April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter fired upon.
At 4:30 a.m., 149 years ago this morning, the American Civil War begins when South Carolina secessionist forces fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The United States became a fundamentally different place at the war's end.
The fort had been the source of tension between the Union and infant Confederacy for several months. After South Carolina seceded, the state demanded the fort be turned over but Union officials refused. A Federal supply ship, "Star of the West," tried to reach Fort Sumter on January 9 to resupply the besieged Sumter garrison, but a shore battery manned by Citadel cadets opened fire and drove it away.
For both sides, Sumter was a symbol of sovereignty. The Union could not allow it to fall to the Confederates, although throughout the Deep South other federal installations had been seized. For South Carolinians, secession meant little if the hated Yankees still held the stronghold.
The issue hung in the air when Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, putting secessionists on notice in his inauguration address: "You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors."
US Major Robert Anderson, 2d US Heavy Artillery, commander of the Ft Sumter garrison
The Confederate Congress meeting at the Confederacy's first capital in Montgomery, Alabama, had decided on February 15 that Sumter and other forts must be acquired "either by negotiation or force." Negotiation, it seemed, had failed. The Confederates demanded surrender of the fort, but the loyal son of the South, US Major Robert Anderson of Kentucky, commander of Fort Sumter, refused.
At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, the Confederate guns opened fire. For thirty-three hours, the shore batteries lobbed 4,000 shells in the direction of the fort.
Eight times during the bombardment Sumter's flagpole had been hit without serious injury; but at near 2 P.M. that day the pole was shot off near the peak and the flag fell among the gleaming cinders. Lieutenant Hall rescued the precious bunting before it took fire. Sergeant Peter Hart shinnied up the pole, and nailed it in place it amid deadly shot and shell, where the scarred banner was kept flying defiantly.
Finally, the garrison inside the battered fort raised the white flag. No one on either side had been killed, although two US soldiers died on April 12th when the departing soldiers fired a gun salute, and some cartridges exploded prematurely. It was a nearly bloodless beginning to America's bloodiest war.
After the bombardment and departure of US forces, the new Confederate flag waves defiantly over the shattered fort. It would fly there until February 19, 1865 when US forces re-entered the fort after Charleston was evacuated by Confederate forces who were hastily and futiley flung in the path of Sherman's forces moving through the state
Ft Sumter is administered by the National Park Service. It may be visited by a short boat ride from the city of Charleston. To get a sense of how much damage the fort sustained during the Civil War, realize that in 1861, the brick walls extended to the height of the smaller flagpoles ringing the tall flagpole seen in this photo. The black concrete emplacement in the fort's center is a late 19th century leftover when the fort was reinforced and equippied with modern coast artillery to defend against invasion during the run-up to the Spanish American War.
One of the coolest things your correspondent has ever done was on 19 Feb. 2005, when he took part in a reenactment of the Federal re-occupation of Ft Sumter. A group of 89 living historians from literally all over the US camped on Morris Island across the channel from Ft Sumter and on the morning of 19 Feb. rowed across the channel in period rowboats to occupy Ft Sumter while portraying the company of the 52d Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry who did it the first time exactly 140 years earlier.
Enduring Legacy of the Civil War
The now deceased Civil War historian and native Mississipian Shelby Foote probably explained the impact of the Civil War in the fewest yet most powerful and accurate terms when he said,IOW, for good or bad, the constitutional debate over the issue of "states rights" was settled once and for all."Before the Civil War, people referred to the country as 'These United States,' after the war, people began to refer to the newly reformed nation as 'The United States.'"
Shortly after conclusion of the war, the XIII - XV amendments to the Constitution were ratified and became the law of the land. Slavery was forever outlawed in the "Land of the Free," newly freed slaves were given the right to vote, and the original "Bill of Rights" Fifth Amendment notion that no American could be denied his life, liberty or property without due process of law was applied to the action of state governments. Further, the XIVth made law the principle that no state could deny its residents the rights enjoyed by all US citizens under the Constitution.
Finally, citizenship acquired by birth in the United States was made a Constitutional principle (XIVth Amendment) -- a matter which today is a source of friction as we struggle with the immigration issue and what to do about the minor children born of illegal migrants in the US when/if their non-citizen parents face deportation.
Originally Posted by yermom
