Emerging revolutionary war, mark maloy is a historian with the National Parks service, and hes like what can i do thats revolutionary war and its like, mark, no, this is the civil war. Hes like, whoa so we decided we would let him come talk about fort sumter, its as close as we can get in the war to the revolutionary war era. I say all that because mark is a delightful historian, wonderful guy, i wish i could get him to laugh on cue, his most distinctive feature is his laugh. We like to get him pumped up and going. Were delighted to have him come here today to speak the first shots of the civil war at fort sumter. Mark . Thank you very much for that introduction, chris. And its a pleasure to be able to speak at this symposium for the emerging civil war. Wed love to have done it in person but being able to do it digitally like this is a wonderful way to do it as well. So but yeah, as chris mentioned, you know, my main passion is the American Revolutionary war. But, you know, i work for the National Parks service and we take care of, you know, a lot of important civil war sites. I actually started my career with the National Parks service as an intern down at fort sumter and fort mole tree National Historical park in charleston, South Carolina and i worked there for about a year and charleston, South Carolina, if youve never been, is a beautiful town, a lot of history, revolutionary war history but most people associate it with its important Civil War History and the war started there back in 1861, in april. So over the next 45 minutes im going to kind of go over the buildup to the first shots of the civil war there, im going to tell you about the battle that happened on april 12th and april 13th. And then im going to tell you what happened at fort sumter in the city following that for the rest of the war. And then whats there today. And kind of what you can see. And definitely encourage you, if you get a chance, to go down and visit at some point. Hopefully after covid, and be able to check out a lot of these important historical sites that are pretty well preserved down there. But i really love the battles at fort sumter. And theres a lot of high profile characters and personalities involved in the opening shots of the war. And im going to go through some of those as we talked to. And fort sumter also is really a microcosm of the civil war and how it started off as this kind of gentlemanly engagement that was remarkably bloodless that led to the bloodiest war in American History and the war really devolves in charleston where theres atrocities happening and it becomes a bloody war in Charleston Harbor towards the end and its also really an important story to know and understand. If youre going to study the civil war, you know historians often are debating the causes of secession and why the south seceded but its also, you know, secession didnt necessarily mean there would be a shooting war. Its important to understand how to first shots actually came to be fired to understand why the war broke out as well. And fort sumter, at its time, was a symbol. It was a highly symbolic, and it still is to this very day so its really important to understand as well. But the story of fort sumter, of course, starts with the secession of South Carolina, which happened on december 20th, 1860. After Abraham Lincoln was elected in november they held their convention, originally it was in columbia, then it went to charleston and charleston was a hot bed for secession. There were a lot of secessionists there, they were very eager to leave the union and on december 20th they vote unanimously, 1690, to secede from the union. And that day was filled in charleston in the city with all sorts of celebrations, there were fireworks, bonfires, military parades, all sorts of things as they struck out on their own. As you can see in the broadside that was in the charleston mercury, the newspaper down there, proclaimed loudly that the union is dissolved. But in order to understand the military situation in Charleston Harbor kind of have to see what the geography looks like. So you can see this map from about that time in 1861. Showing the city of charleston. Youll notice its on a peninsula, bounded by the ashley and cooper rivers. Charlestonians like to say its where the cooper and ashley rivers converged to form the atlantic ocean. But you can see Charleston Harbor is surrounded all around by numerous islands. And there were four main fortifications in the harbor that were historically in the harbor to defend the city against, really, Foreign Invasion and so you can see just off of the side of the city is a small little shoel with castle pick knee right here, just to the south of the city of charleston is james island which had an old fort on there called fort johnson. Here in the middle of the harbor on an island was fort sumter. And then over here on Sullivans Island on the north end of the harbor side was fort multry. These are the four principal forts and it was fort multry where most of the United States soldiers in charleston at that time were stationed and so this is the commander of the Union Soldiers. They were in charleston when South Carolina seceded. His name was major Robert Anderson and hes in command of companies e and h of the first u. S. Artillery, really only about 85 men that hes commanding that are in this in charleston. Its important to realize how small the United States army was at the outset of the war. You only have about 15,000 Union Soldiers across the entire nation at the time. And