Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island protecting Charleston, South Carolina from naval invasion. Its origin dates to the War of 1812 when the British invaded Washington by sea. It was still incomplete in 1861 when the Battle of Fort Sumter began the American Civil War. It was severely damaged during the war, left in ruins, and although there was some rebuilding, the fort as conceived was never completed.

Since the middle of the 20th century, Fort Sumter has been open to the public as part of the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, operated by the National Park Service.

The building of Fort Sumter

Named after General Thomas Sumter, a Revolutionary War hero, Fort Sumter was built after the 1814 Burning of Washington during the War of 1812 as one of the third system of U.S. fortifications, to protect American harbors from foreign invaders such as Britain. Built on an artificial island in the middle of the channel that provides Charleston with natural shelter, Fort Sumter would dominate the harbor, reinforcing the protection provided by the shore batteries at Fort Moultrie, Fort Wagner, and Fort Gregg.

The island was originally a sand bar. In 1827, engineers performed measurements of the depths (depth sounding) and concluded that it was a suitable location for a fort. Construction began in 1829. Seventy thousand tons of granite were transported from New England to build up the artificial island. By 1834, a timber foundation that was several feet beneath the water had been laid. However, the decision was made to build a (stronger) brick fort. If completed, it would have been one of the strongest forts in the world.

The brick fort is five-sided, long, with walls thick, standing over the low tide mark. Although never completed, it was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements.

Construction dragged out because of title problems, then problems with funding such a large and technically challenging project. Unpleasant weather and disease made it worse. The exterior was finished but the interior and armaments were never completed.

Ownership

Early in the nineteenth century, South Carolina had owned multiple forts, namely Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, and Fort Johnson, but ceded them, along with sites for the future erection of forts, to the United States in 1805. The forts were of questionable military value and costly to maintain, so when asked to cede them, the state complied. This was not the last time that South Carolina would cede forts to the United States; on December 17, 1836, South Carolina officially ceded all "right, title and, claim" to the site of Fort Sumter to the United States.

Civil War

Summary

Fort Sumter is notable for two battles, the first of which began the American Civil War. It was one of a number of special forts planned after the War of 1812, combining high walls and heavy masonry, and classified as Third System, as a grade of structural integrity. Work started in 1829, but was incomplete by 1861, when the Civil War began.

The attack on Fort Sumter is generally taken as the beginning of the American Civil War—the first shots fired. Certainly it was so taken at the time—citizens of Charleston were celebrating. The First Battle of Fort Sumter began on April 12, 1861, when South Carolina Militia artillery fired from shore on the Union garrison. These were, both sides agreed, the first shots of the war. The bombardment continued all day, watched by many happy civilians. The fort had been cut off from its supply line and surrendered the next day. Major Robert Anderson took the flag with him as they evacuated.

The Second Battle of Fort Sumter (September 8, 1863) was a failed attempt by the Union to retake the fort, dogged by a rivalry between army and navy commanders. Although the fort was reduced to rubble, it remained in Confederate hands until it was evacuated as General Sherman marched through South Carolina in February 1865.

A widely announced "End of the War" celebration took place at Fort Sumter on April 14, 1865. The now-Major General Anderson, though ill and retired, came to the ceremony and raised the flag. The incident is forgotten today because President Lincoln was shot that evening.

Preparing for war

On December 26, 1860, only six days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie, spiking its large guns, burning its gun carriages, and taking its smaller cannon with him. He secretly relocated companies E and H (127 men, 13 of them musicians) of the 1st U.S. Artillery to Fort Sumter on his own initiative, without orders from his superiors. He thought that providing a stronger defense would delay an attack by South Carolina militia. The fort was not yet complete at the time and fewer than half of the cannons that should have been available were in place, due to military downsizing by President James Buchanan.

In a letter delivered January 31, 1861, South Carolina Governor Pickens demanded of President Buchanan that he surrender Fort Sumter because "I regard that possession is not consistent with the dignity or safety of the State of South Carolina." Over the next few months repeated calls for evacuation of Fort Sumter from the government of South Carolina and then from Confederate Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard were ignored. Union attempts to resupply and reinforce the garrison were repulsed on January 9, 1861 when the first shots of the war, fired by cadets from the Citadel, prevented the steamer '' Star of the West'', hired to transport troops and supplies to Fort Sumter, from completing the task.

