The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12, 1861 – April 13, 1861)

The Battle of Fort Sumter was the bombardment and surrender of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina that started the American Civil War.

What do you know about the Battle of Fort Sumter?

Questions

1. What was a "more perfect union"?

2. Who tried unauthorized and indirect negotiations with the separated states?

3. What was the name of the ship sent to resupply Fort Sumter?

4. Who commanded Confederate troops at Charleston, South Carolina?

5. Beauregard dispatched aides to Fort Sumter on April 11 and issued their ultimatum. What was Major Anderson's reply?

6. Who fired the first shot back against Confederate forces?

7. During the shelling of Fort Sumter, how many Union troops were killed?

8. What became the battle symbol of the war?

9. When did Union forces retake Charleston harbor?

Answers

1. On March 4 1861, Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as President. In his inaugural address, he argued that the Constitution was a more perfect union than the earlier Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, but that the Articles had established the permanence of the Union in a binding contract. He called any secession "legally void". He stated he had no intent to invade Southern states, nor did he intend to end slavery where it existed, but that he would use force to maintain possession of federal property. His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the bonds of union.

2. The South sent delegations to Washington D.C. and offered to pay for the federal properties and enter into a peace treaty with the United States. Lincoln rejected any negotiations with Confederate agents on the grounds that the Confederacy was not a legitimate government, and that making any treaty with it would be tantamount to recognition of it as a sovereign government. However, Secretary of State William Seward engaged in unauthorized and indirect negotiations that failed.

3. Confederate forces seized all but four Federal forts within their boundaries (they did not take Fort Sumter). President Buchanan protested but made no military response aside from a failed attempt to resupply Fort Sumter via the ship Star of the West (the ship was fired upon by Citadel cadets), and no serious military preparations.

4. In March, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard took command of South Carolina forces in Charleston; on March 1, Confederate President Jefferson Davis had appointed him the first general officer in the armed forces of the new Confederacy, specifically to take command of the siege. Beauregard made repeated demands that the Union force either surrender or withdraw and took steps to ensure that no supplies from the city were available to the defenders, whose food was running out.

5. The Confederate Secretary of War telegraphed Beauregard that if he were certain that the fort was to be supplied by force, "You will at once demand its evacuation, and if this is refused proceed, in such a manner as you may determine, to reduce it." Beauregard dispatched aides to Fort Sumter on April 11 and issued their ultimatum. Major Robert Anderson refused, though he reportedly commented, "Men, if you do not batter the fort to pieces about us, we shall be starved out in a few days."

6. At 4:30 a.m., a single mortar round fired from Fort Johnson exploded over Fort Sumter, signaling the start of the bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, the Floating Battery of Charleston Harbor and Cummings Point. Edmund Ruffin, a notable secessionist, had traveled to Charleston in order to be present for the beginning of the war, and was present to fire the first shot at Sumter after the signal round. Anderson withheld his fire until 7:00 a.m., when Capt. Abner Doubleday fired a shot at the Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point.

7. Terms for the garrison's withdrawal were settled by that evening and the Union garrison surrendered the fort to Confederate personnel at 2:30 p.m., April 14. No one from either side was killed during the bombardment, with only five Union and four Confederate soldiers severely injured. During the 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag (Anderson's one condition for withdrawal) a pile of cartridges blew up from a spark, killing one soldier instantly (Private Daniel Hough) and seriously injuring the rest of the gun crew, one mortally (Private Edward Galloway); these were the first fatalities of the war.

8. The soldiers along with the women and children were safely transported back to Union territory by the U.S. Navy squadron whose anticipated arrival as a relief fleet had prompted the barrage. Anderson carried the Fort Sumter Flag with him North, where it became a widely known symbol of the battle, and a rallying point for supporters of the Union.

9. Charleston Harbor was completely in Confederate hands for the four-year duration of the war, leaving a hole in the Union naval blockade. Union forces retook the fort just days after Lee's surrender and the collapse of the Confederacy.