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The Battle of Fort Sumter (also the Attack on Fort Sumter or the Fall of Fort Sumter) (April 12–13, 1861) was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina, by the South Carolina militia. It ended with the surrender of the fort by the United States Army, beginning the American Civil War.
Fort Sumter is a sea fort built on an artificial island near Charleston, South Carolina, to defend the region from a naval invasion.It was built after British forces captured and occupied Washington during the War of 1812 via a naval attack.
The Second Battle of Charleston Harbor, however, resulted in Confederate abandonment of Fort Wagner by September 1863. An attempt to recapture Fort Sumter by a U.S. naval raiding party also failed severely. Still, Fort Sumter was gradually reduced to rubble via bombardment from shore batteries after the capture of Morris Island.
After a heavy bombardment from batteries ringing the harbor, Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter on April 14. Biographer T. Harry Williams described the extravagant praise from throughout the Confederacy that "The Hero of Fort Sumter" received for his victory: "He was the South's first paladin." [29]
Union efforts to retake Charleston Harbor began on April 7, 1863, when Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron, led the ironclad frigate New Ironsides, the tower ironclad Keokuk, and the monitors Weehawken, Pasaic, Montauk, Patapsco, Nantucket, Catskill, and Nahant in an attack on the harbor's defenses (The 1863 Battle of Fort Sumter was the ...
With the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, followed by Lincoln's April 15 call for 75,000 volunteers to put the seceded states back into line, public sentiment turned dramatically against the Union.
A statewide convention first met on February 13; after the attack on Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call to arms, it voted for secession on April 17, 1861. The decision was dependent on ratification by a statewide referendum. Western leaders held mass rallies and prepared to separate, so that this area could remain in the Union.
Despite trenching difficulties, by mid-August Gillmore had his siege guns within range of Fort Sumter. On August 17, he opened fire and during the first day of the bombardment nearly 1,000 shells were fired. [13] By August 23, the masonry had been turned to rubble and Beauregard removed as many of the fort's guns as possible.