The building of Fort Sumter Named after
Continental Army officer
Thomas Sumter, Fort Sumter was ordered in response to the
War of 1812, which had exposed the inadequacy of existing American coastal fortifications to defend against naval attacks. It was built near
Charleston, South Carolina, as part of the
third system of U.S. fortifications to protect American harbors from a naval invasion. Constructed on an artificial island in the middle of the channel that provides Charleston with natural shelter, Fort Sumter was intended to dominate the harbor, reinforcing the protection provided by the shore
artillery batteries at
Fort Moultrie,
Fort Wagner, and
Fort Gregg. The artificial island was originally a
sand bar. In 1827, a group of engineers carried out
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. 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 the situation worse. The exterior was eventually finished, but the interior and armaments were never completed. The forts were of questionable military value and costly to maintain, so when asked to cede them, the state complied. He thought that providing a stronger defense would delay an attack by South Carolina militia. The fort was not yet complete and less than half of the
cannon that should have been available were in place, due to military cuts 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 shots 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, on the evening of April 11, 1861. 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|[Top] A photographic view of the Hot shot Furnace at right shoulder angle and a 10-in. columbard cannon pointing to Charleston;[Bottom] Exterior 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; [Bottom] View 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|[Top] View of gorge and Sally port; [Bottom] Left 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 casemates [left 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
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 marker of the Map of Charleston Harbor defenses 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, 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.
Fort artillery 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:New_Ironsides_and_monitor_class_ironclads_engaging_Fort_Moultrie.jpg|George Cook, half stereo of Federal ironclads firing on Fort Moultrie, September 8, 1863 (click to enlarge) – The Valentine, Richmond, Va. File:ExplodingShellATFortSumter1863.jpg|Lt. John R. Key's (CSA) "exploding shell" painting, of the interior of Fort Sumter – The Valentine, Richmond, Va. File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 110.jpg|The first breach after the bombardment of September 8, 1863 File:The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 108.jpg|C.S. Cook picture of Ft Sumter after the bombardment September 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, October 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 [1863] File: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 December 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 [the assault's] organization " and "made some remonstrances on this grounds and others." Dahlgren replied, "There is nothing but a corporal's guard [about 6–10 men] in 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. In 1966, the site was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.{{Cite web == Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park ==