Leslie and David's Wanderings: 8 June 2020 Fort Sumter

We wandered our way around Liberty Square, learning about the slave market that was in this location from 1670 through 1807 before wandering up to the Fort Sumter Museum. The Museum was open again, and we spent about a half-hour exploring its exhibits before boarding the tour boat for the fort. The tour boat had its seat spread out to enforce social distancing and everyone’s were sterilized before coming aboard. The boat ride was a slow 40 minute cruise across the harbor.

Construction of Fort Sumter began in 1828 as part of the costal defense forts built after the war of 1812. The fort was built on top of a man made island. Engineers found the shallowest place in the harbor and then spent 15 years building the artificial island using slave labor. The fort slowly took shape over the next 15 years. The fort was built of bricks, which were made in the Charleston area by slaves. Built with walls of brick five feet thick, the fort used over 6 million bricks. The primary labor was slaves with some master masons. By December 1860, the fort was only 90% complete but none of the canon were mounted. When Major Anderson and the Union Troops transferred to Fort Sumter on 26 December 1860, they were already low on supplies. The soldiers along with the civilian construction crews rushed to

finish the fort. The fort had three levels of firing ports capable of holding 135 canons. With walls fifty feet high, the fort was an imposing structure. The Union troops were able to mount 60 of the 90 guns found in the site but they only had powder and shot for 700 rounds. They were low on food. In January, the army tried to send reinforcements and supplies, but South Carolina Militia fired on the ship and forced it to retreat. On 1 March, the six southern states that had seceded formed the Confederate States of America. On March 15, President Lincoln was inaugurated. In early April, President Lincoln ordered the reinforcement of Fort Sumter. The Confederates learned of the reinforcement and on April 11 demanded that Major Anderson surrender. The Major refused and was informed that the bombardment would commence in one hour. At 4:30am on April 12 1861 the confederate canons began firing. Major Anderson kept his troops on the lowest level to provide the most protection. This limited the number and range of canons he could bring to bear on the Confederates. The Confederates bombarded Fort Sumter for 36 hours, firing over 4400 shots. But with the smooth bore canons of the day. Minimal damage was inflicted on the walls of the fort. But the officer and enlisted barracks were set afire. Major Anderson and his troops fired over 300 rounds back at the attackers. Major Anderson had to pull his troops off the guns to fight the fires since they were dangerously close to the powder magazine. When the guns of the fort went silent, the confederates stop the attack and sent a delegation to the fort to request its surrender. With almost no food, raging fires, and very little ammunition remaining, the Union Forces surrendered. But Major Anderson

requested that a hundred gun salute be fired as part of the surrender ceremony. Unbelievably, after 36 hours of bombardment, neither side had experienced any deaths. But, during the 100 gun salute, one of the canon exploded resulting in the eventual death of two Union Soldiers. The first casualty of the US Civil War was not even a US citizen, he was a Irish emigrant that was trying to earn his citizenship. The remainder of the troops were put on a ship for New York. Confederate Troops occupied Fort Sumter on 13 April.

In 1862, the Union returned to try and capture Fort Sumter. The Union Navy sent a fleet of Iron Clad Monitors to bombard the fort. After four hours, the Union fleet retreated. Next the Union Navy and Army laded troops on Morris Island. After a two month siege of Fort Johnson, the Union forces took control of Morris Island and brought in large rifled canon. For the next 22 months, the Union forces bombarded Fort Sumter and Charleston in the longest siege in US history. Over 44,000 shells were fired into Fort Sumter reducing it to rubble, but still the Confederate forces hung on. It wasn’t until General Sherman’s march to the Sea, and capture of Charleston, in 1865 that the fort was abandoned. Following the war, the rubble was cleared and the fort was repaired. But the upper tiers of the fort were never rebuilt. In 1898, the US Army built Battery Huger out of reinforced concrete and mounted two large disappearing canon. The remainder of the fort was filled in with sand to provide protection for Battery Huger. The fort was manned until 1947 when the fort was transferred to the park service to become Fort Sumter National Monument. In late 2019, the fort was re-designated a National Historical Park.

At the fort, we listened to the ranger talk about the history of the fort before wandering the grounds and reading all the interpretive signs. Most of the canon in the fort were found when the park service excavated the sand from the majority of the fort. No one was buried on the island. The Confederate casualties were always evacuated to Charleston. We were only given an hour to tour the fort before the ship took us back to Charleston. Once we docked, we went to watch the Park film before heading back to the Wanderer. Just in time, it started to rain as we left downtown Charleston. We leave Charleston on Saturday, heading west for Tennessee. We arrived in Charleston on 18 March expecting to be here for a week and ended up stuck here for three almost months! We are ecstatic to be getting back on the road again!!