American Civil WarStuff Happened · War
Battle · Naval & Coastal
Battle of Fort Sumter
Bombardment of Fort Sumter · Currier & Ives · public domain
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Secession winter
The Fort in the Harbor
Anderson (North) slips his garrison into Fort Sumter by night. South Carolina rings the harbor with guns and waits out a starving garrison.
2Lincoln’s gambit
The Last Word from Washington
Lincoln sends food, not war, forcing Davis to either let the fort be fed or fire the first shot. The South fires.
3April 12–13
Thirty-Four Hours
Forty-three guns open on the fort. Anderson barely fires back, the artillery teacher sparing his men while his star pupil pounds him from shore.
4April 14 & after
One Death, and a Country at War
The fort surrenders; an accidental blast kills the war’s first man. Then 75,000 volunteers, four more states gone, and a nation at war.