news. I would certainly like Garland to play. Again, I do have the Cavs minus three and a half. Them minus three and a half. Cam Johnson over 25 and a half points rebounds assist.  Want to get that in. He's been shooting the ball well for the Pelicans. We know they brought him there for a reason. High over under, weak defense in Sacramento. All those sorts of things. How about Vince tonight? Gonna be through the roof. Yeah, like that's certainly a possibility. I like Gabe Vincent tonight is the player that, you know, he's one of my core value plays. He's been solid for them with Kyle Lowry out. I think you can continue to look to him for some really solid point per dollar value. He's only $4,000. You know, I brought this up. These were, or I should say that these four were my, kind of the core of the value that I really want to be going to tonight. So Vincent is absolutely one of my favorite value plays on tonight's late. Him, campaign, Trey Lyos, Drew Eubanks, making sure to select Drew Eubanks as a power forward only because he does have dual position eligibility. You don't want to be blocking yourself at the center position. If you're trying to play Bama DeBio, Sabonis, Valentunis, whoever might be Jared Allen. Someone asked about him before. Love the matchup for Jared Allen because Charlotte, they don't play defense. Sacramento, they don't play defense against center. So I'm getting to Valentunis, getting to Jared Allen. So I'm not blocking myself with Drew Eubanks. Make sure he's selected as a power forward only. So really the only injury news on tonight's late is going to be Garland. You know, get some clarity on if he's going to be playing, if he's not, go to Goodwin at point guard. You know, limit, I would say limit your exposure to Jokic, Embiid, Hardin. These are very, very high over-under spreads. Thoughts on Mo Bamba. He allows you to load up on other core players. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with this game overall, as I said, between the Pacers and the Magic. It's a one possession game with a 233 over-under. We look to the magic and everyone in their lineup is being productive. Let's get up there with three minutes real quick. Mo Bamba is the second most productive player among the starting five for the Magic at 0.96. And he's gets it done on a low usage rate. So absolutely nothing wrong with Mo Bamba tonight. Player that steps out and takes him threes every once in a while, which is of course, nice to see for a big man, giving him some nice ceiling to reach for. Piles in plenty of rebounds can go for a double-double. Is affordable tonight at $4,600. So Pacers, Magic, Cavaliers, Pelicans, Kings, Bucks, he plenty of options from the suns with Booker out, getting to Anthony Simons, Josh Hart, Drew U-Banks, whoever it might be, like we have a very solid mid-tier player tonight that aren't super expensive, that all have great usage rates, great game environments, great salaries, et cetera, et cetera. It really should be a very, very, I think a high scoring slate tonight, which will be good for fantasy. All right, so that does it for today's show. I'll be back next Wednesday, same time, 4 p.m. right here on the Fangle YouTube, Twitch, Twitter pages. You can follow me on Twitter at DFS underscore Tom. Until next time, good luck in your contests.


Prior to 1865, the governor of South Carolina was not decided by popular vote, but was instead appointed by the legislature. In South Carolina, prior to the Civil War, the governor held very little power. Most of the power resided with the legislature, and the most notable responsibility was over the state militia, which typically amounted to very little significance. The position was more ceremonial than anything else, it was given to somebody largely as a means of honoring them without handing them any significant authority. But when Francis W. Pickens was appointed governor in 1860, he was launched into a very significant role. He took the office of governor on December 14th, 1860. On December 20th, South Carolina seceded. Suddenly, the authority over the state militia held a great deal of significance, especially with the United States troops garrisoning Fort Moultrie, which was on the Charleston coast. But with South Carolina officially an independent nation, Governor Pickens also took on all the executive powers that normally would have rested with the national government, such as diplomacy. When South Carolina seceded, its political leaders fully expected other slave states to follow its lead, and it was already preparing its proposal to form a confederacy of slave states. But on December 20th, this was still just optimism. South Carolina was effectively its own nation for nearly a month. With the issue of Sullivan's Island, where a number of forts were standing, Governor Pickens was the executive that would have to negotiate with President James Buchanan over the peaceful acquisition of United States property, if the forts even were U.S. property, which some South Carolinians believed was not the case, or potentially