Fort Sumter Attacked! Civil War Begins!

12 April 1861, found the United States in a precarious position. Seven Southern states had seceded from the Union and the eight slave-holding states were looking to the situation in Charleston to help determine their course of action: join the Confederacy or stay in the Union. The entire country seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for something......any little thing.......to break this tense waiting game, to make the country decide whether their issues were worth going to war about. The stage was set...... Fort Sumter was the moment of decision

For the site of such a monumental moment in history, it is a rather unknown place in American history today. Fort Sumter was a fort, an unfinished fort to be exact, situated in Charleston Harbor, SC, designed to protect the valuable harbor from foreign foes attempting to invade by sea. At this time though, it had yet to be completely finished and until the commander of Charleston Harbor, Major Robert Anderson, moved his forces there, it was only occupied by a lone soldier, who served as a lighthouse keeper. It was designed to be one of the strongest fortresses in the world,

but this was NOT where the Charleston garrison was stationed though. They were instead quartered on the far inferior Fort Moultrie, a feeble fort dating back to 1776, which had no real defense against land-based attacks (sand dunes had been piled up against the walls, making scaling them easy). However, before the actions of 12 April 1861, Major Anderson (perhaps sensing the secession in the wind) made the decision to move the entire garrison over to Ft. Sumter.

It was to here that Brig. General P. G. T. Beauregard, on 11 April 1861, delivered an ultimatum to Major Anderson, the man who had trained him in the art of artillery at West Point, to surrender Ft. Sumter or face bombardment. Major Anderson refused, saying to the officers that General Beauregard had sent to hear his reply, "If we never meet in this world again, God grant that we may meet in the next." Now the decision of war, would lie with Confederate General Beauregard.

And so it was, that in the darkness of 4:30 a.m., on 12 April 1861, Confederate batteries opened up on Fort Sumter. American guns, fired by American hands, were firing on an American fort, manned by American soldiers. To borrow from the British at Yorktown, "The World Turned Upside Down" 150 years ago this morning.

Major Anderson awaited until the light of morning, before returning fire. However, limited manpower (an already small garrison had been further reduced by sickness and weeks of half-rations) and the unfinished state of the fort itself prevented him from using all of his guns, only 21could be safely fired. The Confederates made a point of targeting the wooden portions of the fort, while the Sumter defenders were mostly ineffective against their Charleston adversaries.

Another issue, which may have helped to force Beauregard's hand, was the early morning arrival of a Union fleet there to resupply Fort Sumter. President Lincoln had previously stated publicly that the ships were only there for a resupply of supplies, that no manpower would be exchanged. However, since the Confederacy was demanding that the fort be handed over to them as property of the state of South Carolina, there was little chance that they would peacefully acquiesce to this federal request. But though the fleet had arrived before the opening Confederate bombardment, they had done nothing and would be able to do nothing all day.

As darkness fell, a light rain began falling, which extinguished the fires started by Confederate hot-shells and the fort ceased firing for the night. Though the Confederates reduced their rate of firing, they kept lobbing shells at the fort throughout the night. Sumter's defenders spent a fitful night.

At dawn's break, the fight resumes in earnest.........