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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	FORT SUMTER NATIONAL MONUMENT South Carolina	Fort Sumter National Monument
Charleston County, on a shoal at the entrance to Charleston Harbor, about 3-1/2 miles from the Charleston Battery by boat; address: 1214 Middle Street Sullivan's Island, SC 29482. Fort Sumter National Monument

This fort, scene of the bombardment that began the Civil War in 1861 and of a determined Confederate defense during the years 1863-65, is of primary significance in relation to the Civil War. It was, however, one of the forts constructed by the Government after the War of 1812, planned and begun during the period of history treated in this volume, to remedy deficiencies in coastal defenses that the war had revealed.

During the War of 1812 the British did not attack Charleston Harbor, protected by Forts Moultrie, Johnson, and Pinckney, nor many other Atlantic ports. In 1814, however, various officials of States along the coast expressed alarm at the vulnerability of their ports. Soon after the war, military authorities determined to correct the situation. In 1816 President Madison formed a Board of Engineers to devise a system of coastal defenses for the entire country. In 1821 it proposed a chain of about 40 coastal fortifications in strategic locations, including Charleston.

Initial phases of excavation, in 1956, at Fort Sumter National Monument, South Carolina. Since that time all the ruins of the original fort that are extant have been excavated.

In 1826 the board surveyed Charleston Harbor and decided to supplement the older defenses there with a new fort, upon a shoal about equidistant between Forts Moultrie and Johnson, which would command the main ship channel into Charleston Harbor. In 1827 the board adopted plans for the five-sided fort, 1 year later received congressional appropriations, and the following year began construction. The fort was named for a South Carolina patriot of the War for Independence, Thomas Sumter. Construction was not essentially completed until 1860, the year before the Civil War broke out. The fort had 5-foot-thick brick walls that towered 48 feet above low tide. Four sides, 170 to 190 feet long, were designed for three tiers of guns; the gorge, which accommodated officers' quarters, supported guns only on the third tier. Enlisted men's barracks paralleled the parade side of the flank gunrooms. A sally port pierced the gorge and opened onto a quay and a wharf. Full armament was about 135 guns, but by 1861 only 60 cannon had been mounted.

Fort Sumter.

On April 12, 1861, a mortar shell fired by Confederate forces from nearby Fort Johnson, on James Island, burst almost directly over a beleaguered Federal garrison at Fort Sumter, and marked the beginning of the Civil War. It was a signal for a 3,000-shell bombardment that lasted 34 hours. On April 14 Maj. Robert Anderson, the Federal commander, evacuated the fort. The next day President Lincoln issued a call for 75,000 volunteers. The Civil War, so long dreaded, had begun.

In 1948 Congress established Fort Sumter National Monument, which consists of about 24 acres and includes Fort Moultrie, on Sullivans Island. Today both forts reflect numerous changes made between 1865 and 1900, particularly those that occurred during the Spanish-American War. Few changes were made in the 20th century. The battery dominates the central section of Fort Sumter, where a small museum is located. Markers and interpretive exhibits point out features of interest.