wage war with a much larger hostile nation if they refused to recognize the session. The history of the Civil War usually begins with the bombardment of Fort Sumter, but this ignores the significant history of everything that took place in the months prior. Among these events are the tense weeks that South Carolina stood alone against the United States. I'm Chris Calton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast, Historical Controversies. Although there are other events that I plan to cover before we get to the bombardment of Fort Sumter, such as the Corwin Amendment and the forming of the Confederate government, today's episode may be seen as part one of the Fort Sumter story. Even before the election of 1860, the issue of the forts off of Charleston Harbor would be in the minds of people in South Carolina, and many people expected the resolution of this dispute to be the deciding factor in whether the United States went to war with the seceding states, or if they would be allowed to peacefully separate, and ultimately of course this would be the case, though it should not be seen as an inevitability. This issue at first was not Fort Sumter, though as I already briefly mentioned, it was Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. The island was a vacation spot for many Charlestonians, and had a hotel called Moultrie House that was built at one end of a row of small cottages known as Moultrieville. It was a luxury hotel that wealthy citizens stayed in during summer vacations. Fort Moultrie actually served as an attraction for vacationers who would visit the garrison to listen to the band play in the evening. This was actually a common view of federal fortifications during this time period, that they were attractions for people to visit. If you've ever read Edgar Allen Poe's story, The Gold Bug, it is set on Sullivan's Island, which the writer was very familiar with from his time in the army, which he joined in 1827 at the age of 18. It's interesting to note that you were actually legally required to be 21 to join the military at the time, but Poe fudged his age on the advice of a recruiter, which was pretty easy to do in the age before birth certificates. While in the military, Poe spent some time in the Fort Moultrie Garrison, but that's just an interesting aside, as he was there many years before 1860. Poe was long dead by the Civil War, in fact. But the US military in 1860 was relatively small, and most of the troops who were in service were stationed in the west, so the Garrison at Fort Moultrie was modest. It wasn't uncommon for enlisted men to live there with their wives and children in the fort, in fact, which gives you an idea of the expectations regarding any kind of incident. The officers often lived outside the fort itself, usually also with a wife and children if they had them. This was the case for the highest ranking officer stationed at Fort Moultrie in 1860, Lieutenant Colonel John Lane Gardner, who is 67 years old. It was pretty common for army officers to stay in their positions well past the point of usefulness. There was no military retirement plan in those days, and promotions were based on tenure, so officers stayed in the army, held on to their positions, and often wouldn't leave until the day they died. This also served as a barrier for promotion of younger officers who couldn't get the promotion they felt they deserved until a superior officer vacated one way or another, so Gardner was pretty much just signed out. One of his subordinate officers wrote that Gardner was, quote, utterly incompetent to command a post under the most favorable circumstances, end quote. There were two companies under Gardner, Company E and Company H. Company E was part of the first artillery regiment, and it provides a pretty typical example of an artillery company at the time. It contained 32 men, including its lower officers, the company Musician, which was a drummer, and two artificers who specialized in building carriages for artillery guns. The majority of the men in Company E were foreign born, England, Scotland, Germany, so on. And they ranged in age from 21 to 42. I'm giving you all this info, by the way, so you can visualize how different the military looked in 1860. Most of them were in their late 20s, serving five-year contracts. There were five line officers at Fort Maltry serving under the useless Lieutenant Colonel Gardner. Captain Abner Doubleday was in charge of Company E, with Lieutenant Jefferson C. Davis serving directly under them. Both of these men are worth some small explanatory asides, I think. Abner Doubleday is most famous today as the inventor of baseball, and the Baseball Hall of Fame is located in his hometown of Cooperstown, New York. However, I think the notion that Doubleday was the inventor of baseball is not widely held any longer, but I could be wrong about that. When I was a kid, I was really into baseball and baseball history, and I remember reading all about how Doubleday invented baseball. So it's a myth that has continued at least