The Battle of Fort Sumter

Both sides knew that the first side to use violence would lose the support of the states bordering it. So the debate between the Confederates in South Carolina was whether they should take the Forts in Charleston harbour.

When President Lincoln found out that the supplies at the Fort were lower than planned, he sent merchant vessels under the guard of the US navy to resupply it. The Confederate cabinet decided to open fire on the Fort in an attempt to make it surrender before the relief ships arrived. Governor Pickens sent a letter to Major Anderson asking him to withdraw from Fort Sumter. Major Anderson politely refused so he sent armed Carolinians to siege the fort. Major Anderson sent a message under the flag of truce asking why they were declaring war. He replied that it was an order from the state of Carolina and that attempts to reinforce would be blocked.5

The ship Schooner Rhoda H, sent to resupply the Fort was fired upon by Confederate batteries so a second expedition was sent. 6

General Beauregard demanded the surrender of the fort so at 3:20 am they informed Major Anderson that in one hour they would open fire. They did not abandon the fort so the bombardment started on April 12th but no one was hurt. The next day Major Anderson surrendered the Fort and evacuated the following day. When they were evacuating the Fort, they let off a gun salute to the US flag. During the salute a gun went off prematurely and wounded three people and killed one.7 These were the first fatalities of the war.

The battle of Fort Sumter was the first military action in the US Civil War and kick started the battles that followed. Northerners supported Lincoln’s call for support. Charleston harbour lay in Confederate hands for the four year duration of the war. 5

The place in history for the battle of Fort Sumter is that “By May 1861 everyone had taken his stand. Once having done so, everyone was steadfast in loyalty; there was no switching sides in mid-war as had taken place in the American Revolution; no defection; but plenty of desertion by soldiers.”8

Confederates saw this battle as a win but one of the leaders said “this will lose us every friend in the North. You will wantonly strike a hornets’ nest… Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal.” He was the only Confederate in the cabinet who opposed the war.9

The opening shot of the bombardment of Fort Sumter marked the start of the war that annihilated the Southern states dream of secession, the deaths of 620,000 soldiers and the freedom for all slaves.

1 Served between 1825-63

2 Studied under Major Anderson at west point military academy

3 Allsopp and Cowie Chapter 14, Challenge and Response a Modern World

4 Wikipedia

5 http://www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/battle-fort-sumter.htm

6 http://www.civilwarhome.com/ftsumterevents.htm

7 http://www.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/sc001.htm

8 Morison S. E. The Oxford History Of The American People, Oxford Press, London (1965)

9 Challenge and Response, A History Of The Modern World, Allsopp and Cowie