After realizing that Anderson's command would run out of food by April 15, 1861, President Lincoln ordered a fleet of ships, under the command of Gustavus V. Fox, to attempt entry into Charleston Harbor and supply Fort Sumter. The ships assigned were the steam sloops-of-war USS ''Pawnee'' and USS ''Powhatan'', transporting motorized launches and about 300 sailors (secretly removed from the Charleston fleet to join in the forced reinforcement of Fort Pickens, Pensacola, FL), armed screw steamer USS ''Pocahontas'', Revenue Cutter USRC ''Harriet Lane'', steamer ''Baltic'' transporting about 200 troops, composed of companies C and D of the 2nd U.S. Artillery, and three hired tugboats with added protection against small arms fire to be used to tow troop and supply barges directly to Fort Sumter. By April 6, 1861, the first ships began to set sail for their rendezvous off the Charleston Bar. The first to arrive was ''Harriet Lane'', the evening of April 11, 1861.

First Battle of Fort Sumter

On Thursday, April 11, 1861, Beauregard sent three aides, Colonel James Chesnut, Jr., Captain Stephen D. Lee, and Lieutenant A. R. Chisolm to demand the surrender of the fort. Anderson declined, and the aides returned to report to Beauregard. After Beauregard had consulted the Confederate Secretary of War, Leroy Walker, he sent the aides back to the fort and authorized Chesnut to decide whether the fort should be taken by force. The aides waited for hours while Anderson considered his alternatives and played for time. At about 3:00 a.m., when Anderson finally announced his conditions, Colonel Chesnut, after conferring with the other aides, decided that they were "manifestly futile and not within the scope of the instructions verbally given to us." The aides then left the fort and proceeded to the nearby Fort Johnson. There, Chesnut ordered the fort to open fire on Fort Sumter.

On Friday, April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, firing for 34 straight hours. Edmund Ruffin, noted Virginian agronomist and secessionist, claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter. His story has been widely believed, but Lieutenant Henry S. Farley, commanding a battery of two 10-inch siege mortars on James Island actually fired the first shot at 4:30 a.m. . No attempt was made to return the fire for more than two hours. The fort's supply of ammunition was not suited for the task; also, there were no fuses for their explosive shells, which means that they could not explode. Only solid iron balls could be used against the Confederate batteries. At about 7:00 a.m., Captain Abner Doubleday, the fort's second in command, was given the honor of firing the Union's first shot, in defense of the fort. He missed, in part because Major Anderson did not use the guns mounted on the highest tier – the barbette tier, where the guns could engage the Confederate batteries better, but where the gunners would be more exposed to Confederate fire. The firing continued all day. The Union fired slowly to conserve ammunition. At night, the fire from the fort stopped, but the Confederates still lobbed an occasional shell into Sumter. On Saturday, April 13, the fort was surrendered and evacuated. During the attack, the Union colors fell. Lt. Norman J. Hall risked life and limb to put them back up, burning off his eyebrows permanently. A Confederate soldier bled to death having been wounded by a misfiring cannon. One Union soldier died and another was mortally wounded during the 47th shot of a 100-shot salute, allowed by the Confederacy. Afterward, the salute was shortened to 50 shots. Accounts, such as in the famous diary of Mary Chesnut, describe Charleston residents along what is now known as The Battery, sitting on balconies and drinking salutes to the start of the hostilities.

File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 09 Page 046.jpg, opA photographic view of the Hot shot Furnace at right shoulder angle and a 10-in. columbard cannon pointing to Charleston; ottomExterior view of Gorge and Sally Port Ft Sumter April 1861 after its surrender
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 09 Page 045.jpg, Views of Ft Sumter; ottomView of right angle
File:The Evacuation of Fort Sumter, April 1861 MET DP266511.jpg, Right angle gorge of Ft Sumter-Sally port at right
File:Fort Sumter the day after Anderson left, April 1861 (recto).jpg, View of the Gorge and Sally Port
File:The Evacuation of Fort Sumter, April 1861 MET DP266618.jpg, View of western part of Gorge
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 09 Page 048.jpg, opView of gorge and Sally port; ottomLeft gorge Angle
File:Fort Sumter interior after bombardment (recto).jpg, View of Left gorge angle Sally Port would be at far left
File:Fort Sumter interior with flag staff after the bombardment (recto).jpg, View of Left flank
File:Fort Sumter, April 15, 1861.jpg, Panormanic View of Left shoulder Angle at left with a 2nd Hot Shot furnace and Left face at right; Ft Sumter 1861; flying the Confederate Flag
File:Salient with North-west Casemates, Fort Sumter MET DP266616.jpg, At Left North west castmates eft angle at right can be seen the start of the right angle