up into recent history, though I don't know how widely it circulated anymore. But it's a myth. It was a fabrication created after Doubleday's death by some people who wanted to brand baseball as the American pastime. So it was basically a marketing scheme. Doubleday never actually claimed himself to be the inventor of baseball. It was the claim by people who came after him. Doubleday also happened to be the only officer at Fort Sumter during the bombardment, who was not at least somewhat sympathetic to the South. He detested slavery and he supported the Republican Party, but most of the troops at Moultrie and later Sumter at least had some Southern sympathies. One of them, the assistant surgeon, was Samuel Crawford, who wrote the first history of the bombardment of Sumter, titled The Genesis of the Civil War, which was published in 1887, but was based in part on his personal diary he kept during his enlistment. But Crawford, on the day of Lincoln's inauguration, wrote, quote, The South in her position stands by the Constitution, which in spirit and in letter has been violated by the aggressive power now in power, end quote. So this was closer to the general sentiment of the troops at Sumter than Doubleday's position, though most of the troops probably fell somewhere in between them. But Doubleday in any case did not invent baseball and he was the only ardent supporter of the Republicans and opponent to slavery in the fort when it was finally bombarded. Jefferson C. Davis is only worth mentioning to clarify that this is a completely different figure than the man who would become the president of the Confederacy, obviously. He didn't have any objection to slavery like Doubleday did, but he was an absolute enemy of secession. During the war, he was the obvious subject of many jokes about his name. He also brought his sister to Charleston with him when he returned from leave in October of 1860 and she enrolled in a Charleston girl's school. This shows, on the one hand, that he didn't have any real antipathy toward the South and, two, he might have been a little politically naive, considering his timing with all this. The issue of the federal force was already pretty well acknowledged in Charleston before October, so it seems unwise of him to settle his sister in Charleston. I don't know what came of her, though. Southern chivalry typically showed deference to white women, though if you remember the way this was used against Southerners in the Kansas episode, so she was probably much safer than she would have been if she were a man, but this is just speculation on my part. I have no idea what she did after secession. Company H was led by Captain Truman Seymour, who was one of the few men stationed there to be born and raised in the North. Remember that most of the men weren't born in the United States at all. Seymour's second in command was Lieutenant Theodore Talbot. This was the guy I quoted earlier who called a Lieutenant Colonel Gardner incompetent, by the way. Talbot, interestingly, was with John C. Formont during his escapades in the Rocky Mountains that I talked about briefly in the California Gold Rush episode. The fifth line officer at the fort was Lieutenant Norman Hall, who was only 23 years old. Being the youngest officer, he was put in charge of the least desirable jobs. He was the garrison quartermaster and commissary officer. The quartermaster would see the supplies in the fort, being housing, clothes, fuel, stationery for the men to write home with and other mundane matters. And the commissary was responsible for food, which would take on a great deal more importance after the men were cut off from new supplies in Fort Sumter and would nearly be starved out. There were others at Fort Moultrie as well, of course. There was a band I mentioned earlier that visitors like to listen to in the evening for entertainment. There were medical staff, cooks, a chaplain, the chaplain's wife. There were also black servants, at least one of whom was a slave, though the officers didn't know this. He was paid like the other servants, but his income was forked over to his owner. Just to give some more perspective of how this related back to Charleston and South Carolina as an independent nation, there were four forts off the Charleston coast. Across from Moultrie on the other side of the harbor was Fort Johnson. It did not contain a garrison, but Moultrie did house its coal supply there. Another fortification near Charleston was Castle Pinkney, which was built as the final defense of Charleston in case an attacking army got past Moultrie and Sumter. It housed a single ordinance officer, his wife and their daughter. All three of these forts had originally been built by South Carolina, not the national government, but they were expensive to deal with, so the state handed them over to the United States government in the early 19th century. It also ceded the land on which the United States government did build Fort Sumter. After secession, political leaders in South Carolina would claim that they never