Fort Sumter
Charleston, South Carolina
April 12, 1861
Fort Sumter is located in Charleston Harbor South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded on December 21, 1860, Union troops under US Major Robert Anderson moved in to secure the fort. Though the fort was not yet completed, it was a vital position which controlled shipping in and out of Charleston. On April 12, 1861, after repeated calls for surrender, Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered Southern cannons to open fire on the Union held fort, officially beginning the hostilities between the North and the South. After 36 hours of continued bombardment, Anderson finally surrendered the fort. The Confederates held the fort until February 1865, when under the threat of Union General William T. Sherman’s advancing army, they abandoned the fortification.
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