Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter

Location: Charleston County, SC   Map

Construction: 1827

Area: 197 acres (0.9 km2)

 

Description of Fort Sumter

FFort Sumter is a fort on an artificial island at the entrance of the Atlantic Ocean to Charleston Bay in South Carolina. The fort gained its historical importance as the scene of the first military engagement of the American Civil War, which began on April 12, 1861 at 4:30 am.

Construction began in 1829 and was almost completed in 1861. It is named after Thomas Sumter (1734–1832), a general of the American Revolutionary War. After military use ended in 1948, the fort was declared Fort Sumter National Monument along with Fort Moultrie, the former Charleston Lighthouse and Liberty Square in Charleston. As of March 2019, it forms part of Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park. It is managed by the National Park Service.

 

Fort Sumter before the Civil War

The fort was built after the Anglo-American War as one of the fortifications to defend Charleston, one of the most important ports in the United States at the time. Fort Sumter belonged to the so-called forts. The "Third System", which was developed after the War of 1812, and was named after General Thomas Sumter, a Revolutionary War hero.

Fort Sumter was to be the main defense of Charleston Harbor, along with Forts Moultrie, Fort Johnson, Pinckney Castle and coastal batteries. In 1826, a shoal to the south of the fairway that ran along the coast of Sullivan Island was chosen as the construction site. In 1827, US Secretary of War John Calhoun approved the construction of the fort, and in the same year, military engineers made the necessary measurements. In 1828, the construction of the fort was approved by the US Congress, and the main outlines of the future fortification were determined. Construction supervision was entrusted to Lieutenant Henry Brewerton. Overall leadership was provided by Brigadier General Charles Gratiot.

In September 1829, Brewerton entered into a contract with Ralph Berkeley's quarry in New York to supply 30,000 tons of good quality stone at a price of $2.45 per ton. However, the contractor could only deliver a thousand tons in a year, so the contract was terminated, after which Brewerton entered into a new contract with a quarry in Baintree, Massachusetts, to supply stone at a price of $ 2.11 per ton. The idea was to build a half-ring stone pier into which ships could enter at high tide and unload on the shallows without fear of waves and wind. By 1834, the construction of the pier was completed, and General Gratiot reported that 50 thousand tons of granite scrap and stone slabs (for the construction of cisterns) had been delivered to the construction site. By November 8, 1834, the government had spent about $200,000 on construction work.

Between 1832 and 1834, the South Carolina state government enacted the Nullification Doctrine, under which states could ignore or invalidate federal government regulations. Worried about the speed of federal influence in the Charleston area, Governor Robert Hayne sought an opportunity to halt the construction of Fort Sumter. In November 1834, Brewerton received a letter from a local resident, William Laval, informing him that the state authorities had ceded to him ownership of the shoal on which the fort was being built. The South Carolina Federal Relations Committee questioned the right of the United States to build a fort on the land. However, on December 31, 1836, the committee was forced to back down and transfer all rights to Fort Sumter and the surrounding area to the federal government. It was envisaged that in the event that Laval's claims were recognized as legitimate, a commission would be created that would determine the amount of compensation due to Laval. On December 20, 1837, South Carolina legal counsel Jacob Worley declared Laval's claims null and void.

John Calhoun, using his position in the US Senate, tried to protest against the construction of Fort Sumter, but his efforts came to nothing, and in 1844 the US Congress allocated 25 thousand dollars to complete the work. On November 22, 1841, all disputes related to ownership were settled, and the federal government received possession of 50 hectares of the bay. Construction supervision was entrusted to Captain A. H. Bowman of the Corps of Engineers, stationed at Fort Johnson. Bowman revised the project and decided to build the fort not on wooden ridges, but on a solid granite base. In January 1841, the money came in and the engineers set about building a permanent wharf, leveling the shoal, and building a granite cushion, the stone for which was brought in by sea from New York and Maine, as well as backfilling a parade ground of sand and shells, which were brought in by boats from the vicinity of Charleston. Granite deliveries were slow, so on September 18 and 21, Brewerton signed two more contracts worth $7,000 and $5,000 respectively. By 1851, 109 thousand tons of stone had been delivered to the construction site.

In the end, it was decided to build the fort not from wood, but from brick. It was assumed that the walls of the fort would have to withstand the shots of relatively light ship guns, and the experiments of military engineer Joseph Totten (English) Russian. showed that brickwork could withstand individual hits from heavy cannonballs. Brewerton chose hand-crafted "Caroline gray brick" (dark brown) and contracted with several manufacturers on the river. Cooper, who were to supply a total of 11 million bricks. The fort was a pentagonal brick structure 58 m in diameter. The area of the parade ground was 0.5 ha. Walls of one and a half meters high, with a thickness of 2 to 4 meters, were supposed to rise above 15-odd meters above the low tide. In casemates on two floors of the fort, it was supposed to place 135 guns, the garrison was supposed to be 650 people. The longest, gorge wall (96 m) was the officers' barracks, on the roof of which guns were placed behind the parapet. A stone ledge 3.5 m wide was arranged around the circumference of the fort. A 52 m long pier began from the entrance to the fort.

In 1851, there was no garrison in the fortification, there was only one caretaker at all times. The desire of the southern states to secede from the Union was growing, and on May 13, 1853, Lieutenant Colonel John Erving of the Second Artillery Regiment sent a letter to General Totten asking him to send 2-3 artillery companies to protect the fort. Lieutenant Engineer John D. Kurtz was tasked with setting up barracks for the garrison. Due to the lack of experienced masons, it was not possible to implement the plan.