actually gave the forts of the land to the United States. They only loaned it to them. The reality is that this distinction probably wasn't fleshed out when the deal was made, but since Lincoln would eventually refuse to let members of his cabinet even meet with Confederate representatives, because this would be tacit recognition of the legitimacy of secession in Lincoln's view, the dispute never even got an attempt to be hashed out peacefully. But this is just the background that I think is useful to contextualize the situation for South Carolina and the United States just before secession and up to the point of the formation of the Confederacy. Even before the election, there were people around Charleston who were getting ready for secession and their eyes were on the garrison at Moultrie. In August of 1860, Captain John Foster was sent to make improvements to Fort Moultrie. The reason given for this decision to double day was that the United States was worried about possible conflicts with England and France in regards to Mexico, but even double day found this to be a flimsy reason. Double day wasn't the only one who thought that the timing was suspicious either. As the election drew close, Charlestonians were paying attention to the work being done at Moultrie. On November 3rd, a rally of secessionists wearing blue cockades on their hats marched into Moultrie to inspect the work being done. It hardly needs to be said that this made the garrison uncomfortable. Shortly before this, the engineer in charge of the improvements, Lieutenant Snyder, noticed that some of the laborers hired to work on the improvements were also wearing blue secessionist cockades. So he sent a request to Washington asking permission to arm some of the workers that he felt were loyal to the union. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, agreed that this was a prudent decision and gave permission to take 40 muskets from the federal arsenal in the city. But on November 3rd, the arms still had not been claimed and distributed. Lieutenant Colonel Gardner had vetoed the idea only days after the secessionists showed up, but the garrison was starting to fill the tension. On the day of the presidential election, Doubleday decided to take matters into his own hands and he made a list of supplies the garrison needed. The next day, Captain Truman Seymour volunteered to take a handful of the garrisons' men to Charleston for the resupply. Now remember, we're still more than a month away from actual secession, but the decision to secede was agreed upon privately by South Carolina's political leaders if Lincoln won the election, which was now the case. So Seymour and his men took a boat to Charleston Harbor and tied it up in front of the federal arsenal. They started loading up their supplies being boxes of ammunition mostly. After their fourth trip between the arsenal and the boat, a man showed up and ordered them to stop. The man, we don't know who he was, claimed that Seymour did not have permission from the local authorities and if he continued taking supplies from the arsenal, the man told him he would signal for 100 men in Charleston's vigilance committee to attack. Seymour decided not to test his fate, so he had his men put the ammunition back in the arsenal. The next day, now we're two days after Lincoln's election, Seymour called on the mayor of Charleston to request permission to get the supplies they were after. The mayor, Charles Macbeth, was in a pickle. He knew that secession was on the horizon, but as the state was still technically part of the union, he couldn't give a valid reason to deny the request for supplies, so he gave his permission. Gardiner, however, once again stepped in and vetoed the matter. He claimed that he did not want to accept Macbeth's permission because that would mean subordinating himself as a military officer to a local authority. But at this point, the standoff between Charleston and Moultrie started to become more clear. Gardiner ordered the garrison to keep all the artillery loaded and no more civilians should be allowed in the fort. The men started preparing the fort for possible hostilities. Garrison visited Charleston himself on November 16th and he was told that he would not be allowed to receive reinforcements. This was still a month prior to the official declaration of secession, but both sides were trying to prepare for a confrontation. Also in November, war secretary Floyd sent Fitz John Porter to visit Moultrie and bring back a report. Porter spoke well of the garrison, but everything else was damning. He said that Moultrie was almost entirely unguarded and the military should have been preparing the fort weeks before. His report also suggested replacing Lieutenant Colonel Gardner, though this was not explicitly recommended. The next day, Porter made a visit to Major Robert Anderson. Floyd wanted Anderson to take over as the commanding officer at Moultrie, Porter told him. Porter also sought advice from the leading military officer in the country, General Winfield Scott. General