Fort Sumter was the site of the first shot fired in the American Civil War (1861-1865). On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on the fort, which stood on an island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina. The following day, after heavy bombardment, United States troops under Major Robert Anderson surrendered to Confederate forces led by General Pierre G. T. Beauregard. On April 14, the U.S. troops withdrew from the fort. Not a single person was killed in the battle, the first in what would become the country’s bloodiest war.
Fort Sumter had been a symbol of sovereignty (supreme authority) for both the North and the South since December 1860, when South Carolina became the first Southern State to secede (withdraw) from the Union. After South Carolina’s secession, the two sides turned their guns toward each other. The crisis reached its peak when President Abraham Lincoln ordered that supplies be sent to the fort. The Confederacy chose to fire on the fort rather than allow it to be resupplied.
The Union sought to retake the fort several times. But the Stars and Stripes did not fly over Fort Sumter again until February 1865. Fort Sumter was transferred from the U.S. Army to the National Park Service in April 1948. A week later, the site was designated a national monument. In 1960, nearby Fort Moultrie was added to the monument. In 2019, the national monument was upgraded to become the Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park .
