The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Battle of Fort Sumter
ISBN: 9781985449978
$9.99
*Explains the events that led up to the Battle of Fort Sumter, including the preparations in Charleston Harbor on both sides.
*Includes accounts of the fighting and reports by Beauregard, Anderson, Doubleday, and other participants.
*Includes pictures of important people and places.
"I am of the opinion that, if Sumter was properly garrisoned and armed, it would be a perfect Gibraltar to anything but constant shelling, night and day, from the four points of the compass. As it is, the weakness of the garrison constitutes our greatest advantage, and we must, for the present, turn our attention to preventing it from being re-enforced." - P.G.T. Beauregard
At 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War. For nearly 36 hours, Beauregard's Confederates unleashed a general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars positioned at various points across the Harbor, including at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan Island, Fort Johnson off James Island, Cummings Point on Morrison Island, and a specially designed floating battery.
Almost immediately, the inherent weakness of Fort Sumter became apparent to its defenders. The fort had been designed to withstand a naval assault, and naval warships of that time did not mount guns capable of elevating high enough to shoot over the walls of forts, but the Confederates' land-based cannons could lob artillery shells and mortar directly inside Fort Sumter. Though the defenders managed to protect themselves inside the Fort, their return fire was completely ineffective, and by the morning of April 13 the Fort was on fire, threatening the garrison.
*Includes accounts of the fighting and reports by Beauregard, Anderson, Doubleday, and other participants.
*Includes pictures of important people and places.
"I am of the opinion that, if Sumter was properly garrisoned and armed, it would be a perfect Gibraltar to anything but constant shelling, night and day, from the four points of the compass. As it is, the weakness of the garrison constitutes our greatest advantage, and we must, for the present, turn our attention to preventing it from being re-enforced." - P.G.T. Beauregard
At 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War. For nearly 36 hours, Beauregard's Confederates unleashed a general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars positioned at various points across the Harbor, including at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan Island, Fort Johnson off James Island, Cummings Point on Morrison Island, and a specially designed floating battery.
Almost immediately, the inherent weakness of Fort Sumter became apparent to its defenders. The fort had been designed to withstand a naval assault, and naval warships of that time did not mount guns capable of elevating high enough to shoot over the walls of forts, but the Confederates' land-based cannons could lob artillery shells and mortar directly inside Fort Sumter. Though the defenders managed to protect themselves inside the Fort, their return fire was completely ineffective, and by the morning of April 13 the Fort was on fire, threatening the garrison.