Scott's advice was to reinforce Moultrie and failing that, they should move to Fort Sumter. Robert Anderson arrived at Moultrie on November 19th and immediately started working to get the garrison in better shape. Anderson, for his part, was very sympathetic to the South and he was no fan of the Republican party, but he was a staunch unionist and above all else. He believed that his duty was to follow his military orders. Anderson also wanted to arm Castle Pinckney. Ideally, he wanted more men, but when he made his request to Washington, he asked to at least be allowed to send some workers and an officer to Pinckney to make repairs and let the officers train the workers in how to use the artillery there. But although he most overtly wanted reinforcements, he said that they needed to be sent secretly. Otherwise, Anderson was certain that Charleston would attempt to take the forts. Through the rest of November, Charlestonians heard plenty of rumors about Washington sending reinforcements to the forts. Some of the local militia volunteers wanted to take the forts immediately, but Colonel Benjamin Huger, a native Charlestonian, but also an old friend of Robert Anderson, stopped them by saying that if locals attacked the forts without being ordered to, he'd join Anderson in the fight against them himself. Huger, keep in mind, was still in the United States military when this took place on November 28th, though he would serve in the Confederate Army later, of course. So cooler heads in Charleston were trying to keep the rest of the people calm. They argued that a premature attack on Moultrie would be seen as an act of aggression. But of course, if any reinforcements were sent to Moultrie, South Carolina would see that as an act of aggression or at least to the threat of one. So the tension was building. Attacking early meant minimizing the risk of defeat, but also the possibility that other states would see them as the hostiles. As rumors continued to circulate about reinforcements, the leaders in Charleston decided that if they caught wind of any changes at the fort, that would be justification to seize Moultrie. But even if they did want to attack, the local militia in Charleston was hardly prepared anyway. On December 7th, War Secretary Floyd sent another person to Moultrie, this time Don Carlos Buell.  President Buchanan had affirmed his duty to maintain all federal property. So Floyd sent Buell to remind Anderson to avoid confrontation if at all possible, but if a conflict did occur, to hold the forts at all costs. Buell wasn't naive though. He knew that although written messages might fall into the wrong hands, verbal messages can also be denied by Washington to throw officers under the bus if anything goes sour. So Buell relayed his message to Anderson and then wrote it down for him and made a copy to take back to Washington. As he was leaving, Buell also gave Anderson his own advice, which was not part of the official orders. Anderson should not pass up an opportunity to move his men to Fort Sumter with or without an order from Washington. As the session approached, Charlstonians were trying to figure out how they could take Fort Sumter while it was empty. And the Charleston Mercury even published an article about how this could be done. Members of the Charleston militia had also been spotted by the garrison inspecting the various forts. Again, this made the men nervous. So Foster decided to make another request for armaments to distribute to his laborers. The Charleston native, Colonel Huger, had been called back to Washington on December 7th and his replacement in charge of Charleston's arsenal was Captain Humphreys. Foster came to the arsenal and requested only two muskets to give to the ordinance sergeants stationed alone at Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney. Humphreys said that Foster could not have two muskets, but he could have 40 muskets. This was a clever play by Humphreys. Mayor Macbeth had signed the permission for 40 muskets back in October and it was Lieutenant Colonel Gardner who stopped Foster from getting the weapons. But Gardner was now replaced by Anderson and the mayor's permission slip to allow Foster to retrieve 40 muskets had never actually been rescinded or invalidated. So by Humphreys reasoning, there was no reason he couldn't hand over the 40 muskets now on December 17th. Foster went back to Moultrie with 40 new weapons in tow. But as news spread about Humphreys decision, Charleston residents were in an uproar. The South Carolina militia leader, Major General John Schnurl, I do not know if I'm pronouncing that word correctly, showed up at the arsenal the next day to confront Humphreys about it, saying that quote, some violent demonstration is certain unless the excitement can be allayed, end quote. He also said that Huger had effectively invalidated the October order by promising the governor that he would not turn over any weapons from the arsenal. So Humphreys told Schnieller that he would get the muskets back and he wrote a note for Foster