so, you know, they were kind of spread out all across the country and like i said less than a hundred here in Charleston Harbor and of those 85 men eight were musicians in the regimental band so it was a pretty sleepy post and most of the men, its interesting, who were actually in the first u. S. Artillery were immigrants that came from a lot of them came from ireland and germany. And major Robert Anderson is an interesting figure too because hes actually a southerner. Hes from kentucky. And he was very much against the idea of secession, but he really wasnt in favor of any sort of war. He writes his heart wasnt really in the war that he foresaw coming. He was in a tricky situation, basically it came down to Property Rights in Charleston Harbor, where these federal forts, these installations, were these part of the new republic of South Carolina, or were they part of the United States government. And thats where a lot of the argument will come over as far as who should fire the first shot. But hes his father was a revolutionary war veteran who actually fought with George Washington at the battles of trenton and princeton and he had many other officers under his command who would go on to play Important Roles during the war. He had lieutenant norman hall who would go on to have an Important Role at gettysburg, same thing with samuel crawford, a surgeon, he had lieutenant Jefferson Davis, not Jefferson Davis who was the president of the Confederate States but jefferson c. Davis who would go on to fight in the western theater of the war. And captain truman seymour. Seymour would go on to lead troops at the battle of lusty later in the war. Its interesting how many of his officers end up having Important Roles later in the war. This is probably one of the officers under his command there at fort multry who would have a big role later in the war too. Captain Abner Doubleday, captain at the time who would go on to have a big role at gettysburg. Hes more famous, though, today. People think he started the game of baseball, which of course is not true. But thats how he was remembered. Hes interesting because most of the officers that were under Robert Anderson were not abolitionists and were not really republicans. But Abner Doubleday was and he was very outspoken about it and a lot of people in charleston didnt like that. He was singled out in a lot of newspapers for a lot of their vitriol. But hes going to be outspoken in his defense of the union and in his wanting to get rid of slavery. Well, Robert Anderson felt what happened was South Carolina militia started flowing into the city of charleston. Anderson didnt think that he was going to be able to hold his position at fort multry. And on december 26th, hes going to make a bold move, move his entire force across the harbor into fort sumter. Now, this act in and of itself, some south carolinians saw as an act of war because they viewed these installations as belonging to South Carolina. So moving troops into that fort, they were very much opposed to. But anderson didnt think he could hold fort multry because it was so close to the mainland, and he felt that, you know, houses and things right around the fort, the southerners would be able to get up in there and fire into his men. He didnt think he would be able to hold that position. So he moves over to fort sumter. Now, this is an image showing them raising the American Flag inside fort sumter, there was a painting done later, but its very interesting because it kind of gives you a glimpse on the inside of fort sumter. Fort sumter was started back in 1829 and it was still under construction when anderson moves his men there in december of 1860. So they were still, you know, working on it 30 years after they started it. As you can see inside the fort it was almost 90 , though, complete. You can see there were imposing walls that stood 50 feet high. There were three tiers of artillery placements. The fort was pretty massive for that time and they were able originally it was built to hold over 600 men. Anderson doesnt have that many. Hes not even going to be able to use all the call nones, built to hold 135 cannons and there were only about 60 in the fort at this time but because of his manpower hes only going to be actually able to man about ten cannons during the actual battle. But let me also show you, this is what it looked like from the outside. And fort sumter was a pretty imposing fortress sitting in the middle of the harbor. And whats going to happen is once the charlestonians wake up and they see a large American Flag flying over fort sumter theyre outraged. And so immediately governor Francis Pickens is going to order all of the installations around the harbor to be seized by South Carolina troops. So here you can see an image of some of the South Carolina militia taking over Castle Pickney. They didnt even have a symbol for their state yet. You can see theyre carrying a flag here with a star on it that they just took off the boat but quickly the South Carolinas are going to adopt as their symbol the palmetto tree. That was fort multry where that was built was the site of a famous revolutionary battle in 1776. The fort that was on that location was made out of palmetto trees and the soft wood absorbed the shock of british cannon balls and a british invasion force was pushed back in june of 1776. And South Carolina is going to adopt this as their symbol. Youll still see it to this day on South Carolinas state flag is the palmetto tree, that harkens back to the revolutionary