10 Facts

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter was the focal point for the opening acts of the American Civil War and became an important symbol of resistance to both the Union and Confederate armies. Nearly destroyed during the Civil War, Fort Sumter continued as a defensive fortification through World War II. Today it is one of Charleston’s most visited historic sites and a part of the Fort Sumter-Fort Moultrie National Historical Park.

Fort Sumter was named for Revolutionary War hero, Thomas Sumter.
Born and raised in Virginia, Sumter settled in South Carolina in 1767 and eventually served in the Continental Army commanding a cavalry force which conducted frequent raids on British supply lines during 1780-81. He became known as the “Carolina Gamecock,” a nickname which later became the name of the athletic teams of the University of South Carolina. After the war, he served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. General Sumter died in 1832, just two months short of his 98th birthday. He was the last surviving American general of our War of Independence.

Fort Sumter took 31 years to build.
View of Fort Sumter in 1851 by Currier & Ives (Library of Congress)

Begun in 1829, construction continued through 1860. Though the average construction time for a typical, 19th-century coastal defense installation was 15-20 years, Fort Sumter, though one of the smallest of those fortifications, took much longer to build because it was built on a sandbar and thus could not be built until approximately 80,000 tons of granite blocks first were put into place as a foundation. Some 7,000,000 bricks were used in the construction of Fort Sumter. While the fort itself was not built by slaves, the bricks were manufactured using slave labor at brickyards up the Ashley and Cooper Rivers at Boone Hall and other plantations.

Major Robert Anderson, commanding officer of Fort Sumter during the opening days of the Civil War, was a Southerner.

Major Robert Anderson, who graduated 15th in the West Point Class of 1825, was from Kentucky. Emotionally conflicted by the onset of war, Anderson, though staunchly pro-Union, determined that he could not fight against his home state if it seceded from the Union. Had Kentucky seceded, Anderson would have resigned his commission and gone to live in Europe for the duration of the war. He took command of the U.S. garrison at Fort Moultrie in November 1861, about a month before the secession of South Carolina.

Anderson had also been a West Point teacher, mentor, and friend to his Confederate counterpart in Charleston, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard.

Made famous by the extensive news coverage of the crisis at Fort Sumter in 1861, Anderson returned to Fort Sumter in April of 1865, to raise once more over the fort the United States garrison flag that he took down after the Confederate bombardment of April 12-12, 1861.

Abner Doubleday fired the first Union artillery round of the Civil War from Fort Sumter.

Captain Abner Doubleday commanded Company E, 1st U.S. Artillery, and was second-in-command to Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. Doubleday fired the first return shot from the fort after the Confederates began their bombardment. Doubleday went on to become a Major General in the Union army and led forces at battles including Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg.

Contrary to what many people believe, Doubleday did not invent baseball. He did, however, design and patent the cable car railway system which still operates in San Francisco.

On April 7, 1863, Fort Sumter was attacked by nine ironclad warships.

Library of Congress

The April 7, 1863, attack by the U.S. Navy was designed to breach the harbor defenses and take Charleston. This was the first time that a fleet of ironclads was used in combat. It consisted of seven single-turreted ironclads of the USS Monitor type, one double-turreted ironclad, the USS Keokuk, and the USS New Ironsides, a more standard ship design that was wooden-hulled but iron-plated, and thus known as a “broadside ironclad.” This fleet failed to penetrate the defenses of the harbor, every ship receiving damaging fire from Forts Sumter and Moultrie, and the Keokuk being sunk.

Union artillery fired some 44,000 projectiles at Fort Sumter.

Fort Sumter in 1865, showing the devastation to the outer walls of the fortification (Library of Congress)

Fort Sumter was a target of several major Federal bombardments beginning with the Union capture of Morris Island in the summer of 1863 and continuing, with sporadic lulls, until the Confederates evacuated Charleston. Union artillery fired some 44,000 projectiles at the walls, the fire which destroyed the two upper tiers of the fort, rendering the entire structure essentially useless as an artillery platform. Three of those projectiles – 100-pdr Parrott solid ‘bolts’ – remain embedded in the walls and may be viewed by visitors. The Confederate garrison evacuated on February 17, 1865, fearing that it would be cut off by advancing Union troops. The Federals, therefore, never actually recaptured the fort, but entered unopposed following the Confederate evacuation.

Battery Isaac Huger, located inside of Fort Sumter, was constructed in 1898-99.

Battery Huger (pronounced “YU-jee”), named for local Revolutionary War figure, General Isaac Huger, was built by the US Army as part of a much larger coastal defense upgrade project which lasted roughly 25 years beginning in 1890. It is made of concrete and initially was painted black using a mixture of tar and linseed oil for waterproofing. It mounted two 12-inch rifled guns, each capable of throwing a 1,000-pound projectile nearly 10 miles.

Between 1865 and 1898, Fort Sumter was partially rebuilt.

Though the Army redesigned and strengthened portions of the walls, brought and installed some Civil War guns from Morris Island (guns which had been used to fire on the fort during the war), and then erected a lighthouse on the site, the fort remained essentially unused as a military installation until the construction of Battery Huger. Tourists were allowed to visit the facilities.
Fort Sumter, circa 1901 (Library of Congress)

During World War Two, Fort Sumter was armed with two 90-mm AMTB guns.

After the removal of the by-then obsolete 12-inch guns in 1943, the two Anti-Motor Torpedo Boat (AMTB) guns, which doubled as anti-aircraft guns, were mounted atop Battery Huger and remained there until the end of the war. They were never fired in anger.

The U.S. Army transferred Fort Sumter to the National Park Service in 1948.

Initially transferred from the US Army to the National Park Service in 1948 as a National Monument, Fort Sumter eventually was combined with Fort Moultrie and redesignated as a National Historic Park. The Fort Sumter – Fort Moultrie National Historic Park officially came into being in 2019.