Fort Sumter

Battle Fort Sumter

April 12th 1861

Fort Sumter is where the Civil War started. Certain that the location of his fort was too weak in the area of defense, Major Robert Anderson moved it to a more stable location. The previous location of Ft. Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island was left in the still of the night by Anderson's garrison. Little did he know that this move would trigger the Civil War. The new location was Ft. Sumter in the great state of South Carolina. Perched upon a sandbar, the new fort afforded Anderson a prime defensive location.

On April 11, 1861, the commander of the Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina sent an envoy to Anderson demanding that the fort be surrendered to him. The commander was Beauregard and he was a man on a mission. He would take Fort Sumter through peace or by force. There were no conditions otherwise. Anderson delayed his response as long as he could. Major Anderson did not wish to fight and realized the severity of the situation.

Anderson finally answered the call of surrender with a list of conditions. The aides that were previously sent by the Confederacy stated that they could not accept the terms of the surrender and left for nearby Ft. Johnson. Colonel Chestnut was the leading aide sent to deal with Anderson and he did just that. He ordered that the guns of Ft. Johnson be aimed upon Ft. Sumter and begin to fire. Major Anderson returned fore but it was ineffective since he did not use the top tier guns. After a night of bombardment from the Confederates at Ft. Johnson, Anderson was forced to surrender with no conditions.

On April 13, 1861 Ft. Sumter fell to the Confederates and The Civil War had begun. No Union soldiers died during the attack but one Confederate bleed to death after a canon misfired. The irony of the entire battle was that one Union soldier did die but at the hands of his own troops.

It seems that during the traditional 100-gun salute by the surrendered forces, a Union soldier was killed and another mortally wounded. This 100-gun salute was then and there lessened to a mere 50 by the Union army. The Civil War had begun literally with a bang. Although the southern states had already started their secession and tensions were very high on both sides of the fence, the war was not deemed at hand.

If not for the attack by the Confederate force at Ft. Johnson, the inevitability of the entire war was at best in question. Political parties on both sides had attempted to deter from a civil war they both knew would cost so much to the country. a country that had already seen so many battles and deaths. Now it would have to brace itself for one of the darkest times in its relatively short life. The Civil War would last four long years and claim some of the best and brightest the nation had to offer.

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