Robert Barnwell Rhett, taking advantage of the situation, argued that the deployment of garrisons in the forts of Charleston Harbor threatened the security of the city, insisted on the immediate occupation of the forts by state militia forces. However, Governor Means objected to these plans, believing that the capture of the forts was possible only after the separation of South Carolina from the United States. Gradually the political situation stabilized.

On August 21, 1858, the patrol ship USS Dolphin under the command of John Newland Muffit detained the slave ship Echo (Captain Edward Townsend) near Cuba, in the holds of which 300 slaves were kept in inhuman conditions. During the journey, another 144 slaves died and were thrown overboard. USS Dolphin escorted a slave trader to Charleston harbor. In September, the ship's officers in shackles were taken to Charleston for trial, and the slaves were placed first at Pinckney Castle Fort, and then at Fort Sumter, where by that time there was still no permanent garrison. The local population, including slaves, donated food and clothing, which were delivered by the paddle steamer General Clinch to the fort. Residents of Charleston visited the fort to look at the slaves who lay and sat on the parade ground on tattered rags. Within weeks, 35 more Africans had died of yellow fever. President Buchanan entrusted the survivors to the care of the Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color. A few more weeks later, the former slaves were loaded aboard the steam frigate USS Niagara (English) Russian, which was supposed to take them back to the Congo. On the way back, another 57 people died.

 

Fort Sumter in the Civil War


After Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States in November 1860, many slave-holding Southern states left the United States (the "Union") and formed their own federal state, the Confederate States of America. However, the northern states still had possessions in the south, including forts of the U.S. Army. An important position for the north was the deep-water port of Charleston in South Carolina, which was very important for foreign trade.

South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860. Six days later, Union Major Robert Anderson, on his own initiative, concentrated Union forces in the Charleston area and, unable to defend against attack from the land side, moved them secretly to Fort Moultrie not yet completed Fort Sumter.

For months, the Confederacy demanded surrender from the Union forces in the fort and attempted to starve it out. At the same time, the Confederate States Army built an artillery position on the southwestern island to be able to shell Fort Sumter from there in the event of war. In January 1861, a Union supply ship bound for Fort Sumter came under fire from the new shore artillery position and was forced to turn around. On February 1, all women and children were able to leave the fort and travel to the northern states. There remained 86 men: 10 officers and 76 non-commissioned officers and men. The food supplies of the besieged Union troops lasted until April 15, but fuel ran out before then. On March 4, Lincoln took office as President. He first tried to negotiate and not to provoke the Confederacy with military support actions in favor of the besieged fort. When it became known that the European states of Britain, France, Spain and Russia were considering recognizing the Confederacy, the mood changed and conflict became inevitable.

The arrival of these supply ships prompted the Confederate troops under General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard to switch from passive siege to combat operations at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861. They opened fire on Fort Sumter. Artillery pieces and mortars were used in the bombardment from the surrounding harbor fortifications (Fort Moultrie, the old Fort Johnson and the newly built position at Cummings Point). The fighting lasted 34 hours. At 2:00 p.m. on April 13, 1861, the garrison of the fort under Major Anderson surrendered after a fire in the officers' quarters got out of control and there was a risk that the powder magazine would explode as a result. No one was killed on either side during the entire confrontation.

During a 100-round salute for the Union flag, one of Major Anderson's terms of surrender, Union soldier Private Daniel Hough was killed and several other Union soldiers were injured, some seriously, when one of the guns fired early while reloading.[9] Private Edward Galloway, one of the injured, later died in a Charleston hospital. These two men are believed to be the first casualties of the Civil War. After the surrender, the fort was occupied by Confederate troops and provisionally repaired.

In April 1863, Union troops attempted an attack on Charleston and heavily shelled Fort Sumter. They imposed a naval blockade on the city and occupied Folly Island west of Morris Island. In July they twice attacked the improvised Confederate Fort Wagner on Morris Island but failed to take it. In mid-August 1863 they again attacked Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter and systematically destroyed both by artillery fire. On September 7, the Confederates surrendered Fort Wagner. A landing operation by Union troops against Fort Sumter on September 9 was repelled by General Beauregard. Only towards the end of the war did the southern states' army evacuate Charleston and Fort Sumter. On February 17, 1865, Union troops under General William Tecumseh Sherman formally took possession of the island. It is estimated that a total of seven million pounds (about 3,000 tons) of shells were fired at Fort Sumter during the war.

 

Fort Sumter after the Civil War

After the war, Fort Sumter was a ruin. Initial restoration efforts soon faltered and the fort was only partially restored. The outer walls were only built up to the first floor, the embrasures of the casemates were not reopened. Instead, space was made for guns on the surface, but these were no longer armed. The lighthouse, which has existed since 1855, was the only use of the island.

Only under the impact of the Spanish-American War from April 25 to August 12, 1898 was it decided to use it again for military purposes. That same year, construction began on a massive concrete structure called the Battery Huger to house heavy artillery within the historic ruins of the fort, which, although manned by troops and artillery in both world wars, never saw military action.

 

Fort Sumter today

As of 1948, Fort Sumter was part of a memorial-type national monument under the administration of the US National Park Service and has been part of a National Historical Park since 2019. The concrete structure Battery Huger still stands in the middle of the area and houses a visitor center with a museum. During the shelling of 1861, the fort's flagpole was hit. Soldiers raised it and the United States flag, which then had 33 stars, under heavy fire. The flag survives and is on display in the fort's museum.

Fort Sumter can only be visited by boat from Charleston. The National Historical Park also includes a visitor center in Charleston on the mainland, as well as Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island and, since 2008, the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse, the youngest serving lighthouse in the United States.