war history but its the flag carried by the palmetto guards thats going to be stationed over on Morris Island during the initial bombardment of fort sumter. So this is kind of gives you a good map, by American Battlefield trust that gives you a good view of what it looked like in Charleston Harbor in 1861. You can see Sullivans Island, they took fort multry and started builting batteries there, and even built a floating battery, a raft with cannons on it, almost like an ironclad and it would float in the harbor and they could fire on the fort from there. Theyre going to take fort johnson and Castle Pickney and this island on the south, Morris Island would play an Important Role, during the first battle and later in the war as well. That position theyre going to fortify that island as well. And theres a battery there, thats manned by students from the citadel, the Military College there in charleston. And in january of 1861 president buchanan is going to send a ship down to resupply and reenforce fort sumter. As the ship is entering, the ship was called the star of the west. As the ship was entering Charleston Harbor, the Citadel Cadet battery fires on the ship and theyre going to fire a few rounds as warning shots and then they fire and actually hit the ship. The ship does not fire back, its going to turn around and leave. But some, and this is a drawing, you can see of the Citadel Cadets firing on the star of the west, you know some people claim these are the first shots of the civil war. But that would probably be Citadel Cadets and alumni of that college. But theres no return fire so what basically happens is it goes back into a stalemate in Charleston Harbor, trying to figure out whats going to happen next. So basically what happens, as the stalemate continues six more Southern States are going to secede from the union in january and february and march of 1861. They come together in february in montgomery, alabama, form the Confederate States of america. Theyre going to, you know, create their own constitution, create their own government, elect Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stevens as president and Vice President and they start forming an army. The new Confederate States are going to appoint this man, pierre gustav as the command of the Confederate Forces in charleston, harbor. Hes interesting as well. Resigned from being superintendent at west point to join the confederacy. And when he was a student at west point, who was his professor, none other than major Robert Anderson so now you have the pupil and his teacher on opposite sides of this what would turn out to be the first battlefield of the civil war. Now, sumter is going to continue to sit there as a symbol of the impasse thats happened in the country at that time. There was a woman, mary chestnut, who has a wonderful civil war diary that was in charleston during this time. And mary chestnut writes in april of 1861, at the beginning of the month, that there stands fort sumter and there by hangs peace or war. She also refers to the fact that ones heart is in ones mouth all the time. There was this constant fear that eventually war would break out and Charleston Harbor would be the scene of it. Basically whats happening is nobodys sure of whats going to happen with the situation once president lincoln becomes president and that happens on march 4th, 1861. Abraham lincolns inaugurated president of the United States. Hows he going to handle the situation differently than buchanan . There are numerous political attempts to try and avert war. Theres a Peace Convention in washington, d. C. There are numerous compromises, like the to push off war. A peace delegation from the Confederate States is sent to washington. All these are rejected and lincolns going to reject acknowledging the Confederate States of america, believing that secession was illegal and that it had no actual authority. So all of the communications between the United States government and South Carolina and the confederates is going to be through governor Francis Pickens who they viewed as legitimate but lincoln believed that the United States should hold the fort. Now something was happening on the ground there, though, because anderson and his men were running out of food and supplies and he wasnt going to be able to stay there forever. So he was running out of food and supplies so what is lincoln going to do . Lincoln is going to come up with the idea to send a relief force that would just deliver food and supplies to andersons men, but if they were opposed, if they were fired on they were going to bring reenforcements as well. Well, the confederate government views this delivering the food, but, you know, as an act of war, because, again, they didnt believe they had the right to the fort. So on april 4th the relief expedition is sent by lincoln to Charleston Harbor. On april 10th president Jefferson Davis tells bow regard to tell anderson to evacuate the fort meadely and if he doesnt to reduce the fort. The next day on april 11th, 1861 this man you see here is james chestnut, mary chestnuts husband who actually used to be senator from South Carolina who had resigned and was now a colonel in the Confederate Army who was an aid to boar guard, he along with captain steven d. Lee and lieutenant Alexander Chisholm will go out to meet with anderson and tell him his options. Anderson says that hes going to be that hes going to be starved out in just four days and that he will leave then. Chestnuts going to take that message back to