telling him about the situation, ending it by saying quote, I beg that you will return them to me. Anderson agreed following Buell's orders from Floyd to try to avoid confrontation. But Foster was angry about the decision and he wrote a note to the higher ups in Washington to contest the decision to return the guns. Foster then met with Schnieller and Charleston and from his perspective, everything seemed to be perfectly calm, which suggests that either the locals had calmed down after Humphreys gave his assurances that the guns would be returned, our Schnieller had exaggerated the upset to begin with. So Foster said he'd wire Washington for a final decision. But the wire to Washington ended up being meaningless. Someone had already sent a wire from Charleston and gotten word to Floyd about the muskets and Floyd was furious at the play by Humphreys and Foster saying he never gave any such order. At around midnight, both Anderson and Foster received wires from Washington sternly ordering the return of the muskets which Foster did the next day. Literally only hours later, South Carolina voted to secede. The same day that South Carolina voted to secede, President Buchanan received a message that Governor Pickens had written a few days earlier. Pickens wanted Buchanan to peacefully give him Sumter. The note read quote, if Fort Sumter could be given to me as governor, then I think the public mind would be quieted under a feeling of safety. If something of the kind be not done, I cannot answer for the consequences. End quote. The last line was probably poorly chosen. It read like a veiled threat. Buchanan did not believe secession was constitutional but he also agreed not to take military action against South Carolina. A former official from South Carolina, William Henry Trescott, was present when the note was delivered and he copied the note and showed it to Jefferson Davis and John Slidel, two deep South senators. They did not approve of Pickens' poor diplomacy and they sent a wire to Pickens urging him to contact Buchanan and retract the message. Trescott also sent Pickens a wire summarizing Buchanan's reaction to the letter. Two weeks earlier Buchanan had announced to Congress that he intended to take no action against South Carolina upon the secession and he believed he was acting graciously. Therefore he resented the tone of the message and he even made the point that he had refused to reinforce Fort Moultrie. The press had castigated him but he claimed that he had made all these concessions and tolerated the criticism in order to avoid conflict only to have Pickens send him a message with threatening implications. Two days later, Pickens sent another wire to Trescott saying that a train had just brought in 13 men who were apparently meant to reinforce Moultrie and there would be another 150 following behind them all sent by Washington. Pickens demanded an answer on whether Buchanan intended to reinforce the Fort or to move troops to Sumter. Trescott brought the question to war secretary John Floyd who only whimpered about what a difficult position he was in. South Carolina had also sent delegates to Washington to negotiate a peaceful transfer of the forts and Floyd said that they'd be there soon so they could deal with the issue. Floyd also suggested that it was silly to be worried about the possibility of any troops moving to Fort Sumter but Pickens kept getting conflicting information about reinforcements and he was understandably on edge. The governorship was supposed to be an easy almost ceremonial position and he was having to deal with a possible military conflict. South Carolina had called up 10 regiments of soldiers and Pickens was authorized to use them to resist any coercive act by the United States. By coercion the legislature clarified they included any intention to commit an aggressive act such as reinforcing the garrison at the fort but Pickens wasn't sure if there was any genuine intention or not all he had were conflicting rumors and Washington was dancing around the issue. The state was also severely underarmed at the point of secession and Pickens was aware of this. As of December 20th the state armory in Columbia had a few thousand antiquated muskets, 34 cavalry pistols, three swords and about 1500 sabers. If he did have to take military action he would not be well equipped to do so but the legislature was already working to try to secure more weapons. But Pickens did come up with a plan on how to deal with Moultrie at least for the time. Adapting the advice given to him by Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr. a well-known fire eater and the owner of the Charleston Mercury Pickens decided to put some soldiers on a pair of steamers somewhere between 40 and 120 men total but the reports are conflicting and he set the steamers between Fort Moultrie and Sumter patrolling back and forth between them. The ships arrived on the evening of December 20th to the surprise of the garrison. Following the official secession Major Anderson and his men were growing even more