Location: Charleston County, SC Map
Construction: 1827
Area: 197 acres (0.9 km2)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.