Sumter, Fort

SUMTER, FORT

SUMTER, FORT, situated on a sandbar, commands the sea approach to Charleston, South Carolina. On the night of 26 December 1860, Maj. Robert Anderson, Union commader at Charleston, removed his garrison from Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan's Island, to a better defensive position at Fort Sumter. At 4:30 on the morning of Friday, 12 April, the Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter. On 13 April, after a bombardment of thirty-four hours, Anderson surrendered; the Civil War had begun. In April 1863, Fort Sumter, then garrisoned by Confederates, repelled an attack by a Union fleet. In August, the siege of Fort Sumter by Union forces began and lasted for 567 days; the Confederates never surrendered. The fort was eventually abandoned in February 1865 and later made a national monument.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Current, Richard N. Lincoln and the First Shot. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1963.

Donald, David H. Lincoln. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

DuBose Heyward / a. r.

See also Charleston ; Charleston Harbor, Defense of ; Confederate States of America ; Secession ; South Carolina .