Fort Sumter Surrenders! Civil War Begins!

13 April 1861:

When we last left our combatants at Fort Sumter, it was raining and the Union forces had ceased firing for the day.  But the Confederates kept-up a periodic barrage throughout the night.  Come dawn, all help breaks loose again.  The Charleston forces resumed their bombardment, while the Federals responded as best they could and waited for the promised relief.  Captain Fox, after having his ships driven back from the fort yesterday by artillery fire, found the seas too rough on the 13th and decided to wait until nightfall to carry out his resupply mission. 

Meanwhile, the "hot shot" rounds (cannonballs that had been heated in furnaces) of the Confederates were severely damaging the fort, with fires breaking out all over.

Fort Sumter giving and receiving fire, but also ON FIRE

In fact, by noon the main gate and most of the wooden structures were in flames.  As the flames moved closer and closer to where the garrison stored the 300 barrels of gunpowder it had left, Major Anderson and his men struggled to move the much needed powder to safety.  But 2/3 of Fort Sumter's powder was still left in the main ammunition magazine, when the Major ordered the building sealed and had the remaining barrels tied together and thrown into the sea (he was hoping to retrieve them later though), for safety's sake.  Both sides kept up their fire, but the advantage was all on the Confederate's side.

Confederate flag flying over Fort Sumter

Finally, at 1300, the fort's flagpole was knocked down, spurring several parties of men to initiate parleys with Major Anderson in the hopes of ending the conflict, by seeing the fort surrendered into Confederate hands.  Encouraged by the use of the word "evacuate" as opposed to "surrender" and faced with hungry and exhausted men, low ammunition and fires burning out of control, Major Anderson agreed to surrender the Federal installation known as Fort Sumter to Confederate forces under the command of General P. G. T. Beauregard.



 And so it was that at 1430, on 13 April 1861, the first battle of the Civil War was ended.  Major Anderson and his men gave a 50 gun salute and then the garrison marched out of Fort Sumter and onto the unused resupply vessels.  The flag that had flown over the gallant defenders, was saved by Major Anderson and became a rally point for supporters of the Union.

However, the lack of casualties on either side during this 34 hour conflict (no one had been so much as injured) belied the horrendous bloodshed that was to wash over this nation for the next four years.

At last the Sumter siege was over.......but the war was only just beginning.

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.........