Fort Sumter - Charleston Harbor, South Carolina - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

My Commentary: My stepping onto the grounds of Fort Sumter was actually quite the feat. I first tried in 1989 - three days before Hurricane Hugo hit. Needless to say, this visit to Charleston was postponed and we went to Savannah instead. Second attempt - 2013. This time was the Government shutdown. I was able to at least visit Charleston, but no visit to Fort Sumter as all Federal facilities were closed. I finally made it in 2015 - although major flooding in the Charleston area almost cancelled this trip.

Fort Sumter was actually rather anti-climatic once I got out there. Of course, it had suffered major damage during the Civil War and it just wasn't repaired to its former glory. It isn't, however, the gloomy place made out by the American Guide Series. Since the National Park Service is in charge, the fort is kept free of clutter and debris. Like many old Civil War coastal Forts, it does have a Spanish American era disappearing gun battery in the middle of the parade ground.

Opposite Castle Pinckney and Hog Island is Fort Sumter (R), deserted and gloomy, its weathered brick walls enclosing only bright-hued oleanders. Named for General Thomas Sumter, the 'Gamecock' of the Revolution, this fort was begun in 1829 but was still unfinished in 1860 when South Carolina seceded. Six days after secession Major Anderson and his Federal garrison from Sullivan's Island occupied the fort; the Secessionists retaliated by seizing the surrounding islands and all United States property in Charleston. The first shots of the war were fired when the steamer, Star of the West, bringing troops and provisions to Fort Sumter, was shelled by a Confederate battery on Morris Island across the bay. Three months later the Confederate commander General Beauregard bombarded the fort 33 hours until it was evacuated. Confederates then occupied and held it until 1865, despite many desultory Federal attacks and three long furious bombardments, 1863-4. An ironclad squadron was repulsed; 13-inch mortars used by Federals were found ineffective, as were the Requa 24-barreled machine guns, said to be the first rapid-fire guns using metallic cartridges employed in actual combat. When the fortifications here and elsewhere in and around Charleston were evacuated February 17, 1865, due to Union land successes, there had been 567 days of continuous military operations against them. 'It was, and still remains,' said a military writer in 1937, 'the longest siege in modern history.' After the war, Fort Sumter was repaired and garrisoned for a while by the United States.

- South Carolina : a guide to the Palmetto state, 1941, pg. 390-391

Book: South Carolina Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 390-391 Year Originally Published: 1941

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