The First Shots of America’s Civil War Were Fired at This Charleston Harbor Fort in 1861

Fort Sumter (Charleston, South Carolina)

War doesn’t always start with a bang. Sometimes it starts with a bureaucrat refusing to leave his post. That’s exactly what happened at Fort Sumter in 1861.

A stubborn Union officer, an impatient Confederate general, and 34 hours of cannon fire that echoed across a nation.

This is the real story behind America’s point of no return.

An Unfinished Fortress When War Loomed

Construction began in 1829 after Congress approved fifty coastal forts in response to the War of 1812’s exposure of American defense weaknesses. Workers stacked 70,000 tons of New England granite to create the 2.4-acre island foundation.

Construction slowed in the 1830s during a harbor ownership dispute, finally picking up again in 1841 but never reaching completion.

By December 1860, Fort Sumter still wasn’t done after thirty years of delays and money problems. Only 15 out of 135 planned cannons were ready to fire.

Major Anderson’s Secret Move

On December 26, 1860, Major Robert Anderson secretly moved his 127 soldiers from weak Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter at night. His force included two companies of the 1st U.S. Artillery plus 13 musicians.

This Kentucky West Point graduate stayed loyal to the Union despite owning slaves. He had fought in the 1832 Black Hawk War and got wounded in the Mexican War.

After South Carolina left the Union on December 20, local militia took over all other federal buildings around Charleston Harbor.

The Failed Relief Attempt

President James Buchanan sent the unarmed ship Star of the West with 200 soldiers and supplies on January 9, 1861. When it entered Charleston Harbor, students from The Citadel military school fired cannons from Morris Island under Lieutenant Colonel J.L. Branch.

Anderson had guns aimed at Confederate positions but didn’t shoot back, hoping to avoid war. The Star of the West turned around without delivering supplies.

By March 1861, over 3,000 militia soldiers surrounded Fort Sumter, blocking all access.

Lincoln’s Crucial Decision

When Abraham Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861, Fort Sumter was his first big problem.

Most advisers said to give up the fort. General Winfield Scott, Lincoln’s top military helper, said the fort couldn’t be defended.

Lincoln had promised to keep control of government property. By April, Anderson said his food would run out in weeks. Lincoln decided to send unarmed ships with just food, telling South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens his exact plans.

Beauregard’s Ultimatum

Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard led Southern forces in Charleston. He had been Anderson’s student at West Point years before.

On April 11, 1861, he demanded Fort Sumter’s surrender.

Anderson refused. He said he would leave by April 15 without supplies.

At 3:20 a.m. on April 12, Colonel James Chesnut, Captain Stephen D. Lee, and Lieutenant A.R. Chisolm brought the final warning: bombing would start in one hour.

The First Shots of Civil War

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, a signal shell from Fort Johnson exploded over Fort Sumter.

Virginia politician Edmund Ruffin, a 67-year-old who came to Charleston for this moment, fired one of the first shots from Cummings Point.

Anderson waited until 7:00 a.m. to shoot back, saving his limited ammunition. Captain Abner Doubleday fired the fort’s first return shot.

Confederate batteries opened fire with 43 guns, surrounding the fort. Thousands of Charleston people watched from rooftops.

Thirty-Four Hours Under Fire

Confederate artillery hit Fort Sumter for thirty-four straight hours with 3,000 shots. Anderson’s soldiers had only 700 cartridges, so they made new ones from blankets and spare uniforms.

Beauregard told his batteries to fire around the harbor in order with two minutes between shots to save ammunition.

Confederate gunners used “hot shot” – cannonballs heated red-hot in ovens to start fires inside the fort. No one died during the actual battle.

Anderson’s Surrender

The guns stopped at 1:30 p.m. on April 13 when Anderson gave up. After thirty-four hours of bombing, the fort was wrecked with main gates burned, walls damaged, and gunpowder storage surrounded by flames.

Only pork was left to eat, with just four barrels of gunpowder and three cartridges left.

Former Senator Louis Wigfall rowed to the fort with a white flag to work out surrender terms. Beauregard let Anderson’s men leave with their weapons while doing a flag salute.

The Fatal Flag Salute

The ceremony started at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, April 14, 1861. Anderson’s men prepared to fire 100 shots to honor their flag using makeshift cartridges made from scrap cloth.

Around the fiftieth shot, a spark set off a pile of cartridges. Private Daniel Hough of the 1st U.S. Artillery died instantly, becoming the Civil War’s first death.

Five other Company E soldiers got hurt, including Edward Gallway who died days later. Anderson stopped at fifty shots before his troops left for New York.

Four Years of Confederate Control

Confederates held Fort Sumter from April 14, 1861, until February 17, 1865. Southern engineers turned the brick fort into a dirt fortress, strengthening it with sand, wet cotton bales, underground bomb shelters, and tunnels.

Union Navy attacked April 7, 1863, with nine ironclad warships including seven improved USS Monitor versions, but Confederate batteries fought them off. On September 8, 1863, Union soldiers tried a nighttime landing but got pushed back.

From August 1863 to February 1865, Union batteries fired nearly 50,000 shells, turning walls into rubble but never taking the fort.

Visiting Fort Sumter

Today Fort Sumter stands as a National Monument, reached only by boat through Fort Sumter Tours, the authorized National Park Service operator.

Ferries leave daily from two spots: Liberty Square in downtown Charleston near the South Carolina Aquarium, and Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant where the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier is displayed.

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