Fort Sumter

For anyone who likes to study the Civil War, Fort Sumter is a place not to miss.  On April 11, 1861 the newly seceded South demanded that Union troops vacate Fort Sumter.  The North refused and on the 12th of April 1861 South Carolina Confederate troops at nearby Fort Johnson fired on Fort Sumter.  It was the first shot of the Civil War.  The bombardment lasted two days before the Union surrendered the fort.  The Union army was able to board a ship for New York.  Miraculously, no one on either side had been killed.

The tour of Fort Sumter requires a boat trip.  The fort was built on a reinforced sand bar in the Charleston harbor.  Work began on the fort after the War of 1812.  It was still unfinished during the occupation of Union forces in 1861. " The fort is a five-sided brick structure, 170 to 190 feet (52 to 58 m) long, with walls five-feet thick (1.5 m), standing 50 feet (15.2 m) over the low tide mark. It was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements, although it was never filled near its full capacity."

Fort Sumter

cannon portals in the wall

a shell stuck in the wall

Left - 33 star flag of the Union garrison 1861, Middle Left - second official Confederacy flag 1863, Middle - today's USA flag, Middle Right - South Carolina's Palmetto flag, Right - first official Confederate flag 1861, Back - 35 star Union flag raised over Sumter upon recapture on Feb 1865.

Samuel with a mountain howitzer cannon

barracks and port holes for cannons

barracks area

defensive forts of Charleston

replica of the fort before the walls were reduced due to bombardment

The Confederate Army held the fort from 1863 - 1865.  Withstanding the April 1863 bombardment from nine armored vessels (ironclads), which only scarred and battered Sumter's walls.  The accurate fire from the fort disabled five Union ships.  In the Keokuk sank the next morning.

A second attack was planned an combined a land and sea operation.  Morris Island was taken and Union guns were turned on Fort Sumter in earnest on August 17, 1863, almost 1,000 shells were fired the first day.  Within a week the forts walls were reduced rubble.  the garrison refused to surrender and continued to repair and strengthen the defenses.  Confederate guns at Fort Moultrei  and other points took up defense of Sumter.

On September 9th another Union assault fell short, this time the attackers lost five boats and 124 men trying to take the fort.  The bombardment continued until the end of December.  By then Sumter's cannon were severly damaged and the defenders could only respond with muskets.

In the summer of 1864 one last attempt was made to take Sumter.  A sustained two month Union bombardment, failed to dislodge the 300 man Confederate garrison.  The Union troops were ordered North to aid Gen. Grant in his overland campaign against Richmond.  Fort Sumter had withstood 20 months of seige.  It no longer resembled a fort but it was stronger than ever.  Big union guns had hurled 7 million pounds of metal at it yet the Confederate losses had been only 52 killed and 267 wounded.

Fort Sumter was finally delivered into the Union hands when Gen. Shermans troops advanced north from Savannah.  On Feb 17, 1865  Confederate forces evacuated the fort.  And on April 14 with Charleston in Union hands the US flag was once again raised over Sumter's battered ramparts.