Fort Sumter | Palmetto Special

REENACTMENT:  Four of the principals at Fort Sumter discuss in retrospect events that led to the "firing of the first shot of the Civil War." These people are:

1. Major Robert Anderson; Commander of the Federal troops stationed at various posts in the Charleston area.
2. General Pierre G. T. Beauregard, Commander of the Confederate troops in the Charleston area.
3.  Francis W. Pickens, Governor of South Carolina.
4. James Buchanan, President of the United States, through March 1861, when much of the negotiations regarding Fort Sumter were taking place.

These four principals are joined by Daniel Howe, a private in the United States Army under the command of Major Anderson. These people elaborate upon their positions at the time and why they took the actions that led to the outbreak of war between the North and the South. All the people depicted in todays lesson were real.

BACKGROUND:  Fort Sumter was one of a series of coastal fortifications built by the United States after the War of 1812. Construction of the five-sided fort, located on a shoal, and named for South Carolina's Revolutionary War Patriot Thomas Sumter, was started in 1829 and essentially completed by 1860. Though no guns were in place, the five feet thick brick walls towered above the main ship channel into Charleston Harbor. Four sides were designed for three tiers of guns; the gorge mounted guns only on the third tier. Although the fort was designed for an armament of 135 guns and a garrison of 650 men, by April 1861 only 60 cannons were mounted and 85 men defended the place. The fort was occupied by Federal troops under the command of Major Robert Anderson. The Confederate Army viewed the fort, not only as their property, but as a threat to the security of Charleston

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, a mortar shell from Fort Johnson to the south, and a Confederate stronghold, arched across the sky and exploded almost directly over Fort Sumter. Its quick flash signaled other Confederate batteries around Charleston Harbor and within minutes 43 guns and mortars opened fire. For 34 hours the stout masonry fort was pounded with shot and shell. Then on April 14, Major Robert Anderson agreed to evacuate, departing with full honors of war. The next day President Lincoln called out 75,000 militia and the shadow of war fell across the land.

For nearly four years Fort Sumter remained a Confederate stronghold, despite frequent Union attempts to capture both it and Fort Moultrie directly across the channel to the north. From April 1863, when Federal ironclads first tried to force the harbor, until February 1865, when the approach of Sherman's army forced the evacuation of Charleston, the garrisons of both Sumter and Moultrie withstood repeated bombardments and attacks. At the end, buttressed with sand and cotton as well as its own fallen masonry. Fort Sumter was stronger than ever.

Standards

• 3-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of life in the antebellum period, the causes and effects of the Civil War, and the impact of Reconstruction in South Carolina.
  • South Carolina played a key role in events that occurred before, during, and after the Civil War; and those events, in turn, greatly affected the state. To understand South Carolina’s experiences during this tumultuous time, the student will uti...
    • 3-4.4 Summarize the course of the Civil War in South Carolina, including the Secession Convention, the firing on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston, the significance of the Hunley submarine; the exploits of Robert Smalls; and General William...
• This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes experienced by Americans of various genders, positions, races, and social status during the Civil War.
  • This indicator was developed to encourage inquiry into the effects of military strategies to include but not limited to: wartime technologies, the Anaconda Plan, conscription, and Sherman’s March to the Sea.
• 8-4 The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple events that led to the Civil War.
  • The outbreak of the Civil War was the culminating event in a decades-long series of regional issues that threatened American unity and South Carolina’s identity as one of the United States. To understand how South Carolina came to be at the cent...
    • 8-4.5 Compare the military strategies of the North and the South during the Civil War and the fulfillment of these strategies in South Carolina and in the South as a whole, including the attack on Fort Sumter, the Union blockade of Charleston and other...
• This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the continuities and changes of the experiences of marginalized groups such as African Americans, Native Americans and women, as the U.S. expanded westward and grappled with the development of new states.
  • This indicator was designed to encourage inquiry into the Civil War focusing on the impacts of military strategies and major turning points on South Carolina and the U.S.