FORT
SUMTER
National Monument
South Carolina

by Frank Barnes

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORICAL HANDBOOK SERIES NO. 12
WASHINGTON, D. C., 1952
(Revised 1962)

Contents

Page

CONSTRUCTION OF FORT SUMTER 1

MAJOR ANDERSON MOVES GARRISON FROM MOULTRIE TO SUMTER 6

THE STAR OF THE WEST 8

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR 9

LINCOLN ORDERS A RELIEF EXPEDITION TO FORT SUMTER 10

THE CONFEDERATES DEMAND FORT SUMTER’S EVACUATION 13

THE WAR BEGINS—APRIL 12, 1861 15

CHARLESTON AND THE FEDERAL BLOCKADE—1861-63 24

FEDERAL IRONCLADS ATTACK FORT SUMTER 24

THE MORRIS ISLAND APPROACH TO FORT SUMTER 26

THE FIRST GREAT BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER 28

THE SMALL-BOAT ASSAULT 32

THE SECOND GREAT BOMBARDMENT 33

STALEMATE—SPRING OF 1864 35

FORT SUMTER STRENGTHENED 36

THE THIRD GREAT BOMBARDMENT 36

SHERMAN’S MARCH FORCES SUMTER’S EVACUATION 38

MAJOR ANDERSON RETURNS 38

FORT SUMTER AFTER 1865 40

GUIDE TO THE AREA 42

ADMINISTRATION 46

RELATED AREAS 46

SUGGESTED READINGS 47

The housetops in Charleston during the bombardment of April 12-13, 1861. From Harper’s Weekly, May 4, 1861.

At 4:30 A. M., April 12, 1861, a mortar battery at Fort Johnson fired a shell that burst directly over Fort Sumter. This was the signal for a general bombardment by the Confederate batteries about Charleston Harbor. For 34 hours, April 12 and 13, Fort Sumter was battered with shot and shell. Then the Federal commander, Maj. Robert Anderson, agreed to evacuate; and, on April 14, he and his small garrison departed with the full honors of war. On the following day, President Abraham Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 militia. The tragedy of the American Civil War had begun.

Two years later, Fort Sumter, now a Confederate stronghold, became the scene of a stubborn defense. From April 1863 to February 1865 its garrison withstood a series of devastating bombardments and direct attacks by Federal forces from land and sea. Fort Sumter was evacuated only when Federal forces bypassed Charleston from the rear. At the end, buttressed with sand and cotton as well as its own fallen brick and masonry, it was stronger than ever militarily. And it had become a symbol of resistance and courage for the entire South.

Both the “first shot” of April 1861 and the long siege of 1863-65 are commemorated today by Fort Sumter National Monument.

Construction of Fort Sumter

“... the character of the times particularly inculcates the lesson that, whether to prevent or repel danger, we ought not to be unprepared for it. This consideration will sufficiently recommend to Congress a liberal provision for the immediate extension and gradual completion of the works of defense, both fixed and floating, on our maritime frontier....”

—President Madison to Congress,
December 5, 1815.