Battle of Fort Sumter

The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12 - April 13, 1861), which was militarily minor (causing about three casualties), began the American Civil War.

Table of contents

1 Prelude 2 Action 3 Aftermath

Prelude

President James Buchanan, a popular Southern Democrat, was very sympathetic to the Southern states (especially in regards to slavery). Unfortunately, he declined to run for a second term in 1860, causing the Deomcrats to nominate another candidate. The Southerners, in a possibly fatal mistake, split from the party, electing former Vice President John C. Breckinridge as their candidate. However, during the 1860 Presidential Election, Abraham Lincoln was elected by a majority of the voters. To the Southerners, he was thought of as a Radical Republican, who would suppress the South and destroy their core beliefs.

This caused many Southern states, led by South Carolina, to secede, causing much tension in the Southern states. However, a few Union strongholds remained in the South, including Fort Monroe (near Norfolk, Virginia), and Fort Sumter, near Charleston, South Carolina.

Action

The 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment, under Major Robert Anderson, had been holed up in Fort Sumter for weeks, with little hope of being reinforced. President Lincoln had sent relief ships, which had been fired upon and/or turned back (including the latest ship, U.S.S. Star of the West). After repeated letters asking the Union garrison to surrender (after they had been forced out of the less defensible Fort Moultrie), Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard (South Carolina Militia) opened fire on the fort with his artillery. After about a day of bombardment, the Union garrison, which was overwhelemed, decided to surrender. They were safely transported back to Union territory, with the only casualties occurring during a salute to the flag by a volley of artillery, when a cannon misfired.

Aftermath

This caused a declaration of war by the Union, against the Confederate States of America. The ensuing "civil war" would last for five years, ending in April 1865, at the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. However, the local and short-term aftermath was simply that the city of Charleston was completely in Confederate hands, and that the Union was in serious trouble.