Fort Sumter - Fort in the United States of America , located in South Carolina . It was built in the first half of the XIX century to protect the port and the city of Charleston . The battle for Fort Sumter , which occurred on April 12, 1861, began the American Civil War .
Content
Construction
The fort was built after the Anglo-American War as one of the fortifications to protect the harbor of one of the most important ports in the United States at that time. Fort Sumter belonged to the forts of the "Third System", which was developed after the war of 1812, and was named in honor of General Thomas Sumter, the hero of the war of independence. Construction began in 1827, but was slow, and the fort was not fully completed by 1861, when it was in the Confederate States of America .
Fort during the Civil War
On the night of December 26, 1860, the federal garrison of Fort Moltry under the command of Robert Anderson occupied the fort. Confederate authorities demanded that the federal garrison of the fort leave the fort.
The First Battle of Fort Sumter
On April 8, 1861, the newly elected President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, decided to send to the standing with his troops in the fort, Major Robert Anderson, the supplies that were at the end. The expedition under the command of Gustav Fox, sent for this purpose, met with resistance as they approached the Charleston harbor, and as a result of the attack the convoy was forced to retreat.
On April 12, 1861, artillery of the Confederation began shelling the fort, in which there were Union soldiers. The fort was surrendered the next day, after 36 hours of shelling. Despite the intense fire, no one was killed on either side.
The Second Battle of Fort Sumter
The fort remained in the hands of the Confederates almost until the end of the war, despite several attempts to capture it from the sea by Union forces. From April 1863, he was under frequent attacks of ships and artillery battery guns, arranged on the islands surrounding it. The Confederates left the fort on February 17, 1865, when the Union army under the command of William T. Sherman approached Charleston from the south, coming from Savannah , Georgia .
Fort during World War I
Fort during World War II
In 1948, the fort was declared a national monument of the United States [1] .
Notes
- ↑ National Park Service: Fort Sumter (PDF; 39 kB) , 2005
Links
- An article in The American Cyclopædia (English)
- Museum site "Fort Sumter"