fort sumter (first shots of the civil war were fired here) was established on april 14, 1861.
fort sumter (first shots of the civil war were fired here) was established on april 14, 1861.
fort sumter (first shots of the civil war were fired here)?
april 14, 1861
at 4:30 a.m. on april 12, 1861, lt. henry s. farley, acting upon the command of capt. george s. james, fired a single 10-inch mortar round from fort johnson. (james had offered the first shot to roger pryor, a noted virginia secessionist, who declined, saying, "i could not fire the first gun of the war.") the shell exploded over fort sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at fort moultrie, fort johnson, the floating battery, and cummings point. under orders from beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours. edmund ruffin, another noted virginia secessionist, had traveled to charleston to be present for the beginning of the war, and fired one of the first shots at sumter after the signal round, a 64-pound shell from the iron battery at cummings point. the shelling of fort sumter from the batteries ringing the harbor awakened charleston's residents (including diarist mary chesnut), who rushed out into the predawn darkness to watch the shells arc over the water and burst inside the fort.
battle of fort sumter
in a letter delivered january 31, 1861, south carolina governor pickens demanded of president buchanan that he surrender fort sumter because "i regard that possession is not consistent with the dignity or safety of the state of south carolina." over the next few months repeated calls for evacuation of fort sumter from the government of south carolina and then from confederate brigadier general p. g. t. beauregard were ignored. union attempts to resupply and reinforce the garrison were repulsed on january 9, 1861 when the first shots of the war, fired by cadets from the citadel, prevented the steamer "star of the west", hired to transport troops and supplies to fort sumter, from completing the task. after realizing that anderson's command would run out of food by april 15, 1861, president lincoln ordered a fleet of ships, under the command of gustavus v. fox, to attempt entry into charleston harbor and supply fort sumter. the ships assigned were the steam sloops-of-war uss "pawnee" and uss "powhatan", transporting motorized launches and about 300 sailors (secretly removed from the charleston fleet to join in the forced reinforcement of fort pickens, pensacola, fl), armed screw steamer uss "pocahontas", revenue cutter usrc "harriet lane", steamer "baltic" transporting about 200 troops, composed of companies c and d of the 2nd u.s. artillery, and three hired tugboats with added protection against small arms fire to be used to tow troop and supply barges directly to fort sumter. by april 6, 1861, the first ships began to set sail for their rendezvous off the charleston bar. the first to arrive was "harriet lane", the evening of april 11, 1861.
fort sumter