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• The battle of Fort Sumter began early in the morning of April 12, 1861, when the Confederate Army, led by Brigadier General Beauregard, opened fire on Fort Sumter.

• Fast Facts

  1. First battle of the U.S. Civil War
  2. Location: Charleston Harbor, South Carolina
  3. Date: April 12, 1861 - April 13, 1861
  4. Union Commander: Major Robert Anderson
  5. Confederate Commander: Brigadier General P.G.T. Beauregard
  6. Winner: Confederate States

• Civil War Begins

  On April 12, 1861, at 4:30 a.m., Beauregard ordered his men to open fire on Fort Sumter. They bombarded the fort for 34 hours.National Park Service: Fort Sumter No one on either side was killed during the exchange. On April 13, at 2:30 pm, Major Anderson surrendered. The fort was evacuated the next day. Anderson's one condition for the surrender was to be allowed to fire a 100-gun salute to the U.S. Flag; ironically, it was during this ceremony that the only two people to die in the Battle of Fort Sumter were killed.US Civil War Research: Fort Sumter

• Quotes

  "Our Southern brethren have done grievously, they have rebelled and have attacked their father's house and their loyal brothers. They must be punished and brought back, but this necessity breaks my heart."— Major Robert AndersonGoogle Books: The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865

  "The firing on that fort will inaugurate a civil war greater than any the world has yet seen...you will lose us every friend at the North. You will wantonly strike a hornet's nest which extends from mountains to ocean. Legions now quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is unnecessary. It puts us in the wrong. It is fatal."—Written to Jefferson Davis by Robert Toombs about Fort Sumter.Civil War Home: Opinion

  "What a change now greets us! The Government is aroused, the dead North is alive, and its divided people united...The cry now is for war, vigorous war, war to the bitter end, and war till the traitors are effectually and permanently put down."—Frederick Douglass in May 1861.Google Books: The Struggle for Equality: Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War

• Related Mahalo Pages

  United States | Abraham Lincoln | Charleston SC | 1861 | South Carolina

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