beauregard and they discuss it and around midnight they go back out one more time and they say basically that they would need to leave immediately. And anderson doesnt agree to this. And so chestnut tells anderson, well then we will fire on you in exactly one hour. And the time was 3 30 in the morning. His wife is back in charleston. She writes in her diary that at that time i do not pretend to go to sleep. How can i . If anderson does not accept terms at 4 00, the orders are he shall be fired upon. I count four st. Michaels bells chime out and i begin to hope. At half past 4 00, the heavy booming of cannon, i sprang out of bed and on my knees prostrate i prayed as i never prayed before. Right after chestnut meets with anderson, hes in his group is going to go over to james island to fort johnson. At fort johnson they were joined also by a former virginia congressman who you see on the right side here named roger pryor. And roger pryor was a fire eater. He was really pushing to get virginia to secede but they hadnt at that point. And whats going to happen is chestnuts going to tell the commander of the mortar battery there, who is this man you see on the left, and his name was captain george s. James, who would actually die later in the war at the battle of south mountain. He gives him the command to fire the first shot at 4 30. James is going to give roger pryor the opportunity to fire the first shot and he demurs, he says he cannot fire the first gun of the war so instead a lieutenant henry s. Far lee is given the command to fire, hes going to yank the laniard and fire the ten inch mortar, the cannon ball arcs into the sky and explodes over fort sumter, that was the signal for all of the batteries around the harbor to fire on fort sumter. This was the first shot of the civil war. Some people say that wasnt the first shot and often you hear it, the first shot was this man who fired the first shot. This guy is edman roughen, a fascinating historical figure, very much a fire eater. He actually gained National Fame for being an agriculturalist before the civil war. He was from virginia. He was and basically from 1855 on he devoted himself to nothing but preaching secession. Sometimes known as the father of secession. He travels all across the country giving speeches. He writes pamphlets. Always looking to provoke secession. He actually snuck in and was able to witness the hanging of john brown and he went down to charleston to watch the secession of South Carolina. And he goes out to Morris Island and here he is almost 70 years old and the palmetto guards allow him into their company. You can see hes wearing the uniform of the palmetto guards and theyre going to give him the opportunity to fire the first shot after the signal went off. And hes at the iron battery which is right there on Morris Island and he yanks the laniard and his shot is the first one thats actually going to hit fort sumter. And he fires and hits the fort, Abner Doubleday who was in the fort remembers hearing that first blast hitting the fort and he said that he believed that came from compliments from mr. Ruffin. Mr. Ruffin keeps a diary throughout the whole war, a resource to see what he was thinking and to see a civilian perspective of the war. When he finds out the defeat of general lees army and the collapse of the confederacy, rather than submit to what he called yankee rule he actually is going to put his rifle in his mouth and shoot himself in the head, commit suicide. So some argument he fired the first and the last shot of the civil war. But once the battery opens up on fort sumter, there is no response. There are 43 cannons surrounding fort sumter that are all firing on the fort and at first major anderson is trying to conserve his powder so he doesnt fire back for a couple hours. Its not until 7 00 a. M. That the union are going to fire back the first shot and that was actually fired by Abner Doubleday, he fires the first shot in return. And all the sudden now you have both sides firing back at forth at each other and this is going to go on really for hours and hours. And every two minutes the confederates are firing from different batteries all around the entire island. Here you can see an image of them firing on the fort. And the bombardment is going to last a total of 34 hours. And meanwhile in the city of charleston you can see people all ran to rooftops and they ran up to watch the bombardment, you know similar to youll see at first manassass and stuff where civilians were watching the battle. Some were celebrating and some as you see weeping as well and you can see the batteries firing on all sides and smoke is billowing out of fort sumter as well. In addition to just, you know, artillery shells and artillery shot theyre also firing hot shot, which is basically where they would take cannon ball, put it in a furnace until it got red hot and these were noorjorigina used to fire at ships to catch them on fire and sink them but theyre using them on fort sumter to get the buildings inside there caught on fire and they start getting successful and they hit the buildings, andersons men are trying to fire back at the confederates and put out fires within the fort. And it starts getting pretty chaotic inside the fort. Anderson, at one point, only had six cannons hes firing back at everybody. Meanwhile, while this bombardment is going on on the 12th. Who appears on the coast, but the expedition that was sent to relieve major anderson. Now the confederates were scared that this group was going to try and