Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter, construction of which was begun in 1829 at the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S.C., was the site of the Civil War's first shot on Apr. 12, 1861. Unimportant militarily, the fort became a vital symbol to both North and South.

At the heart of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal authority flowing
over the underlying issue of slavery.

Fort Sumter Bombardment

Confederate authorities sought throughout March 1861 to negotiate the peaceful evacuation of the Union garrison at Fort Sumter under Maj. Robert Anderson. Once convinced that Abraham Lincoln's administration would not give up the fort, Confederate President Jefferson Davis faced a crisis in diplomacy. If Sumter were not taken, the Confederate States could not boast independence; if action against it were delayed, South Carolina threatened unilateral seizure; and any action might trigger war with the United States.

Davis and his cabinet, fearing Union reinforcement of the garrison, decided that domestic politics and international posture demanded Sumter's capture and ordered Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard (left) to take it. He opened fire at 4:30 AM on April 12. Anderson surrendered the next day, and his forces left the fort on April 14.

War was on, and the U.S. flag was not raised again over the fort until Feb.18, 1865.

~ Summary ~

After it became clear that Abraham Lincoln had won the presidential election of 1860, South Carolina passed an order of secession on December 20. Six days later Major Robert Anderson (right), commander of the Union forces at Charleston, moved his small garrison from Fort Moultrie, also in the Charleston Harbor, to the unfinished, ungarrisoned Fort Sumter, farther from shore and less vulnerable to land attack. Governor Francis Pickens of South Carolina demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter; Anderson refused.
On January 9, 1861, the Union merchant vessel Star of the West attempted to land supplies and reinforcements for Fort Sumter, but was fired on and withdrew.

By the time Lincoln took office on March 4, six more states had seceded, and Fort Sumter was one of the two Southern forts remaining under Union control. Lincoln was faced with either recalling Anderson or risking war by providing him with supplies and reinforcements. After much agonizing, Lincoln notified Pickens on April 8 that an attempt would be made to send provisions, but no troops or ammunition, to Fort Sumter, then in danger of being starved out. Three days later General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, under orders from Confederate President Jefferson Davis, demanded evacuation of the fort.

Anderson stated that he would evacuate only if he received neither provisions nor instructions from the federal government by noon on April 15. This answer proved unsatisfactory, and at 4:30am on April 12, Fort Johnson in Charleston fired the first shot of a 34-hour bombardment, ending all negotiations and marking the beginning of the Civil War. Lincoln's relieving fleet arrived the same day but could not enter the harbor because of cannon fire from the shore. Anderson surrendered the fort on April 14th with neither side suffering any casualties.

The following day, the United States declared war on the Confederacy.

Confederate troops completed construction of the fort, greatly strengthened it, and in 1863-64 held it through several massive Union attacks and a 15-month siege. Only on February 17, 1865, with the approach of the army of the Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, did they evacuate the fort.

The site became a national monument (area - 0.3 sq mi) in 1948.

Fort Sumter National Monument

(See Bibliography below)

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Author: Frank E. Vandiver; Ronald W. McGranahan, contributing.
Painting: Coutesy of the Library of Congress.
Bibliography: Current, Richard, Lincoln and the First Shot (1963; repr. 1990); Hendrickson, Robert, Sumter: The First Day of the Civil War (1990); Swanberg, W. A., First Blood (1958); Vandiver, F. E., Their Tattered Flags (1970).