The Fort Sumter Flag became a popular patriotic symbol after Major Anderson returned North with it. The flag is still displayed in the fort's museum. The ''Star of the West'' took all the garrison members to New York City. There they were welcomed and honored with a parade on Broadway.

Union siege of Fort Sumter

Union efforts to retake Charleston Harbor began on April 7, 1863, when Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, led the ironclad frigate ''New Ironsides'', the tower ironclad ''Keokuk'', and the monitors ''Weehawken'', ''Passaic'', ''Montauk'', ''Patapsco'', ''Nantucket'', ''Catskill'', and ''Nahant'' in an attack on the harbor's defenses. (The 1863 Battle of Fort Sumter was the largest deployment of monitors in action up to that time.) The attack was unsuccessful: the Union's best ship, USS ''New Ironsides'' never effectively engaged, and the ironclads fired only 154 rounds, while receiving 2,209 from the Confederate defenders . Due to damage received in the attack, the USS ''Keokuk'' sank the next day, off the southern tip of Morris Island. Over the next month, working at night to avoid the attention of the Federal squadron, the Confederates salvaged ''Keokuk's'' two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns . One of the Dahlgren guns was promptly placed in Fort Sumter.

The Confederates, in the meantime, were strengthening Fort Sumter. A workforce of just under 500 enslaved Africans, under the supervision of Confederate army engineers, were filling casemates with sand, protecting the gorge wall with sandbags, and building new traverse,Traverses
Civil War Fortifications dictionary. blindages, and bombproofs. Some of Fort Sumter's artillery had been removed, but 40 pieces still were mounted. Fort Sumter's heaviest guns were mounted on the barbette, the fort's highest level, where they had wide angles of fire and could fire down on approaching ships. The barbette was also more exposed to enemy gunfire than the casemates in the two lower levels of the fort.

A special military decoration, known as the Gillmore Medal, was later issued to all Union service members who had performed duty at Fort Sumter under the command of Major-General Quincy Adams Gillmore.

File:East face of Fort Sumter, Charleston, S.C, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, East Face of Ft Sumter 1863
File:FortSumter1865.jpg, View of Confederate-held Fort Sumter, August 23, 1863
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 110.jpg, The first breach after the bombardment of Sept 8, 1863
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 109.jpg, Panoramic painting of Ft Sumter after Sept 1863 bombardment based on photographs
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 108.jpg, C.S. Cook picture of Ft Sumter after the bombardment Sept 28,1863 showing the "Hot shot" Furnace at left and the Barracks at right
File:The photographic history of the Civil War - thousands of scenes photographed 1861-65, with text by many special authorities (1911) (14576140090).jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter

File:Conrad Wise Chapman - The Flag of Sumter, Oct. 20, 1863.jpg, The Flag of Sumter, Oct. 20, 1863
File:Fort Sumter December 9th 1863 LCCN2003680529.jpg, Ft Sumter from the west angle December 9, 1863
File:Fort Sumter, December 9th 1863, View of entrance to Three Gun Bat'y LCCN2004661292.jpg, Ft Sumter View of entrance to Three Gun Bat'y December 9, 1863
File:Harper's weekly (1864) (14804711563).jpg, 1864 sketch of bombardment of Ft Sumter