land and try and attack them, or join in on the fight. But they dont join in at all. Much to the consternation of the defenders of fort sumter, they kind of are wondering if theyll get any relief or help during this battle but that doesnt happen. And here you see an image of the fire and the firing going on. Theres a doubleday writes memoirs after the war where he describes pretty much everything that happened and he has a great quote that really shows you how chaotic it was, he writes about showers of balls poured into the fort in one incessant stream. Great flakes immense mortar shells after sailing high in the air came down in a vertical direction and buried themselves in the ground their explosion shook the fort like an earthquake. Overnight of the 12th the unions going to stop firing again to try and conserve their ammunition but theyre going to resume on the morning of the 13th. Now, on the 13th theyre going to fire theyre going to fire and theyre actually going to catch the officers quarters on fire in the fort and that even leads to a larger fire and theres fear that eventually this fire is going to get to the powder magazine, which would blow up the entire fort. And around this time, around 1 00 p. M. In the afternoon on april 13th when a cannon ball hits the unions flag flying over the fort and knocks it to the ground and quickly some of the union defenders, included Sergeant Peter hart here you see climb up and replace as a hail of cannon balls, replace the American Flag on top of the fort. During this happening, when the confederates see the flag go down a big cheer erupts and they think they had just that anderson is surrendering. Immediately a United States senator, former United States senator louis wigforall rows ou to the fort to start negotiating with major anderson through the hes basically saying, you know, are you surrendering the fort . Anderson at first doesnt want to, but then he quickly realizes, again with everything happening, that he should surrender. So he agrees to wigfall that hell surrender the fort and puts up a white flag. Wigfall rows back and when beauregards men see the white flag go up chestnut goes back and theres confusion, wigfall had no authority to negotiate a surrender but after discussing with chestnut, you know anderson agrees again to surrender the fort but they would be given generous terms. Theyd be able to take their flag down and salute it with a cannon salute. Theyd all be able to go back to new york and take their personal possessions and their flags. And so they agree to this. On the next day, april 14th, is when the union prepares the leave. And while theyre firing their salute, it was supposed to be a hundred gun salute to the American Flag. When they get to number 47, disaster happens. Private daniel howe is loading the cannon when all the sudden the cannon goes off, rips off his arm. Hes going to bleed out and die. But some of the powder ignites powder around the cannon, an explosion happens. And about a half dozen are wounded. And one of the other men who was wounded would be mortally so. These are the First Military fatalities of the civil war. When anderson surrendered the fort he had asked, did the confederates have any casualties and they said no. And anderson didnt have casualties during the actual battle either, which was remarkable. But anderson also cries out thank god because he didnt want to be responsible for some of these first deaths. But these are this accident that happens, you know, like i said, are the first deaths. And, you know, theyre going to stop it at 50 gun salute rather than the 100 gun salute. They file out of the fort onto a ship and go back with the relief expedition back to new york. The confederates march in, theyll raise the palmetto flag and the new Confederate States of america flag over fort sumter. Now what was the response to this . Lincoln is, you know, first of all sumter all the sudden becomes a rallying cry. The confederates had fired on fort sumter, fired on the American Flag, all across communities in the north people are rallying to join up with the union army, lincoln is going to call on april 15th 75,000 volunteers to suppress the southern confederacy. By doing that, again, the army at that time is only 15,000. So you can imagine how big at t. He is talking about these men, just calling up the volunteers drives two days later for the state of virginia to concede. Because of that the focus on the war quickly goes to virginia where a lot of the fighting is going. Thousands of people come to new york to see the actual flag that they brought back with them. They had been fired on by the confederates. And like i said many of them will go off and do bigger things during the civil war. Some of them die of disease. One of the more interesting stories is the man in the back row, second from the right. His name was richard kiter mead. He was a general that resigned. He fought against the union before he dies of disease during the war. But the union is going to come back later that year to South Carolina. And the confederates are very quick to fortify the entire harbor. So you can see the massive amount of earthworks all around the harbor. And like i said, it will be important, the union will make that as one of their head quarters. Theyre going to try taking charleston by land, and theyre going to meet other disasters. Dan welch gave a wonderful presentation of it last year. After that disaster theyre going to try to continue to capture it by sea. Theyre going to do a large ironclad