worried about an attempt to take the forts. One of his officers reported that Charlestonians were preparing scaling ladders. At this point, both Pickens and Anderson had their eyes on Fort Sumter. Anderson was in an easier position. If you moved his men to Fort Sumter it can only be seen as a defiance of orders. But if Pickens took the fort while the delegates were trying to negotiate a peaceful transfer of federal property it could be seen as an act of aggression. So even though Pickens was being urged by some such as Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr. to take Sumter Anderson was able to move first. He decided that the best day to transfer to Sumter would be Christmas night. He estimated that this would be the same day that the commissioners from South Carolina would arrive in Washington. He also didn't bother to get permission from Buchanan who he did not expect would approve of the move. If he waited until after December 26th the commissioners could wire Pickens about the results of the negotiation and if Buchanan denied the transfer which was most likely then Pickens was likely to attack Moultrie on the 27th. Anderson assumed that Pickens would attack the garrison and Sumter was the superior fort but he did not know Pickens was actually eyeing Sumter himself rather than Moultrie. Anderson kept his plans to himself but he strongly encouraged his officers to attend church on Christmas day so as not to give Charleston any cause for suspicion. His first problem was figuring out what to do with the wives of the enlisted men there are more than 20 wives at the fort as well as their children many of whom were infants. Anderson decided that he would move the women and children to Fort Johnson which was the only fort that nobody seemed overly concerned with. He could move them along with much of the garrison's food supply. The plan to move the women, children and food to Fort Johnston reached Charleston through whatever spy network was in place but nobody was really concerned about this. To throw off his larger plan Anderson even had some military hardware moved from Sumter to Moultrie to make it seem like he had every intention of staying put. The second problem was what to do with the weapons he planned to leave behind at Moultrie. He could spike the cannons aimed at Sumter which if you remember from my Nicaragua episodes was the method of hammering a spike in the gun's vent hole to prevent it from being fired but this was only a delay tactic. Spikes could be removed so he consulted with Doubleday about what to do. Doubleday said that they should just burn the wooden carriages that held the guns. It would take longer to do but it would also take longer to fix. Doubleday wasn't even aware of the plans to move to Sumter but there was so much discussion about all the possible scenarios that the question didn't even seem odd at all to him. But when Christmas evening came around Anderson had all his plans in place only to have nasty weather. He delayed his plan for December 26th. The women and children were loaded up first doing so while it was still light out. After the women and children were loaded up into the boats at about three in the afternoon Anderson revealed his plan to John Foster and Norman Hall. Hall was to take the women to Fort Johnson and under the pretense of looking for a safe spot to unload them he was to patrol the island. The men at Fort Moultrie would fire off two shots as a signal for him at which point he was to go directly to Sumter telling the Charlestonians on the steamers that he was checking Sumter for better accommodations for the women and children. This way the women and children would be taken to Sumter but if there was a conflict while the garrison was making the move the women and children would be kept out of harm's way. After the sun started to set Anderson put the rest of his plan in motion other than Foster and Hall nobody else knew of Anderson's plan even now. Abner Doubleday was looking for Anderson to invite him to have tea with him and his wife. The wives of officers were the only wives not moved to Fort Johnson by the way but when Doubleday and Anderson found each other Anderson told him about the plans to move to Sumter. Doubleday had 20 minutes to get company E ready to move carrying their muskets and a knapsack. Knapsacks at this point were always expected to be packed in the morning in case of an attack so this was a reasonable order but still one that would require the men to move fast. The idea was to send two waves of men across to Sumter. Doubleday's men and company E would move first. Lieutenant Davis was ordered to hang back in Moultrie to man the guns aimed towards Sumter though and fire on any ships if they tried to interfere. After Doubleday's company made it to Sumter if all went well, Seymour's company H would make the trip with Foster taking over Davis's position and after the second wave finished he was to spike the guns pointed at Sumter and set fire to the carriages. The men should then grab whatever supplies they could