File:Interior view of Fort Sumter, Charleston, S.C. taken by a Confederate photographer in 1864 (i.e. 1863) LCCN2013651649.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter, taken by a Confederate photographer, 1864 863File:Interior view of Fort Sumter, S.C. showing effects of bombardment LCCN2013651629.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter, taken by a Confederate photographer
File:InteriorViewFtSumter1864.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter, taken by a Confederate photographer, 1864.
File:Interior view of Fort Sumter, S.C. in 1864 (showing debris) LCCN2003669879.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter 1864
File:Interior view of Fort Sumter, S.C. in 1864 (showing debris) LCCN2003669880.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter 1864
File:Interior view of Fort Sumter, S.C. in 1864 (showing debris) LCCN2003669881.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter 1864
File:Conrad Wise Chapman - Fort Sumter, Interior, Sunrise, Dec. 9, 1864.jpg, Interior View of Fort Sumter Dec 9.1864
File:ExteriorViewFtSumter1865.jpg, Exterior view of Fort Sumter, 1865. Banded rifle in the foreground
fraise
at the top.
File:SumterDamages1863.jpg, Exterior view of damage to Fort Sumter,

File:ViewFtSumterSandBar1865.jpg, View of Fort Sumter from the sandbar, 1865.
File:Fort Johnson battery. Ft. Sumpter (sic) in the distance, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, View of Battery Johnson with Ft Sumter in the background
File:Interior of Ft. Sumpter (sic) Charleston S. C., from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, Interior of Ft Sumter
File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 05 Page 217.jpg, Interior of Ft Sumter 1865
File:Interior views of Fort Sumter, in April, 1865 LCCN2014646432.tif, Interior of Ft Sumter 1865 showing the Hot Shot Furnace.
File:Fort Sumter, Showing the effects of the bombardment by the Artillery of the Army and Navy of the United States while occupied by the Rebels from April 1861 to Feb. 1865 (7901780748).jpg, Interior view of Ft Sumter in 1865; at left is the "Light house" of Ft Sumter

After the devastating bombardment, both Major General Quincy A. Gillmore and Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, now commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, determined to launch a boat assault on Fort Sumter for the night of September 8–9, 1863. Cooperation between the Army and Navy was poor. Dahlgren refused to place his sailors and Marines under the command of an army officer, so two flotillas set out towards Fort Sumter that night. The army flotilla was detained off Morris Island by the low tide. By the time they could proceed, the navy assault had already been defeated and the army flotilla returned to shore.

The Navy's assault involved 400 sailors and Marines in 25 boats. The operation was a fiasco from beginning to end. Poor reconnaissance, planning, and communication all characterized the operation. Commander Thomas H. Stevens, Jr., commanding the monitor ''Patapsco'', was placed in charge of the assault. When Commander Stevens protested that he "knew nothing of he assault'sorganization " and "made some remonstrances on this grounds and others." Dahlgren replied, "There is nothing but a corporal's guard bout 6–10 menin the fort, and all we have to do is go and take possession." . This underestimation of the Confederate forces on Dahlgren's part may explain why he was hostile to a joint operation wishing to reserve the credit for the victory to the navy. Less than half of the boats landed. Most of the boats that did land landed on the right flank or right gorge angle, rather than on the gorge where there was a passable breach. The Union sailors and Marines who did land could not scale the wall. The Confederates fired upon the landing party and as well as throwing hand grenades and loose bricks. The men in the boats that had not landed fired muskets and revolvers blindly at the fort, endangering the landing party more than the garrison. The landing party took shelter in shell holes in the wall of the fort. In response to a signal rocket fired by the garrison, Fort Johnson and the Confederate warship CSS ''Chicora'' opened fire upon the boats and landing party. A number of the boats withdrew under fire and the landing party surrendered. The Union casualties were 8 killed, 19 wounded, and 105 captured (including 15 of the wounded). The Confederates did not suffer any casualties in the assault.

After the unsuccessful boat assault, the bombardment recommenced and proceeded with the varying degree of intensity, doing more damage to Fort Sumter until the end of the war. The garrison continued to suffer casualties. The Confederates continued to salvage guns and other material from the ruins and harassed the Union batteries on Morris Island with sharpshooters. The Confederates mounted four columbiads, one columbiad rifled, and two rifled 42-pounders, in the left face, bottom tier casemates.

Recovery of Fort Sumter

The last Confederate commander, Major Thomas A. Huguenin, a graduate of The Citadel, never surrendered Fort Sumter, but General William Tecumseh Sherman's advance through South Carolina finally forced the Confederates to evacuate Charleston on February 17, 1865, and abandon Fort Sumter. The Federal government formally took possession of Fort Sumter on February 22, 1865.

