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 United States 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.
#1: Fort Sumter was named for Revolutionary War hero, Brig. Gen. 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 which reflects his fighting ability. 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.
#2: Fort Sumter's Construction
View of Fort Sumter in 1861 by Currier & Ives (Library of Congress)
Begun in 1829, construction was halted in December of 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 100,000 tons of rough granite and blocks first were put into place as a foundation. Some 4,000,000 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 mostly up the Cooper River at Medway Boone Hall and other plantations. The outbreak of the Civil War prevented completion as planned.
#3: 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 (United States), determined that he could not fight against his home state if it seceded from the United States. 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 to his Confederate counterpart in Charleston, Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard.
As the Union’s first national war hero, Brevet Maj. Gen. Anderson returned on April 14, 1865, four years to the day after its surrender, to raise once more over the fort the United States storm flag.
#4: Abner Doubleday Aimed the first United States 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 directed the first return shot from the fort after the Army of South Carolina and the Confederate Provisional Forces began their bombardment. Doubleday went on to become a Major General in the United States 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.
#5: 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 reduce Fort Sumter’s right face. This was the first time that a fleet of ironclads was used in combat. It consisted of seven single-turreted ironclads of the Passaic monitor class (improvements based on the USS Monitor), one double-turreted ironclad, the USS Keokuk, and the USS New Ironsides, a more standard ship design that was wooden with iron plates on the center of its port and starboard sides to protect its 7-gun broadsides. It was classified as a “broadside ironclad frigate.” This fleet failed to penetrate the defenses of the harbor, every ship receiving damaging fire from Forts Sumter and Moultrie, and the Keokuk being so badly damaged that she later sunk.
#6: Fort Sumter was a target of several major bombardments by the U.S. Army on Morris Island and the U.S Navy.
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 U.S. Army bombardments from Morris Island and the U.S. Navy beginning in the summer of 1863 and continuing, with sporadic lulls, until the Confederates evacuated Charleston. United States artillery fired some 46,000 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 about 1 am on February 18, 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 evacuation.
#7: Between 1865 and 1898, Fort Sumter was partially rebuilt.
Though the Army redesigned and strengthened portions of the walls, brought and mounted some Civil War guns from the Augusta Arsenal and then erected a new 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)
#8: Battery Isaac Huger, located inside of Fort Sumter, was constructed in 1898-99.
Battery Huger (pronounced “YU-jee”), named for local Revolutionary War figure, Brevet Major General Isaac Huger, was built by the US Army Corps of Engineers 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.
#9: During World War Two, Fort Sumter was armed with four 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 emplaced in permanent mounts in front of Battery Huger and two mobile units were stationed beside atop Battery Huger and remained there until the end of the war. They were never fired in anger.
#10: Fort Sumter was transferred to the National Park Service in 1948.
In 1947 the Army closed the Fort Moultrie Military Reservation which included Ft. Sumter. It was placed under the War Assets Administration’s jurisdiction. Initially transferred from the War Assets Administration to the National Park Service in 1948 as a National Monument, Ft. Sumter was later combined with Fort Moultrie. The Fort Sumter Fort Moultrie National Historical Park officially came into being in 2019.
