Fort Sumter
| Fort Sumter National Monument | |||
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| Location: | South Carolina , United States | ||
| Specialty: | Fort of the coastal defense and site of the first fighting in the Civil War | ||
| Next city: | Charleston, South Carolina | ||
| Surface: | 0.9 km² | ||
| Founding: | July 12, 1948 | ||
| Visitors: | 744,971 (2008) | ||
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Fort Sumter is a fort on an artificial island at the entrance from the Atlantic Ocean to Charleston Bay in South Carolina . The fort acquired its historical significance as the site of the first military conflict of the American Civil War , which began on April 12, 1861 at 4:30 a.m.
Construction began in 1829 and was almost completed in 1861. It is named after Thomas Sumter (1734-1832), a general of the American War of Independence . After the end of military use in 1948, the fort was declared Fort Sumter National Monument together with Fort Moultrie , the former lighthouse of Charleston and Liberty Square in Charleston. Since March 2019 it forms the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park . It is administered by the National Park Service .
Fort Sumter before the Civil War
After the end of the British-American War from 1812 to 1814, a chain of coastal fortifications was built on the American Atlantic coast and a few other locations under the name Third System .
Charleston was the most important city in South Carolina and, after Savannah, the second most important port on the southern Atlantic coast. The city is located on a peninsula between the mouths of the three rivers Ashley River , Cooper River and Wundo River in the bay named after the city. This is connected to the ocean by a channel between two broad, flat islands, Sullivan's Island in the northeast and Morris Island in the southwest. The canal was too wide for the artillery of the time to be able to sweep the entrance to the port from the islands and thus block it. Therefore, a shoal in the canal was artificially raised and used as a foundation for one of the fortifications. Fort Sumter was built there. Opposite her, on Sullivan's Island, was Fort Moultrie . Construction work on both forts began in 1829. At the time of the destruction in 1861, both were almost complete and Fort Moultrie was already occupied by troops under Major Robert Anderson .
Over 70,000 tons of granite were imported from New England to build the artificial island . The outer shape of the fort describes an irregular pentagon with sides between 51 and 58 meters. The brick walls were 16 meters high, the original wall thickness is given as 5 feet (1.6 meters). The fortress was designed to house up to 650 people and 135 cannons on three floors. All five sides were equipped with two-storey casemates , which were equipped with cannons. On the three sides facing the countryside, the accommodations, stores, workshops and other rooms were housed in three-story brick buildings, which were structurally separated from the casemates. In the center was the open parade ground.
During the construction phase, the fort was briefly used in September 1858 to house 300 black slaves . They had been picked up on the ship Echo , which was supposed to bring the slaves bought in Cabinda on the mouth of the Congo to the United States. The trade in African slaves had been illegal in the USA since 1808, only black people living and born in the United States were allowed to be kept as slaves. The illegal trade was prosecuted as piracy , Captain Townsend of the Echo was tried, the slaves were deported to the then US colony of Liberia and released there.
Fort Sumter in the Civil War
After Abraham Lincoln was elected US President in November 1860, many slave-holding states in the South left the USA (the "Union") and founded their own state, the Confederate States of America . However, the northern states (the Union) still owned properties in the south, including forts of the US Army . An important position for the north was the deep water port of Charleston in South Carolina, which was very important for foreign trade.
South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860. Six days later, Union Major Robert Anderson, on his own initiative, concentrated Union forces in the Charleston area, and because Fort Moultrie could not be defended against attack from the land side, he secretly moved them to that Unfinished Fort Sumter.
For months the Confederation demanded surrender from the Union troops in the fort and tried to starve it out. At the same time, the Confederate States Army built an artillery position on the southwestern island in order to be able to bombard Fort Sumter from there in the event of war. In January 1861, a Union supply ship for Fort Sumter was shot at from the new artillery position on the coast and had to turn away. On February 1st, all women and children could leave the fort and travel to the northern states. There remained 86 men: 10 officers and 76 NCOs and men. The food supplies of the besieged Union troops lasted until April 15th, fuel ran out before then. On March 4, Lincoln took office as president. He tried first to negotiate and not to provoke the Confederation by military support actions in favor of the besieged fort. When it became known that the European nations of Great Britain , France , Spain and Russia were considering recognizing the Confederation, the mood turned and the conflict became inevitable.
In March the Union organized the relief , i.e. the liberation of its troops in Fort Sumter and in Fort Pickens , Florida, which was also besieged . The action should take place at the beginning of April. Because of contradicting orders, the warship intended for Fort Sumter went to Florida, the two tugs never arrived before Charleston, so that three unarmed cargo ships arrived alone on the night of April 11th to April 12th and could not advance to the fort without cover.
