The Battle of Fort Sumter lasted 34 hours, killed no one, and wasted 4,000 Confederate rounds and 1,000 Federal rounds. At that point, it was one of the largest artillery battles ever fought on North American soil.
The Confederates loved the glory and honor, as they understood it, when Abner Doubleday fired back, paid to them by the men of Fort Sumter.
In the morning, a glorious morning in nature, [Robert] Anderson, the brave soul, resumed fire, but about eight our hearts stood still, for a shout came from the spectators—Fort Sumter was in flames. We forgot our people, we forgot everything, for a few moments, but the gallant band within the burning crater. You know the rest. You will read of the courtesy and even tenderness of our military commanders, to a man whom they cannot but honor in defeat.[1]
Miss Emma Holmes, a citizen of Charleston, confirmed this: “all sympathized deeply with [Anderson] and shouted applause every time he fired.”[2] But, like the men at Sumter, many of the ladies of Charleston were busy preparing cartridge bags. “During the morning a demand for cartridge bags for the Dahlgren guns was made,” Holmes recorded. “The elder ladies cut and about twenty girls immediately went to work, all seated on the floor, while we set one to watch and report.”[3] The whole scene seemed somewhat surreal. “The tempestuous weather of the preceding night had been succeeded by a lovely April day,” a Confederate officer wrote. “Negroes were busily at work in the fields of James Island, the air was vocal with birds, and vegetation was as forward as it would have been a month later in the middle country from which the regiment had come. Contrasting strangely with this lovely rural scenery and continued pursuit of peaceful avocations, the roar and reverberation of the distant bombardment called attention to the doomed fortress in the bay.”[4]
Lincoln’s several supply ships finally arrived, but they refused to enter Charleston Harbor.
The Battle of Fort Sumter lasted 34 hours, killed no one, and wasted 4,000 Confederate rounds and 1,000 Federal rounds. At that point, it was one of the largest artillery battles ever fought on North American soil.
An internal accident, however, had destroyed many of the shells at Sumter. After this had happened, Sumter had to quit firing in order to put their own fires out. The internal explosion had also destroyed part of the barrier wall. Many C.S.A. thought this was it—the fort was now open and unprotected, simply awaiting an amphibious infantry invasion.
When Doubleday ran up to a gun and fired it in response to the wall breaching, his southern opponents cheered for him loudly (so loudly, in fact, it could be heard across the harbor), and then resumed their own firing.
On April 13, Anderson finally agreed to the surrender terms—if they were the same as had been given before: that men could take all property and possessions with them; that they would be given safe passage to any northern port; that the Union flag could be saluted on lowering; and that he would turn over his personal sword.
The salute to the flag was especially important to Anderson. To be certain, no one more than Anderson deserved it. Anderson wanted a huge salute –a 100 cannon shot salute. Still, the salute ended in tragedy. While there had been no casualties during the battle, the 48thshot had exploded, killing two men and wounding four others.
Anderson couldn’t believe it—not only had his actions led to war, as he had feared, but he’d just killed two of his men after safely seeing them through the first shots of the Civil War.
Anderson’s official report read:
Having defended Fort Sumter for thirty-four hours, until the quarters were entirely burned, the main gates destroyed by fire, the gorge walls seriously injured, the magazine surrounded by flames, and its door closed from the effects of heat, four barrels and three cartridges of powder only being available, and no provisions remaining but pork, I accepted terms of evacuation offered by General Beauregard, being the same offered by him on the 11th instant, prior to the commencement of hostilities, and marched out of the fort Sunday afternoon, the 14th instant, with colors flying and drums beating, bringing away company and private property, and saluting my flag with fifty guns. [Official Records of the War of the Rebellion]
That same day, the Confederate Stars and Bars replaced the stars and stripes at Fort Sumter.
Nothing happened for about two days after the news reached the North, as most northerners were in deep shock by the events at Fort Sumter. When the news hit New York City about 5:00pm, almost 12 hours after the first shots had been fired, the New York Times reported that “the telegraphic wife brought the long looked-for intelligence that WAR HAS BEGUN, and that the forces of the Confederated Traitors have struck the first blow.”[5] The shock of the North then turned to anger by the third day after the opening shots, and a reaction “swept everything before it,” L.E. Chittenden remembered. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, as if at the call of a trumpet, the united voice of the loyal North denounced the treason and invoked judgment on the traitors.”[6]
The New York Times reported on April 15 that “the indignation in the North is so deep and lasting that there would probably be very little difficulty in raising two hundred thousand men for active service immediately,” should Lincoln need so many to put down the rebellion.[7]
“Civil War is actually upon us, and, strange to say, it brings a feeling of relief; the suspense is over,” John Sherman wrote his brother, William, on April 12, 1861. “Whatever you may think of the signs of the times, the government will rise from this strife greater, stronger, and more prosperous than ever. It will display energy and military power.”[8]
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Notes:
[1]Caroline Gilman, “Letters of a Confederate Mother,” 507.
[2]Marszalek, ed., Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 27.
[3]Marszalek, ed., Diary of Miss Emma Holmes, 28.
[4]Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Secession, 32.
[5]“The News in New-York,” New York Times (April 13, 1861), 1.
[6]L.E. Chittenden, Recollections of President Lincoln and His Administration (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1891), 106-107. See also Frederick W. Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat, 1830-1915 (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916), 151-152.
[7]“News of the Day,” New York Times (April 15, 1861), 4.
[8]J. Sherman to W.T. Sherman, in Sherman, Recollections, 243-245.
The featured image is Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, April 14, 1861, under the first Confederate national flag (the ‘Stars and Bars’), after the surrender. It is in the public domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
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