He hopes half that could come from the Park Service and the rest from contributions and grants. Fort Sumter's construction began in 1829 on a shoal in Charleston Harbor. Union troops occupied the still-unfinished fort in December 1860 after South Carolina seceded from the Union. The Confederate bombardment and Union surrender the following April plunged the nation into war. The later Union shelling of the Confederate-held fort buried Sumter's red brick walls in rubble.
Historians say it has been shelled more than any other site in the Western Hemisphere.
A century ago, during the Spanish-American War, a concrete gun battery was built across the interior to defend against a Spanish attack that never came. Sumter, rendered obsolete by modern aircraft, was turned over to the Park Service in 1948. There are no plans for new construction or to recreate Sumter the way it looked in April 1861. But it's hard to prove now what deterioration is occurring,'' he said. Contact the webmasters.