[Illustration: Fort Sumter Today]
From Wartime Ruin to National Monument
The task of clearing the rubble and ruin of war from the interior of
Fort Sumter began in the 1870s. In the forefront of the project was
Quincy A. Gillmore, whose Union gunners were responsible for most of the
destruction in the first place. The outer walls of the gorge and right
flank, largely demolished by the shellfire, were partially rebuilt. The
other walls of the fort, left jagged and torn 30 to 40 feet above the
water, were leveled to approximately half their original height. Through
a left flank casemate, where a barracks once stood, a new sally port was
constructed. Within the fort itself, earth and concrete supports for 10
rifled and smoothbore guns mounted _en barbette_ (guns placed on an open
parapet) began to take shape.
Construction was well advanced by June 1876, when a shortage of funds
forced suspension of activity. By that time, only three permanent
barbette platforms had been built; the other seven remained temporary
(wooden) platforms upon which were mounted four 8-inch Parrott rifles
and two 15-inch Rodman smoothbores. In a modification of the original
plan, 11 lower-tier gunrooms of the original fort along the right face
and about the salient had been repaired and armed with 6.4-inch
Parrotts. These 17 guns, in a gradually deteriorating state, constituted
Fort Sumter’s armament for the next 23 years.
From 1876 to 1898, the fort stood largely neglected, important mainly as
a lighthouse station. Most of that time it was also ungarrisoned and in
the charge of a “fortkeeper” or an ordnance sergeant. Lacking
maintenance funds, Sumter, even then visited by thousands each year,
fell into a state of dilapidation. By 1887 the wooden barbette platforms
had rotted away so that “not one gun could be safely fired”; the neat
earth slopes had eroded into “irregular mounds”; and quantities of sand
had drifted onto the parade ground. At casemate level, salt water dashed
freely through the open embrasures, the shutters of which were no longer
in working order, and the guns rusted so badly that they could not be
moved on their tracks.
By the end of the century, the major world powers were building massive
steel navies, and the United States responded by modernizing its coastal
defenses. In 1899 two 12-inch breech-loading rifled guns were installed
at Fort Sumter, their position further strengthened by earth fill
extending to the top of the old walls. The massive concrete emplacement
for this battery (named for South Carolinian Isaac Huger, a major
general in the American Revolution) dominates the central portion of the
fort today. The guns, long since outmoded, were removed for scrap in
1943. During late World War II, Fort Sumter was armed with four 90-mm
guns manned by a company of Coast Artillery. The fort, transferred from
the War Department to the National Park Service, became a national
monument on July 12, 1948.
The following guide highlights the main historical portions of Fort
Sumter today. There is no set sequence by which to see the fort, but you
may want to refer to the photograph on pages 56-57 for orientation.
Hours of operation and tour boat schedules can be ascertained by calling
(843) 883-3123.
What to See at Fort Sumter
Sally Port
This present-day entrance to Fort Sumter, runs through the center of the
fort’s left flank wall. It was built after the Civil War and replaced a
gun embrasure. A marker on the left flank near the sally port honors
Sumter’s Confederate defenders. The original sally port entered through
the gorge at the head of a 171-foot stone wharf which once jutted out
from the center of the esplanade. The esplanade, a 25½-foot-wide
promenade and landing space, extended the full length of the gorge
exterior at its base.
[Illustration: Sally port]
Left-Flank Casemates
The first tier of casemates (gunrooms) was surmounted by a second tier
identical in appearance. At the time of the April 12, 1861, bombardment
these casemates contained several 32-pounders, most of which bore on
Fort Johnson. Above the second-tier casemates, guns were mounted _en
barbette_ on an open terre-plein. This arrangement was also used on the
fort’s right flank and on its right and left faces. Each casemate
contained one gun, which could be moved on a track in order to adjust
the angle of fire through the embrasure. Fort Sumter was designed for an
armament of 135 guns and a garrison of 650 men. There are now two guns
mounted on the casemate carriages in the left flank. The one on the left
of the sally port is a rifled and banded 42-pounder; the one on the
right is a 42-pounder smoothbore. Shielded (by the mass of the gorge)
from Federal guns on Morris Island, the left-flank casemates were used
as a Confederate headquarters and hospital. The lower half of the outer
wall retained its full height until the end of the siege, but was
leveled to approximately half this during the 1870s.
[Illustration: Casemates]
[Illustration: Cannon in casemate]
Fort Sumter Today
[Illustration: Fort Sumter Today]
As is clear by comparing the painting on pages 8-9 with the
photograph, Fort Sumter today bears only a superficial resemblance to
its original appearance. The multi-tiered work of 1861 was reduced
largely to rubble during the Civil War, and Battery Huger, built
across the parade ground at the time of the Spanish-American War,
dominates the site.
The following labels identify the main features of the present fort.
Each is keyed by number to the photograph.
