A Single Shot Over Charleston Harbor and Fort Sumter

The Bombardment of Fort Sumter

Library of Congress

Recipient: James Island Township

Amount: $1,772,103.00
Acres: 1.58

On the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard ordered a mortar battery at Fort Johnson, South Carolina to launch a shell into Charleston Harbor. The predetermined signal for all southern batteries to open fire on Union held Fort Sumter. Exploding harmlessly in the air, the flash and rumble of this solitary shell opened a two-day bombardment that lasted until the afternoon of April 13, when Union Major Robert Anderson surrendered. The bombardment of Fort Sumter began the American Civil War.

Fort Johnson also has ties to the American Revolutionary War. In September of 1775, Colonel William Moultrie, commander of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment, liberated Fort Johnson in the effort to secure Charleston Harbor for the Patriot cause. Raising the blue and white crescent “Liberty Flag” for the first-time above Fort Johnson, Moultrie would later use the same flag during the battle of Sullivan’s Island in 1776. A decisive engagement, this battle was the Patriots first major victory over the British Navy during the war, and a reason the Liberty Flag was used as the basis for the South Carolina State flag in 1861.

Through the preservation partnership of James Island Township, our newest land acquisition grant recipient, and the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust this coastal property with decades of strategic and historic significance will be protected with plans to incorporate the land as a state battlefield park.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grant opportunities: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, the Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation Grant opportunities. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, Tribal and local levels.