To get to Fort Sumter we took a ferry ride from Charleston. The Fort was built on an island to protect the Charleston harbor. It was a little cold that day, so we made the ride both coming and going, inside.
America's most tragic conflict ignited at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, when a chain reaction of social, economic and political events exploded into civil war. At the heart of these events was the issue of states rights versus federal authority flowing over the underlying issue of slavery.
Fueled by decades of disagreement and confrontation, South Carolina seceded in protest of Lincoln's election and the social and economic changes sure to follow. With Fort Sumter as an unyielding bastion of Federal authority, the war became inevitable.
A powerful symbol to both the South and the North, Fort Sumter remains a memorial to all who fought to hold it.
All of the coastal forts were built to protect the United States from foreign invasion by sea. When South Carolina seceded from the Union, the South demanded that Fort Sumter be vacated. The North refused. Finally, on April 12, 1861, from nearby Fort Johnson, South Carolina troops of the Confederacy fired on the Fort – the start of a two-day bombardment that resulted in the surrender of Fort Sumter by Union troops.
With the North’s withdrawal, the South held the Fort until it was finally evacuated on February 17, 1865. During that time, the Fort experienced one of the longest sieges in modern warfare – for almost two years 46,000 shells, estimated at over 7 million pounds of metal were fired at the Fort. Only the lower level of the Fort has been restored.
