Fort Sumter Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry sea fort located in Charleston Harbor , South Carolina . The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots which started the American Civil War were fired , at the Battle of Fort Sumter on April 12 , 1861 . In 1966 , the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Construction . Named after General Thomas Sumter , Revolutionary War hero , Fort Sumter was built following the War of 1812 , as one of a series of fortifications on the southern U . S . coast . Construction began in 1829 , and the structure was still unfinished in 1861 , when the Civil War began . Seventy thousand tons of granite were imported from New England to build up a sand bar in the entrance to Charleston Harbor , which the site dominates . The fort was a five - sided brick structure , long , with walls , standing over the low tide mark . It was designed to house 650 men and 135 guns in three tiers of gun emplacements , although it was never filled near its full capacity . Civil War . On December 26 , 1860 , six days after South Carolina declared its secession , U . S . Army Major Robert Anderson abandoned the indefensible Fort Moultrie , spiking its large guns , burning its gun carriages , and taking its smaller canon with him to be trained on the city . He secretly relocated companies E and H ( 127 men , 13 of them musicians ) of the 1st U . S . Artillery to Fort Sumter on his own initiative , without orders from Washington . He thought that providing a stronger defense would delay an attack by South Carolina militia . The fort was not yet complete at the time and fewer than half of the cannon that should have been available were in place , due to military downsizing by President James Buchanan . Over the next few months repeated calls for evacuation of Fort Sumter from the government of South Carolina and then from Confederate Brigadier General P . G . T . Beauregard were ignored . Union attempts to resupply and reinforce the garrison were repulsed on January 9 , 1861 when the first shots of the war , fired by cadets from the Citadel , prevented the steamer " Star of the West " , hired to transport troops and supplies to Fort Sumter , from completing the task . After realizing that Anderson ' s command would run out of food by April 15 , 1861 , President Lincoln ordered a fleet of ships , under the command of Gustavus V . Fox , to attempt entry into Charleston Harbor and supply Fort Sumter . The ships assigned were the steam sloop - of - war USS " Pawnee " , steam sloop - of - war USS " Powhatan " , transporting motorized launches and about 300 sailors ( secretly removed from the Charleston fleet to join in the forced reinforcement of Fort Pickens , Pensacola , FL ) , armed screw steamer USS " Pocahontas " , Revenue Cutter USRC " Harriet Lane " , steamer " Baltic " transporting about 200 troops , composed of companies C and D of the 2nd U . S . Artillery , and three hired tug boats with added protection against small arms fire to be used to tow troop and supply barges directly to Fort Sumter . By April 6 , 1861 the first ships began to set sail for their rendezvous off the Charleston Bar . The first to arrive was the " Harriet Lane " , before midnight of April 11 , 1861 . First Battle of Fort Sumter . On Thursday , April 11 , 1861 , Beauregard sent three aides , Colonel James Chesnut , Jr . , Captain Stephen D . Lee , and Lieutenant A . R . Chisolm to demand the surrender of the fort . Anderson declined , and the aides returned to report to Beauregard . After Beauregard had consulted the Confederate Secretary of War , Leroy Walker , he sent the aides back to the fort and authorized Chesnut to decide whether the fort should be taken by force . The aides waited for hours while Anderson considered his alternatives and played for time . At about 3 a . m . , when Anderson finally announced his conditions , Colonel Chesnut , after conferring with the other aides , decided that they were " manifestly futile and not within the scope of the instructions verbally given to us " . The aides then left the fort and proceeded to the nearby Fort Johnson . There , Chesnut ordered the fort to open fire on Fort Sumter . On Friday , April 12 , 1861 , at 4 : 30 a . m . , Confederate batteries opened fire , firing for 34 straight hours , on the fort . Edmund Ruffin , noted Virginian agronomist and secessionist , claimed that he fired the first shot on Fort Sumter . His story has been widely believed , but Lieutenant Henry S . Farley , commanding a battery of two 10 inch siege mortars on James Island fired the first shot at 4 : 30 A . M . . No