attack that is bloodly repulsed. And then the union, once they get on Morris Island they try multiple attempts to try to capture the whole island. If you have seen the movie glory this is where the battle of ft. Wagner happens. Eventually the confederates will bond the island and once the union captures Morris Island, theyre happen a mile from ft. Sumpter. Artillery had grown leaps and bounds by this point. The smooth bore was only accurate to about a mile. Thousand it is rivalled and it is accurate to four or five miles. They have a large cannon, the swamp angel firing into ft. Charleston. But the union hammers ft. Sumpter. Theyre going to fire on it almost continuously throughout all of 1864 and 1865. And it will be an unrelenting attack. The new rivalled artillery just demolishes the walls. You can see this is what it looked like at this point. They smashed through but they didnt realize they made it stronger. All of this mess fell down and turned ft. Sumpter into a giant earth work. And they live in the inside of it and fight back. They put landing groups on to try to capture it. Those are repulsed as well so they resort to that. Now like i said the war kind of starts deinvolving. And you know South Carolina refuses to give up on ft. Sumpt sumpter. This is an image by Conrad Wise Chapman that painted the scenes. You see this loan confederate standing there with the flag. In the distance you see the union blockade, all of the vessels out there, and morris end theyre using prisoners as human shields. But over the course of, and this is another shot after the war of what ft. Sumpter looked like, the union would fire 3500 tons of metal into that island. And it, like i said, just turn itd into one giant earth work. But they never do capture it. They are never able to capture ft. Sumpter. And the confederates hold it until february of 1865. By that Point Sherman completed his march down to the seat. He was marching through South Carolina and people are wondering if he would go to charleston or columbia. He goes to columbia, but it basically made indefensible the city of charleston. So the confederates evacuate the harbor and ft. Sumpter. The next day soldiers finally get back ft. Sumpter and they raise the American Flag over it. General sherman, charleston has been ravaged. General sherman and many of the Union Soldiers wanted revenge on charlestop for having started the war. He wrote that i doubt any city was ever more terribly punished than charleston, but as people had beena agag agag agage d aga. Major anderson, who is now general, he returns to ft. Sumpter to reraise the same American Flag up over ft. Sumpter. And the celebration that day was overshadowed by that same night when president Abraham Lincoln was shot in washington dc at fords theater into what is ft. Sumpter today. So if you go visit the fort today. It is now a National Park service site. Youll see the immediate thing you notice is there is no more three tiers of walls. There is only one level of the brick wall around the island, and you will see this large black battery that was built in the spanish american war that now sits in the middle of the playground. So there has been numerous changes and very little fabric still exists, but it exists on different places. And there is a museum with a lot of objects related to the battle. Some of the case mates are still surviving. You see the ruins over other of the different quarters. As well as a monument to the dependers of tof the fort. You can see some of the artillery that was fired in that siege by the union. Still embedded in some of the brick walls that is amazing that you can still see that miss of history on the balls today. Inside the museum there you will see the actual flag. This is the storm flag that they flew during the battle. They also had a larger flag at liberty square. Ft. Sumpter, if you get a chance to go down there it is not the only site you will see. And this is where some of the first shots were fired. It is a site of that revolutionary war battle. And they interpret all of the costal defense. One of the neatest sites if you get down there to go to ft. Johnson. There is a marker out there today denoting that as the location of the first shot of the civil war. Morris island is really cool. But that has changed a lot due to the tides. There is nothing out there, all of the earth works have been washed away and there is no monuments or markers like that. It was really just access able by boat. But overall it is a beautiful city and a lot of people associate it with this initial story of what happened there. But the history goes all of the way back to even before the revolutionary war. And you know a lot of the oral buildings and sites still exist. It is a wonderful place to visit. If you want to read more about these, more about the battle, i recommend the book allegiance. If you want to know about the siege of charleston, ayou can read gate of hell. And rich hatcher is going to have an emerging serious called thunder in the harbor. It will include a lot of this and these sites that you can visit. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Weeknights this month were featuring American History tv programs. Following more than four years of world war, 51 founding members signed the United Nations charter in opens of promoting global peace and justice. We feature five films beginning with the signing of the charter. Enjoy american mistire tv this week and every weekend on cspan 3. Up
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