The Battle of Fort Sumter

The union forces were in control of the fort and the confederates lay siege to it. The Union forces were led by Major Anderson1 and the Confederate forces were led by Brig. G. T. Beauregard.2

The US civil war was started from the issue of slavery between the northern free states and the southern slave states. This dispute started around 1787and by 1860 man compromises had been reached to keep the states together as a union. This was the main Long term cause for the disputes.3

South Carolina seceded from the Union shortly after Abraham Lincoln’s (A Northerner) win in the presidential election and other states quickly followed forming the Confederate states of America on 4 of February 1861.

In his Inaugural Address on the 4th of March 1861 Abraham Lincoln stated that “he had no intention to invade the s outhern states and to stop slavery but he would use force to maintain possession of federal property.” He closed his speech pleading to restore the Union bonds.

There was a peace conference in Washington DC to try and resolve the dispute. No war preparations began but Governors in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania quietly began train militia units. The south sent letters to Washington offering to pay for any Federal property in return for a peace treaty.

Lincoln refused this offer saying that the Confederates weren’t a legitimate government and if he accepted their offer he would be recognising them as a legitimate government.4

Confederate forces seized all but four Union forts in its territory, Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbour being one of these. The only thing done for Fort Sumter was to attempt to resupply it but that failed.5

Six days after South Carolina seceded from the Union, Major Anderson secretly transferred 85 men to Fort Sumter, previously manned by a single light house keeper. As tensions mounted the South Carolinians put ships outside Fort Sumter to monitor troop movements and threatened violence when forty rifles were transferred from the US arsenal in the nearby city.

In March that year Brigadier General P.G.T Beauregard came in command of the Confederate forces in South Carolina and he started drilling the troops in his command. He readied to siege Fort Sumter.