Artist's conception of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, April
12, 1861. Fort Johnson is in the foreground. From Harper's
Weekly, April 27, 1861.
The War
BeginsApril 12, 1861
"I count four by St. Michael's chimes, and I begin to
hope. At half past four, the heavy booming of a cannon! I sprang out of
bed and on my knees, prostrate, I prayed as I never prayed before."
At 4:30 a. m., a mortar at Fort Johnson fired a shell
which arched across the sky and burst almost directly over Fort Sumter.
This was the signal for opening the bombardment. Within a few minutes, a
ring of guns and mortars about the harbor43 in allwere
firing at Sumter.
Preparing to fire the first shot from Fort Sumter, April 12,
1861. Contemporary artist's conception.
Courtesy Charleston Library Society.
The bombardment of Fort Sumter, April 13, 1861.
Major Anderson withheld fire until about 7 o'clock.
Then Capt. Abner Doubleday, of latter-day baseball fame, fired a shot at
the Ironclad Battery on Cummings Point. Ominously, the light shot
"bounded off from the sloping roof . . . without producing any apparent
effect." Not at any time during the battle did the guns of Fort Sumter
do great damage to the Confederate defenses. Most of Fort Sumter's
heaviest guns were on the parapet and in the parade, and, to reduce
casualties in the small garrison, Major Anderson ordered these left
unmanned. For a while, with the help of the 43 engineer workmen
remaining at the fort, 9 or 10 of the casemate guns were manned. But by
noon, the expenditure of ammunition was so much more rapid than the
manufacture of new cartridge bags that the firing was restricted to 6
guns only. Meanwhile
"Showers of balls from 10-inch Columbiads and 42
pounders, and shells from [10] inch mortars poured into the fort in one
incessant stream, causing great flakes of masonry to fall in all
directions. When the immense mortar shells, after sailing high in the
air, came down in a vertical direction, and buried themselves in the
parade ground, their explosion shook the fort like an earthquake."
All Charleston watched. Business was entirely
suspended. King Street was deserted. The Battery, the wharves and
shipping, and "every steeple and cupalo in the city" were crowded with
anxious spectators. And "never before had such crowds of ladies without
attendants" visited the streets of Charleston. "The women were wild" on
the housetops. In the darkness before dawn there were "Prayers from the
women and imprecations from the men; and then a shell would light up the
scene." As the day advanced, the city became rife with rumors: "Tonight,
they say, the forces are to attempt to land. The Harriet Lane had
her wheel house smashed and put back to sea. . . . We hear nothing, can
listen to nothing. Boom boom goes the cannon all the time. The nervous
strain is awful. . . ." Volunteers rushed to join their companies. There
was "Stark Means marching under the piazza at the head of his regiment .
. . ," his proud mother leaning over the balcony rail "looking with
tearful eyes." Two members of the Palmetto Guards paid $50 for a boat to
carry them to Morris Island.
The barracks at Fort Sumter caught fire three times
that first day, but each time the fire was extinguished. One gun on the
parapet was dismounted; another damaged. The wall about one embrasure
was shattered to a depth of 20 inches. That was the Blakely rifle, in
part, firing with "the accuracy of a duelling pistol." The quarters on
the gorge were completely riddled. When night descended, dark and
stormy, Fort Sumter's fire ceased entirely. With the six needles
available, the work of making cartridge bags went forward; blankets, old
clothing, extra hospital sheets, and even paper, were used in the
emergency. In the meantime, the supply fleet, off the bar since the
onset of hostilities, did no more than maintain its position. It had
been crippled upon departure when Seward's meddling had caused
withdrawal of the powerful warship Powhatan. Now, bad weather
prevented even a minimum supporting operation.
Interior of Fort Sumter after the bombardment of April 1861. The
Left Flank barrack is at the left; the Left Face is at the right.
From G. S. Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War.
Interior of the Gorge after the April 1861 bombardment. Parade
entrance to sally port is at center.