and the remaining few would make the trip to Sumter after the second wave of boats returned. The two waves made their trips to Sumter without incident and one of the men fired off the two signal shots to let Hall know to make his way to Sumter with the women and children. By eight o'clock the plan was complete. When Buchanan and the commissioners found out about this nobody was happy. The commissioners said it was an act of war but Buchanan refused to disavow it. They claimed that by refusing to take action against Anderson Buchanan may have made war inevitable. The commissioners sent this information in a note to the president but Buchanan refused to even accept the note. But now Buchanan had to figure out what to do about Anderson in the minute for Sumter. Governor Pickens was confident that they would send reinforcements if not a full attack force. When he inspected Moultrie and saw that the gun carriages were burned he was outraged at the destruction of public property. Fort Moultrie was in no position to defend against a possible attack against Fort Sumter in the state, Anderson left it. Early in January, General Winfield Scott sent Lieutenant Colonel Lorenzo Thomas to New York to see about the possibility of using a civilian vessel to send reinforcements to Sumter. Thomas decided on Cornelius Vanderbilt's ship the Star of the West which the army could lease for $1,250 a day. Thomas then made the arrangements to load the ship with 200 troops as well as a load of weapons and the ship set off from New York's harbor on January 5th. The next day rumors were pouring into Charleston about the ship but nobody knew exactly what to believe. By January 8th, the rumors about the Star of the West seemed a little more credible. The Charleston Mercury ran a story that began, quote, United States troops hastening from all points southward the Star of the West with reinforcements for Anderson do here today, end quote. Bickens relayed orders to the patrolling ships to fire signals to let the city know of an approaching enemy ship and the artillerists at Moultrie were to open fire to prevent reinforcements. The ship arrived not long after midnight on January 9th but it was dark and there wasn't any lights around the forts so they'd have to wait until the sun came up to land. At a little after six in the morning the Charleston patrol steamer fired off a signal to the Star, one blue light and two red which was the signal for the approaching ship to reveal who it was. When no reply came, the steamer turned towards the harbor signaling the approach of an enemy ship and the star followed behind. South Carolina troops were prepared for this and upon seeing the signals, they readied their artillery. Major Peter Stevens was in charge and he did his best to aim the artillery but he didn't have the best equipment to do this. Part of aiming an artillery gun was to measure the appropriate amount of gunpowder for the distance needed and that meant having a sight to gauge the distance. Stevens did the best he could with the equipment he had aimed his first shot and fired. The shot fell well short of the star but this was actually intentional and it was only a warning shot. After seeing that the star was continuing to move forward Stevens then ordered his soldiers to start firing. The next shot was not a warning shot and a lot of people consider this the first shot of the Civil War. Shot past the front of the star, the star sped up and the troops on the ship raised a flag to let Anderson know they were being fired on. The next couple of shots missed as well. Anderson meanwhile was ordering his men to prepare their guns too. At this point, Moultrie could not hold up against Sumter for very long. The walls were weak and they did not have a large supply of gunpowder. On board the star, the officers were nervous. They had never seen battle and they could see a ship coming toward them which they feared might block their exit. They made their decision to turn around rather than get blocked in. The reinforcements never made it to Sumter. Now Anderson and his men were trapped there and would continue to be trapped there due to the indecision of both President Buchanan and President Lincoln, each unwilling to withdraw them and Lincoln reluctant to arm them and be seen as the aggressor in a pending war. There is much more to this history to talk about before we get to the bombardment of Sumter in April. While Buchanan was vacillating on what to do about South Carolina and the forts there, President-elect Lincoln was also trying to figure out what he could do that would prevent secession on the one hand but maintain the new Republican party on the other. As more southern states followed South Carolina and seceding, the political leaders in the South also inherited the issue of Fort Sumter and all of this is worth covering. Lincoln's attempt at compromise, the infamous Corwin Amendment, that would have explicitly protected slavery in the South will be the subject of the next episode. 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