Anderson, now a major general, returned to Sumter with the flag he had been forced to lower four years earlier, and on April 14, 1865, raised it in triumph over the ruined fort. Henry Ward Beecher was present and subsequently spoke at length about the occasion.

After the war

When the Civil War ended, Fort Sumter was in ruins. The U.S. Army worked to restore it as a useful military installation. The damaged walls were re-leveled to a lower height and partially rebuilt. The third tier of gun emplacements was removed. Eleven of the original first-tier gun rooms were restored with 100-pounder Parrott rifles.

From 1876 to 1897, Fort Sumter was used only as an unmanned lighthouse station. The start of the Spanish–American War prompted renewed interest in its military use and reconstruction commenced on the facilities that had further deteriorated over time. A new massive concrete blockhouse-style installation was built in 1898 inside the original walls, armed with two 12-inch M1888 guns, one on a disappearing carriage. Named "Battery Huger" in honor of Revolutionary War General Isaac Huger, it never saw combat. This battery was deactivated in 1947, and in 1948 the fort became Fort Sumter National Monument under the control of the National Park Service.

One hundred and forty-seven years after it was sent, a rolled up telegraphic message was found in a trunk belonging to Col. Alexander Ramsay Thompson of New York and eventually given to a museum in Charleston, S.C. The telegram was dated April 14, 1861 from the Governor of South Carolina to Gazaway Bugg Lamar in New York, reading in part:

In 1966, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved of historic land related to the battles at Fort Sumter.

Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park

Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park encompasses three sites in Charleston: the original Fort Sumter, the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center, and Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island. Access to Fort Sumter itself is by a 30-minute ferry ride from the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center or Patriots Point. Access by private boat is no longer allowed.

The Visitor Education Center's museum features exhibits about the disagreements between the North and South that led to the incidents at Fort Sumter. The museum at Fort Sumter focuses on the activities at the fort, including its construction and role during the Civil War.

April 12, 2011, marked the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War. There was a commemoration of the events by thousands of Civil War reenactors with encampments in the area. A United States stamp of Fort Sumter and a first-day cover were issued that day.

On June 28, 2015, in the aftermath of the events of June 17, 2015, when a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, the five small flags that were arranged in a semi-circle around the large flagpole flying the 50-star United States flag at Fort Sumter were lowered so that the South Carolina flag could be flown at half staff. Those flown include a 33-star United States flag, a Confederate First National Flag ( Stars and Bars), a South Carolina State Flag, a Confederate Second National Flag (Stainless Banner), and a 35-star United States flag. This display was added to Fort Sumter National Monument in the 1970s. In August 2015, the flagpoles were removed to create a new exhibit. The four historic national flags now fly on the lower parade ground.

By December 2019, sea level rise led to a Park Service decision to move some of the large rocks "originally installed to protect the fort from the sea," farther from the fort's walls, in order to create a protective breakwater and wetland.

File:FortsumterNM-welcome.jpg, Fort Sumter National Monument
File:Fort Sumter Aerial View.jpg, Aerial view of Fort Sumter National Monument
File:Overview of interior of Fort Sumter IMG 4543.JPG, The interior of Fort Sumter from the top of the fort
File:Tourists at Fort Sumter, SC IMG 4530.JPG, Tourists at Fort Sumter on a summer afternoon
File:Cannon display at Fort Sumter IMG 4528.JPG, Cannon displayed at Fort Sumter

See also

* Castle Pinckney
* Fort Sumter Flag

Notes

References

* Allen, Kevin. "The Second Battle of Fort Sumter: The Debate over the Politics of Race and Historical Memory at the Opening of America's Civil War Centennial, 1961." ''The Public Historian'' (2011) 33#2 pp. 94–10
in JSTOR
*
* Cooper, William J. ''We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861'' (2012)
*
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* Hendrix, M. Patrick. ''A History of Fort Sumter: Building a Civil War Landmark'' (The History Press, 2014)
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* Silkenat, David. ''Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. .
*

Primary sources

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External links

Tulane University multimedia teaching tool on Fort Sumter

Library of Congress collection of photos of Fort Sumter

National Park Service's official website for Fort Sumter
* Specialized sites
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Blue and Gray Trail Fort Sumter Web site

*
Civilwar.org Fort Sumter Web site
*
Fortwiki.com article on Fort Sumter
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