Book
The Battle of Fort Sumter
The Battle of Fort Sumter recounts the crisis in Charleston Harbor that turned secession into open war. After South Carolina left the Union, Major Robert Anderson moved his small federal garrison into Fort Sumter, where dwindling supplies and competing claims of sovereignty made the unfinished fort the focus of national attention.
When Abraham Lincoln attempted to provision the garrison, Confederate commander P. G. T. Beauregard demanded its evacuation. Artillery opened fire before dawn on 12 April 1861, and Anderson surrendered the following day after a prolonged bombardment. The engagement caused no combat deaths during the firing itself, but its political consequences were immediate: Lincoln called for troops, additional slave states seceded, and the dispute over federal property became the beginning of the American Civil War.
Saul David
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