On the morning of the 13th, Sumter opened "early and
spitefully," and, with the increased supply of cartridges, for a while
kept up a brisk fire. About midmorning hot shot set fire to the
officers' quarters. The Confederate fire then increased; soon the whole
extent of the quarters was in flames; the powder magazines were in
danger. The blaze spread to the barracks. By noon the fort was almost
uninhabitable. The men crowded to the embrasures for air or lay on the
ground with handkerchiefs over their mouths. For a time the fort
continued to fire; valiant efforts had saved some of the powder before
the onrush of the flames forced the closing of the magazines. Meanwhile,
at every shot, the Confederate troops, "carried away by their natural
generous impulses," mounted the different batteries and "cheered the
garrison for its pluck and gallantry and hooted the fleet lying inactive
just outside the bar."
Col. Louis T. Wigfall.
From Mrs. D. Giraud Wright, A Southern Girl in '61. Courtesy
Doubleday & Company.
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About 1:30 in the afternoon the flag was shot down.
Almost accidentally, this led to surrender. By authority of General
Simons, commanding on Morris Island, Col. Louis T. Wigfall, one of
General Beauregard's aides detached for duty at that spot, set out by
small boat to ascertain whether Major Anderson would capitulate. Till
recently, Wigfall had been United States Senator from Texas. Before he
arrived at the beleaguered fort, the United States flag was again
flying, but Wigfall continued on. The firing continued from the
batteries across the harbor. Once through an embrasure on the Left
Flank, white handkerchief on the point of his sword, Colonel Wigfall
offered the Federal commander any terms he desired, only "the precise
nature of which" would have to be arranged with General Beauregard.
Anderson accepted on the basis of Beauregard's original terms:
evacuation with his command, taking arms and all private and company
property, saluting the United States flag as it was lowered, and being
conveyed, if desired, to a Northern port. The white flag went up again;
the firing ceased. Wigfall departed confident that Anderson had
surrendered unconditionally. He and his boatman were borne ashore "in
triumph."
Meanwhile, officers had arrived at the fort direct
from General Beauregard's headquarters in Charleston. From these men,
dispatched to offer assistance to the Federal commander, Anderson
learned that Wigfall's action was unauthorized; that, indeed, the
colonel had not seen the Commanding General since the start of the
battle. From another party of officers he learned Beauregard's exact
terms of surrender. They failed to include the privilege of saluting the
flag, though in all other respects they were the same as those Anderson
believed he had accepted from Wigfall. Impetuously, Anderson had first
declared he would run up his flag again. Then, restrained by
Beauregard's aides, he waited while his request for permission to salute
the flag was conveyed to the Commanding General. In the course of the
afternoon, General Beauregard courteously sent over a fire engine from
the city. About 7:30 that evening, Beauregard's chief of staff returned
with word that Major Anderson's request would be granted and the terms
offered on the 11th would be faithfully adhered to. The engagement was
officially at an end. During the 34-hour bombardment, more than 3,000
shells had been hurled at the fort.
Exterior of the Gorge after the April 1861
bombardment. The sally port is at the left.
On Sunday, April 14, Major Anderson and his garrison
matched out of the fort with drums beating and colors flying and boarded
ship to join the Federal fleet off the bar. On the 50th round of what
was to have been a 100-gun salute to the United States flag, there
occurred the only fatality of the engagement. The premature discharge of
a gun and the explosion of a pile of cartridges resulted in the death of
Pvt. Daniel Hough. Another man, mortally wounded, died several days
later. The 50th round was the last. Now, as the steamer Isabel
went down the channel, the soldiers of the Confederate batteries on
Cummings Point lined the beach, silent, heads uncovered.
The following day, April 15, 1861, Abraham Lincoln
issued a call for 75,000 militia. Civil war, so long dreaded, had begun.
The States of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina now
joined the Confederacy.
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