Why Is Fort Sumter Important

Fort Sumter is located in South Carolina. It was made on 1812 but was not done when Confederates attacked. Fort sumter was the first battle of the Civil war. U.S. Major Robert Anderson occupied the unfinished fort before the Confederates attacked, following South Carolina’s secession from the Union, both union and Confederates were fighting over fort Sumter. But when Abraham Lincoln announced that he was restocking the fort, Confederate General P.G.T .Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter. Early in the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederates started shooting at Fort Sumter. At 2:30pm on April 13th, Major Robert Anderson, garrison commander, surrendered the fort and was evacuated the next day. The Union would not recapture Fort Sumter for nearly four years. No one dies in the battle of Fort Sumter but the Confederates did win. Major Robert Anderson did in fact fire the first shots of Fort Sumter and led the small force of the U.S. soldiers at Fort Sumter.

There was 80 union soldiers against 500 confederates. After a signal gun was fired, “Virginia fire-eater Edmund Ruffin, who had campaigned relentlessly through the 1850s for states’ rights, slavery, and secession, was given the honor of firing the first shot at Fort Sumter. Anderson, to reduce his casualties and conserve ammunition, did not return fire until just before 7:00 a.m. when Captain Abner Doubleday fired the first return shot.” History.net. Anderson used guns that didn’t kill people because he wasted to reduce casualties, where his men would be less exposed. Later in the morning, the barracks caught fire and many of his men had to be used as a fire crew. In the afternoon, they spotted the three ships flying the US flag just outside the harbor and thought they would be resupplied during the night, not realizing that the ships were actually on their way to Fort Pickens in Pensacola,