The election of Abraham Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republican Party in 1860 made the gap between North and South unbridgeable. Secession was now inevitable.

​​​​​​​South Carolina was first to act. Even before Lincoln had assumed office, the state legislature passed a motion of secession which was confirmed soon after by referendum. On December 20, South Carolina formally announced her withdrawal from the United States. In Congress, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed, which in essence resurrected the old Missouri Compromise, drawing a line across the continent to divide slave states from free. But it was far too late. By February 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had all seceded, and others followed later.

All of these states issued statements of secession, and all of them cited “slavery” as their reason for seceding. “For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery. …A brief history of the rise, progress, and policy of anti-slavery and the political organization into whose hands the administration of the Federal Government has been committed will fully justify the pronounced verdict of the people of Georgia.” “A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union …. Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world.” “An increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery, has led to a disregard of their obligations, and the laws of the General Government have ceased to effect the objects of the Constitution …. Thus the constituted compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non-slaveholding States, and the consequence follows that South Carolina is released from her obligation.” “In all the non-slave-holding States … based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color—a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law …. By the secession of six of the slave-holding States, and the certainty that others will speedily do likewise, Texas has no alternative but to remain in an isolated connection with the North, or unite her destinies with the South.” “The Federal Government, having perverted said powers, not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern Slaveholding States… the people of Virginia, do declare and ordain that the ordinance adopted by the people of this State … whereby the Constitution of the United States of America was ratified … are hereby repealed and abrogated.”

When Lincoln assumed office on March 4, 1861, he was faced with what has been famously called a “slave-holder’s rebellion”. Since the time of the campaign, Lincoln had portrayed the conflict as a struggle to maintain the National Union and democracy: “We must settle this question now,” he remarked, “whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the inability of the people to govern themselves.” Although Lincoln was personally opposed to the institution of slavery, he did not openly adopt the abolitionist position of outlawing it—partly because of the political ramifications which that would have produced in the “border states” who, though opposed to secession, were ambivalent about the issue of ending slavery.

But, ideology and politics aside, now Lincoln faced the practical problem of dealing with the rebellion—and the focus of this attention fell upon Fort Sumter in South Carolina. When that state seceded, the US Army held two forts at the mouth of Charleston Harbor. Fort Moultrie had been built during the Revolutionary War and rebuilt since then: Fort Sumter, which lay directly across the channel, was larger and newer. Both forts were under the command of Major Robert Anderson, who had been there only a month. Although his personal views were pro-slavery, he was opposed to secession and remained loyal to the Union. When South Carolina seceded, Anderson decided that he didn’t have enough troops or supplies to hold both forts: he therefore withdrew from Fort Moultrie and concentrated all his forces at Fort Sumter.

The political situation surrounding the Fort was delicate. South Carolina and the new Confederate States of America viewed the Federal troops there as foreign occupiers and demanded possession of the Fort; Anderson, a staunch Union supporter, refused to leave. Lincoln did not want to abandon Anderson and the Fort and was determined to protect what he viewed as US Government property, but he also did not want to undertake any aggressive actions that might antagonize states like Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Kentucky, which had not yet voted to secede and which he hoped might all still be persuaded to remain in the Union. And Lincoln had a time limit: the Fort had enough provisions for about a month: if it was not relieved and resupplied by the middle of April, Anderson would be forced to surrender. (President John Buchanan, as one of his last acts in office, had tried to resupply Fort Sumter that February, but the unarmed merchant ship he sent had quickly retreated when the Confederate batteries in the harbor fired warning shots at it.)

Lincoln decided that he would send a convoy to Fort Sumter with supplies of food and water, but he would not reinforce it with new troops and weapons. Now, the political pressure was on Confederate President Jefferson Davis. He had already demanded the surrender of the Fort and had been refused: it was now up to him whether to use force to prevent the Federals from being resupplied. In the end, Davis made his choice: he ordered the local Confederate military commander, General Pierre Beauregard, to once more demand the Fort’s surrender, and to take it if refused. At 4:30am on April 12, 1861, Beauregard’s cannon batteries opened up. The Civil War had begun.

Over the next day and a half, the Confederates poured over 3,000 shells into Fort Sumter. Finally, Major Anderson, low on supplies and with no hope of rescue or reinforcement, surrendered at 2:30pm on April 14. He and his men were carried back to New York on the convoy ships that had been unsuccessfully sent to supply them. Despite all the firing from both sides, nobody had been killed in the siege (except for one soldier who died in an accidental powder explosion).

Three days later, Virginia voted to secede, followed shortly afterwards by Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

After the Civil War, the abandoned ruins of Fort Sumter were rebuilt, with lower walls and newer guns. It was abandoned again in 1876 and used as a lighthouse, but when the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898 Sumter was once again restored and new gun batteries were added. In 1948 the site became a National Monument, and in 1966 the Fort was added to the Register of Historic Places.

Today, the Fort is part of the Fort Sumter National Monument in Charleston Harbor, which also contains the Revolutionary War site of Fort Moultrie. The Visitors Center contains exhibits and artifacts, and is the departure point for the ferry that takes visitors to the Fort.

Some photos from a visit.

The Visitors Center

Approaching the island

At the fort

The original walls were three stories tall, but most of that got blasted away during the war

A cannon port

This battery was added during the Spanish-American War

Shell damage

Looking towards the Confederate batteries