Battle of Fort Sumter

After South Carolina left the Union, Major Robert Anderson held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and Washington's plan to resupply it set the clock ticking. Before dawn on 12 April 1861, Confederate batteries ringing the harbour opened fire on the fort under General P. G. T. Beauregard. The garrison answered slowly, short of men and powder, while the brick walls and barracks were battered and set on fire. Anderson surrendered on 13 April, and the next day his men marched out after a salute to their flag. The attack drew a call from Lincoln for troops and pushed more Southern states toward secession.

Fort Sumter is where the Civil War is usually said to begin, but historians stress how much was decided in the preceding months, when both sides handled the fort as a political problem as much as a military one. Interpretations differ on who really forced the clash: some see Lincoln's resupply as a deliberate bait, others stress the Confederate decision to open fire first. The surrender was a source of honour for Anderson in the North and of celebration in the South. The fort was later reduced to ruins by Union bombardment in 1863 to 1865, and a gun battery was built inside what remained.