Fort Sumter - so iconic. The first shot of the Civil War. It looms so large in American history. The first thing you talk about when you discuss the actual war itself.
It’s November of 1960 and Lincoln, the Republican, wins the Presidential election without vots from any Southern state. Even though the Republican position is to not let slavery expand, the South is sure that they want to abolish it throughout the US. South Carolina meets in convention and votes to seceed in December. 6 other states seceed and meet in February to form the Confederate States of America with Jefferson Davis as the President. The Confederate forces began to seize Federal forts in their states. But Sumter, barely completed, is empty.
Across the bay in Fort Moultrie, Major Anderson decided that Sumter, on an island, is more defensible and, under cover of night, he and his 85 men row across the bay to Sumter, raise the flag and take possession. The citizens of South Carolina are furious and demand withdrawal. Several months pass and Anderson holds his ground. Finally P.G.T. Beauregard, Anderson’s former student at West Point, demands that Anderson surrender and, if he does not, the Cenfederate troops will open fire in one hour. Anderson refuses and at 4 am a Confederate shot lights up the night over the fort, a signal to the other battlements to open fire. By daybreak, batteries circling Sumter are firing.
Excited, citizens of South Carolina carry picnic baskets to their roofs to watch the artillery barrage light up the sky. ‘Huzzah’, huzzah’ they shout. Champagne corks pop and they celebrate each shot.
With only 85 men, the Federal troops do not get many shots off under the withering fire of the Confederates. Though the shots do little damage they continued throughout the day and night. Then a hot cannon shot sets fire inside the fort and soon flames are jumping high and smoke clouds the air. The Federals don’t have enough men to battle the fire and the Confederates and finally, at 2 pm, the next day, Major Anderson surrenders the fort asking for two things: the two US flags from the fort and a 100-gun salute as the Federals left. As the hundred gun salute is firing, a young Federal soldier, Private Daniel Hough, is carrying powder bags to the cannon, a spark his the bag and he dies instantly - the only death during the 2 days. Major Anderson immediately stopped the salute and, with the two flags of the fort in hand, he and his men march out of the fort and board a ship for New York. Short handed and encircled, they had defended the fort for 34 hours. The Civil War had begun.
Major Anderson did get back to the fort when it was back in Union hands and raised the flag above it again - on the day Lincoln was shot in Ford’s Theater. Ironic.
We arrive at the boat dock with out tickets in hand for the boat ride out to the fort.
The sky is a beautiful blue, the sun is shining, a wonderful day for a boat ride out to an iconic fort which holds such a large place in American history. We can see the beautiful Ravenal bridge in the background.
Hey, our captain isn’t even holding on to the wheel. Who’s steering this boat?
If you think that Fort Sumter is a large impregnable fort like many we have seen in our travels this year, you would be mistaken. It is barely one story high with few casemates and no buildings inside. It is a mere empty hulk of the fort that it once was. Here’s what it was in the beginning.
Here’s what it looks like now.
Though it stood tall after the Confederate barrage in 1961, the Union barrages over the years when the Confederates held the fort reduced its 5’ thick, 50’ high walls to rubble.
You can still see some of the cannon projectiles fired into the fort sticking out of the walls. Some of the casemates remain, some of the cannon do also.
Then of course that ugly black monster sits in the middle of the fort, a memory of a battery built during the Spanish American War. I can’t get a clear shot of the fort without this black thing in the middle. This has been turned into a gift shop and a museum which houses many artifacts and also one of the flags that Anderson carried out of the fort. Here’s a picture of one of the flags - note how big it is compared to the people standing near it but also notice how tattered it became during the Confederate barrage.
We climbed the battlements to look out over the bay and back into Charleston to get a feel for what those soldiers inside the fort might have seen. As a Confederate we would have seen the Union army pounding us from a fort across the way. Altogether 7,000,000 lbs of shot were hurled at Sumter’s walls reducing them to rubble. Slaves and laborers inside the fort continually piled the rubble on top of older rubble, covering all with sand and bales of cotton to keep the fort strong against attack. The movie ‘Glory’ portrayed parts of this attack on Fort Sumter. Finally, as Sherman approached, the Confederates abandoned the fort.
Back on mainland, we toured the Visitor Center where the battle flag of Fort Sumter lies under special glass. Here also are many displays about the coming of the Civil War, the ambiguities of the Constitution, the events leading up to the war, the economic strengths and weaknesses of each side in the war, slave trade in the South, how Charleston fared during the war and other subjects.
I wish that we had been able to spend more time on the island, in Fort Sumter. We had only 2 hours and much of that was taken up with the boat ride out to the fort. Of course, we could have stayed there longer and waited until the next boat but - possibly the next boat might have been filled and then where would we be? I can’t swim that far. Nope, we’d better take the time we had and go back on the boat we came on.
We walked back to the parking garage to get our lunch. Saw this. Cute.
We then got some food out of the car and walked to a nearby park to eat lunch and then walked around the center of Charleston. This is definitely a tourist town with people everywhere, cameras at every angle imaginable and restaurants and shoppes on every street. But, what fun to walk through it trying to imagine walking through it in my hoop skirt and bonnet, riding in my carriage through town Ah, who am I kidding? I’d have been a shopgirl, no stylish hoop skirt, no bonnet and I’d be walking to and from work.
We then toured the Powder Magazine, Dueller’s Alley and the Slave Mart.
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