1/Left Face Casemate Ruins
2/Left Flank Casemates
3/Right Face
4/Right Flank
5/Right Gorge Angle
6/Sally Port
7/Parade Ground
8/Union Garrison Monument
9/Powder Magazine
10/Officers’ Quarters Ruins
11/Enlisted Men’s Barracks Ruins
12/Esplanade
13/Granite Wharf Remains
14/12-Pounder Mountain Howitzer
15/Battery Huger
16/Museum
Left Face
During the 1863-65 siege of Charleston, reverse fire from Union gunners
on Morris Island crossed the parade and struck the interior of the left
face, destroying the arched brick casemates. Holes caused by these
shots, as well as several projectiles themselves, are still visible in
the wall. Outside the casemate ruins are two 15-inch smoothbore Rodman
guns, an 8-inch Columbiad, and a 10-inch mortar.
[Illustration: Left face]
Right Face
Guns mounted on the lower tier of this face dueled with Fort Moultrie in
the initial Confederate attack of 1861. Since the angle of the face
allowed it to escape the destructive fire from Federal batteries on
Morris Island, its outer wall still stood almost at full height in
February 1865. After the destructive bombardments of August 1863, the
Confederate garrison mounted three guns in the first-tier casemates just
above the right shoulder angle. Referred to as the “Palmetto Battery,”
because of the protective log cover raised on the exterior, this
three-gun position was the sole offensive armament of the fort for
several months. All the lower-tier casemates were reclaimed in the 1870s
and armed with 100-pounder Parrott rifled cannon. These guns, rusted and
worn, were the same type of cannon (and possibly the identical pieces)
used by the Federals on Morris Island to bombard Fort Sumter from 1863
to 1865. They were buried with the casemates after Battery Huger was
constructed. When the parade ground was excavated in 1959 these
casemates were opened and 11 of these Parrott guns were uncovered. They
are now displayed in this face.
[Illustration: Right face]
Right Gorge Angle
From a gun in the first-tier casemates, Capt. Abner Doubleday fired the
first shot from Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. This section also
sustained the deepest penetration of Confederate shot and shell in the
initial attack.
[Illustration: Right gorge angle]
Officers’ Quarters
A three-story brick building extended the entire length of the gorge (or
back wall). In it were quarters for officers, administrative offices,
storerooms, powder magazines, and guardhouse. Most of the wooden
portions of the building burned during the initial Confederate
bombardment in 1861. The small-arms magazine here exploded on December
11, 1863, killing 11 and wounding 41 Confederates. The explosion also
tilted the arch over the magazine’s entrance. (The effects of that
explosion are still visible today.)
[Illustration: Officers’ quarters]
Enlisted Men’s Barracks
Paralleling the left flank casemates, are the ruins of a three-story
enlisted men’s barracks which originally rose slightly above the fort
walls. Another enlisted men’s barracks, identical to this one, was on
the right flank directly opposite this wall.
[Illustration: Enlisted men’s barracks]
Garrison Monument
The U.S. Government erected this monument in 1932 “in memory of the
garrison defending Fort Sumter during the bombardment of April 12-14,
1861.” The tablet contains a roster of the original garrison that served
under Major Anderson.
[Illustration: Garrison monument]
Mountain Howitzer
Confederates used several light field pieces, like this 12-pounder
mountain howitzer, to defend against a surprise assault by Union
infantry troops during the 1863-65 siege.
[Illustration: Mountain howitzer]
Other Points of Interest
Fort Moultrie
Three different Fort Moultries have occupied this site. The first, a
hastily constructed palmetto-log fort, was built in 1776 to protect
Charleston against British attack; the second, a five-sided earth and
timber fort, was completed in 1798 as part of the new Nation’s first
organized system of coastal defense; and the third, a more formidable
masonry structure begun after the second fort was destroyed by a
hurricane in 1804, has remained structurally intact and modified only by
the replacement of old weapons with new as technology changed.
During the Civil War, while the struggle for Charleston Harbor centered
on Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie was far from idle and became “a very
formidable enemy” to Federal forces. It powerful guns played an
important role in the Confederate bombardment of Sumter in 1861. From
April 1863 to February 1865, Forts Moultrie and Sumter were the chief
defenders of Charleston as repeated Federal land and sea forces hammered
at them. “From 1861 to 1865,” one historian has written, “Fort Moultrie
found itself engaged in perhaps its strangest period of coastal
vigilance: defending the Confederate States of America against the
United States of America.”
The fort today is part of Fort Sumter National Monument and has been
restored to interpret the history of nearly 100 years of seacoast
defense. From the Harbor Entrance Control Post of World War II the
visitor moves steadily backward in time to the exhibit recounting the
fateful attack of the British fleet against the first Fort Moultrie in
1776. The visitor center contains a display of artifacts recovered
during the restoration. It also provides a film and slide show which
documents the proud heritage of coastal fortifications in the United
States. The grave of Seminole Chief Osceola, who died a prisoner at
Moultrie in 1838, is just outside the sally port. Nearby is a monument
listing the Federal sailors who died aboard the monitor _Patapsco_, when
it was sunk in Charleston Harbor on January 15, 1865.
Battery Jasper, built adjacent to Fort Moultrie in 1898, is also a part
of the national monument. Named in honor of Sergeant Jasper of
Revolutionary War fame, this strong seacoast defense work mounted four
powerful 10-inch “disappearing” cannon and, though unimpressive in
appearance, was infinitely stronger than early masonry structures built
to protect Charleston Harbor before the Civil War.