The arrival of these supply ships was the reason for the Confederate troops under General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard to switch from passive siege to fighting on April 12, 1861 at 4:30 a.m. They opened fire on Fort Sumter. Artillery guns and mortars were used in the bombing of the surrounding port fortifications (Fort Moultrie, the old Fort Johnson and the newly established position at Cummings Point ) . The fighting lasted 34 hours. On April 13, 1861 at 2 p.m., the occupation of the fort under Major Anderson surrendered after a fire in the officers' quarters had gotten out of hand and there was a risk that the powder magazine would explode as a result. No people were killed on either side during the entire conflict.
During a 100-shot salute for the Union flag, one of Major Anderson's surrender conditions, Union soldier Private Daniel Hough was killed and some other Union soldiers were seriously injured when one of the cannons fired prematurely during reloading. Private Edward Galloway, one of the injured, died shortly afterwards in a hospital in Charleston. These two men are considered to be the first to die of the Civil War. After the surrender, the fort was occupied by Confederate troops and poorly repaired.
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In April 1863, Union troops attempted an attack on Charleston and heavily shelled Fort Sumter. They imposed a sea blockade on the city and occupied Folly Island west of Morris Island. In July they twice attacked the improvised Confederate Fort Wagner on Morris Island but were unable to capture it. In mid-August 1863 they attacked Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter again and systematically destroyed both with artillery fire. On September 7th, the Confederates gave up Fort Wagner. A landing operation by Union troops against Fort Sumter on September 9th was repulsed by General Beauregard. It was not until the end of the war that the army of the southern states evacuated Charleston and Fort Sumter. On February 17, 1865, the island was formally occupied by Union forces under General William Tecumseh Sherman . It is estimated that projectiles weighing a total of seven million pounds (about 3,175 tons) were fired at Fort Sumter during the war.
Fort Sumter after the Civil War
After the war, Fort Sumter was in ruins. Initial efforts to restore it soon came to a halt and the fort was only partially repaired. The outer walls were only built up to the first floor, the loopholes of the casemates were not reopened. Instead, space was created on the surface for guns, but these were no longer equipped. The lighthouse , which has existed since 1855, was the only use of the island .
It was only under the influence of the Spanish-American War from April 25 to August 12, 1898 that it was decided to use it again for military purposes. In the same year, work began on building a massive concrete structure called the Battery Huger as the foundation for heavy artillery in the historic ruins of the fort, which, although always manned with troops and artillery in both world wars, never became the scene of a military conflict.
Fort Sumter today
From 1948, Fort Sumter was part of a National Monument- type memorial under the administration of the American National Park Service and has been part of a National Historical Park since 2019 . The concrete structure Battery Huger still stands in the middle of the area and houses a visitor center with a museum. During the bombardment of 1861, the fort's flagpole was hit. Soldiers erected it and the flag of the United States with the then 33 stars under heavy fire. The flag has been preserved and is on display in the fort's museum.
Fort Sumter can only be visited by boat from Charleston. The National Historical Park also includes a visitor center in Charleston on the mainland, Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island and, since 2008, the Sullivan's Island Lighthouse , the youngest lighthouse in the United States.
literature
- Stephen R. Wise: Gate of hell: campaign for Charleston Harbor 1863 . University of South Carolina Press, 1994, ISBN 0-87249-985-5
- James M. Ferguson: An Overview of the Events at Fort Sumter 1829-1991 . National Park Service, 1991 (also online in full text ; PDF; 5.6 MB)
Web links
- National Park Service: Fort Sumter (official site; English)
- Tulane University: Crisis at Fort Sumter - Depiction of the processes around Fort Sumter during the Civil War
- University of South Carolina - Maritime Research Division: Charleston Harbor
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lisa Murkowski: Text - p.47 - 116th Congress (2019-2020): John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act. March 12, 2019, accessed April 19, 2019 .
- ^ Wise, p. 2
- ↑ Ferguson, page 5 ff
- ↑ Ferguson, page 19 ff.
- ^ Wise, p. 4
- ↑ http://www.nps.gov/fosu/historyculture/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=350932
- ↑ Ferguson, p. 33
- ^ Ferguson, p. 34
- ↑ National Park Service: Fort Sumter National Monument: Fatalities (accessed April 9, 2009)
- ↑ Wise, page 154 ff.
- ↑ National Park Service: Fort Sumter (PDF; 39 kB) , 2005 (accessed April 9, 2009)
- ↑ United States Coast Guard: Historic Light Station Information South Carolina (accessed April 9, 2009)
- ↑ Ferguson, page 48 ff.