attempt was made to return the fire for more than two hours . The fort ' s supply of ammunition was not suited for the task ; also , there were no fuses for their explosive shells , which means that they could not explode . Only solid iron balls could be used against the Rebel batteries . At about 7 : 00 A . M . , Captain Abner Doubleday , the fort ' s second in command , was given the honor of firing the union ' s first shot , in defense of the fort . He missed , in part because Major Anderson did not use the guns mounted on the highest tier , the barbette tier ( where the guns could engage the confederate batteries better ) , where the gunners would be more exposed to Confederate fire . The firing continued all day . The Union fired slowly to conserve ammunition . At night the fire from the fort stopped , but the Confederates still lobbed an occasional shell into Sumter . On Saturday , April 13 , the fort was surrendered and evacuated . During the attack , the Union colors fell . Lt . Norman J . Hall risked life and limb to put them back up , burning off his eyebrows permanently . A Confederate soldier bled to death having been wounded by a misfiring cannon . One Union soldier died and another was mortally wounded during the 47th shot of a 100 shot salute , allowed by the Confederacy . Afterwards the salute was shortened to 50 shots . Accounts , such as in the famous diary of Mary Chesnut , describe Charleston residents along what is now known as The Battery , sitting on balconies and drinking salutes to the start of the hostilities . The Fort Sumter Flag became a popular patriotic symbol after Major Anderson returned North with it . The flag is still displayed in the fort ' s museum . A supply ship " Star of the West " took all the garrison members to New York City . There they were welcomed and honored with a parade on Broadway . Union siege of Fort Sumter . Union efforts to retake Charleston Harbor began on April 7 , 1863 , when Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont , commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , led the ironclad frigate " New Ironsides " , the tower ironclad " Keokuk " , and the monitors " Weehawken " , " Pasaic " , " Montauk " , " Patapsco " , " Nantucket " , " Catskill " , and " Nahant " in an attack on the harbor ’ s defenses ( The 1863 Battle of Fort Sumter was the largest deployment of monitors in action up to that time ) . The attack was unsuccessful , the Union ' s best ship , USS " New Ironsides " never effectively engaged , and the ironclads fired only 154 rounds , while receiving 2 , 209 from the Confederate defenders . Due to damage received in the attack , the USS " Keokuk " sank the next day , off the southern tip of Morris Island . Over the next month , working at night to avoid the attention of the Federal squadron , the Confederates salvaged the " Keokuk ’ s " two eleven - inch Dahlgren gun s . One of the Dahlgren guns was promptly placed in Fort Sumter . The Confederates , in the meantime , were strengthening Fort Sumter . A workforce of just under 500 slaves , under the supervision of Confederate Army engineers , were filling casemates with sand , protecting the gorge wall with sandbags , and building new traverse , blindages , and bombproofs . Some of Fort Sumter ’ s artillery had been removed , but 40 pieces still were mounted . Fort Sumter ’ s heaviest guns were mounted on the barbette , the fort ’ s highest level , where they had wide angles of fire and could fire down on approaching ships . The barbette was also more exposed to enemy gunfire than the casemate s in the two lower levels of the fort . A special military decoration , known as the Gillmore Medal , was later issued to all Union service members who had performed duty at Fort Sumter under the command of Major - General Quincy Adams Gillmore Fort Sumter Armaments , August 17 , 1863 After the devastating bombardment , both Major General Quincy A . Gillmore and Rear Admiral John A . Dahlgren , now commanding the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron , determined to launch a boat assault on Fort Sumter for the night of September 8 – 9 , 1863 . Cooperation between the Army and Navy was poor , Dahlgren refusing to place his sailors and marines under the command of an army officer . So two flotillas set out towards Fort Sumter that night . The army flotilla was detained off Morris Island by the low tide . By the time they could proceed , the navy assault had already been defeated and the army flotilla returned to shore . The navy ’ s assault involved 400 sailors and marines in 25 boats . The operation was a fiasco from beginning