Fort Moultrie is about 10 miles east of Charleston on Sullivan’s Island.
Follow US 17 north from the city, then take US 17 (business) to Mount
Pleasant and turn right onto SC 703. From there follow the signs to the
park visitor center across from the fort on Middle Street.
[Illustration: Battery Jasper]
James Island
James Island contains the site of Fort Johnson, from which the opening
shot of the Civil War was fired on April 12, 1861. All that remains of
the fort are an early 19th-century brick powder magazine, a
commemorative marker, and traces of the Confederate earthworks of
1863-65. To reach the site, follow US 17 south from Charleston and,
after crossing the Ashley River, take the Folly Island turnoff onto
Folly Road (SC 171). Proceed 4.7 miles, then turn left onto Fort Johnson
Road, which dead ends at the South Carolina Wildlife and Marine Resource
Department.
[Illustration: James Island]
Castle Pinckney
Castle Pinckney, one of the first masonry casemated forts in the United
States, was built in 1810. The circular structure, named for Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney, a South Carolina Revolutionary War leader, was one
of the first Federal installations seized by South Carolina militia on
December 27, 1860. Though too far out of range to take part in any of
the fighting during the Civil War years, the fort was still a vital link
in the Confederate defenses of Charleston. After the war it was
maintained as a harbor light station until 1929.
[Illustration: Castle Pinckney]
The Battery
The Battery, or White Point Gardens as it is more formally known, has
been a public park since the 1830s and is one of Charleston’s most
picturesque and historic settings. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil
War, Confederate engineers erected huge earthen fortifications here
which withstood the shelling of the Union guns mounted on Morris Island.
The fortifications were abandoned and the heaviest guns destroyed when
Charleston was evacuated in February 1865. The Battery today contains
some of the most elegant structures in the city.
[Illustration: The Battery]
For Further Reading
E. Milby Burton, _The Siege of Charleston, 1861-1865_. Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press, 1970.
Bruce Catton, _The Coming Fury_. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company,
1961.
Peter M. Chaitin & the Editors of Time-Life Books, _The Coastal War:
Chesapeake Bay to Rio Grande_. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books,
1984.
Mary Boykin Chesnut, _A Diary From Dixie_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1949.
Samuel W. Crawford, _The Genesis of the Civil War: The History of the
Fall of Fort Sumter_. New York: J. A. Hill & Company, 1898.
Richard N. Current, _Lincoln and the First Shot_. Philadelphia & New
York: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1963.
William C. Davis & the Editors of Time-Life Books, _Brother Against
Brother: The War Begins_. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books,
1983.
Abner Doubleday, _Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie in
1860-’61_. Spartanburg, S.C.: The Reprint Company, 1976.
Originally published in 1876.
Robert U. Johnson & Clarence C. Buel, editors, _Battles and Leaders of
the Civil War_. 4 Volumes. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, Inc.,
1956. Volumes 1 and 4.
Emanuel Raymond Lewis, _Seacoast Fortifications of the United States: An
Introductory History_. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1970.
Kenneth M. Stampp, _And the War Came_. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1950.
Philip Van Doren Stern, compiler, _Prologue to Sumter: The Beginnings of
the Civil War from the John Brown Raid to the Surrender of Fort
Sumter_. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1961.
W. A. Swanberg, _First Blood: The Story of Fort Sumter_. New York:
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957.
U.S. War Department, _War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the
Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies_.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880. Series
I, Volumes I, XIV, XXVIII, & XXXV.
★GPO: 1984—421-611/10003
Handbook 127
_Illustration Credits_
Architect of the U.S. Capitol: 4-5, 50-51;
Art Commission of the City of New York: 6;
William A. Bake: cover, 52-53, 55, 56-57, 58, 59, 61, 62;
_Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_: 36 (Dahlgren), 41 (Shaw), 49;
_Civil War Times Illustrated_: 14-15;
Collection of City Hall, Charleston, S.C.: 12;
Fort Sumter National Monument: 16, 26 (Chesnut), 37, 44-45;
_Harper’s Pictorial History of the Great Rebellion_: 19, 20-21, 22,
23, 25, 35, 38 (Seymour);
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York: 30-31 (painting);
National Park Service: 18 (Floyd), 26, 27, 28, 29, 30-31 (flags), 34,
36 (Gillmore), 38 (Rhett), 40-41 (battle scene), 42, 46, 48,
51 (inset);
L. Kenneth Townsend: 8-9.
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
As the Nation’s principal conservation agency, the Department of the
Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally owned public
lands and natural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of
our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife,
preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks
and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through
outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral
resources and works to assure that their development is in the best
interest of all our people. The Department also has a major
responsibility for American Indian reservation communities and for
people who live in island territories under U.S. administration.
Transcriber’s Notes
—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
is public-domain in the country of publication.
—Relocated all image captions to be immediately under the corresponding
images, removing redundant references like ”preceding page”.
—Silently corrected a few palpable typos.
—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
_underscores_.
End of Project Gutenberg's Fort Sumter: Anvil of War, by National Park Service