to end . Poor reconnaissance , planning and communication all characterized the operation . Commander Thomas H . Stevens , commanding the monitor " Patapsco " , was placed in charge of the assault . When Commander Stevens protested that he “ knew nothing of [ the assault ’ s ] organization “ and “ made some remonstrances on this grounds and others . ” Dahlgren replied “ There is nothing but a corporal ’ s guard [ about 6 – 10 men ] in the fort , and all we have to do is go and take possession . ” . This underestimation of the Confederate forces on Dahlgren ’ s part may explain why he was hostile to a joint operation wishing to reserve the credit for the victory to the navy . Less than half of the boats landed . Most of the boats that did land landed on the right flank or right gorge angle , rather than on the gorge where there was a passable breach . The Union sailors and marines who did land could not scale the wall . The Confederates fired upon the landing party and as well as throwing hand grenades and loose bricks . The men in the boats that had not landed fired muskets and revolvers blindly at the fort , endangering the landing party more than the garrison . The landing party took shelter in shell holes in the wall of the fort . In response to a signal rocket fired by the garrison , Fort Johnson and the Confederate warship CSS " Chicora " opened fire upon the boats and landing party . The boats that could withdraw withdrew , and the landing party surrendered . The Union casualties were 8 killed , 19 wounded , and 105 captured ( including 15 of the wounded ) . The Confederates did not suffer any casualties in the assault . After the unsuccessful boat assault , the bombardment recommenced and proceeded with varying degree of intensity , doing more damage to Fort Sumter until the end of the war . The garrison continued to suffer casualties . The Confederates continued to salvage guns and other material from the ruins and harassed the Union batteries on Morris Island with sharpshooters . The Confederates mounted four columbiad s , one columbiad rifled , and two rifled 42 - pounders , in the left face , bottom tier casemates . The last Confederate commander , Major Thomas A . Huguenin , a graduate from The Citadel , The Military College of South Carolina , never surrendered Fort Sumter , but General William T . Sherman ’ s advance through South Carolina finally forced the Confederates to evacuate Charleston on February 17 , 1865 and abandon Fort Sumter . The Federal government formally took possession of Fort Sumter on February 22 , 1865 with a flag raising ceremony . One Union soldier was killed and another Union soldier was mortally wounded during the surrender ceremony ( see above ) . Fifty two Confederate soldiers were killed there during the remainder of the war . While a number of slaves were killed while working at the fort , the exact number is unknown . After the war . When the Civil War ended , Fort Sumter was in ruins . The U . S . Army worked to restore it as a useful military installation . The damaged walls were re - leveled to a lower height and partially rebuilt . The third tier of gun emplacements was removed . Eleven of the original first - tier gun rooms were restored with 100 - pounder Parrott rifle s . From 1876 to 1897 , Fort Sumter was used only as an unmanned lighthouse station . The start of the Spanish - American War prompted renewed interest in its military use and reconstruction commenced on the facilities that had further eroded over time . A new massive concrete blockhouse - style installation was built in 1898 inside the original walls . Named " Battery Huger " in honor of Revolutionary War General Isaac Huger , it never saw combat . Fort Sumter National Monument . Fort Sumter National Monument encompasses three sites in Charleston : the original Fort Sumter , the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center , and Fort Moultrie on Sullivan ' s Island . Access to Fort Sumter itself is by a 30 - minute ferry ride from the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center or Patriots Point . The Visitor Education Center ' s museum features exhibits about the disagreements between the North and South that led to the incidents at Fort Sumter . The museum at Fort Sumter focuses on the activities at the fort , including its construction and role during the Civil War . April 12 , 2011 marked the 150th Anniversary of the start of the Civil War . There was a commemoration of the events by thousands of Civil War reenactors with encampments in the area . A United States stamp of Fort Sumter , and first day cover , was issued that day .