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T's Astonishing Just How Small Fort Sumter, S.C., Is. Five Minutes at A

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T's Astonishing Just How Small Fort Sumter, S.C., Is. Five Minutes at A Some interiors and gun emplacements of the Fort Sumter National Monument, Charleston, S.C., have been restored by the National Park Service to depict their Civil War state, but the overall look of the fort is far different today. t’s astonishing just how small Fort Sumter, S.C., is. ings are gone. Any brickwork not bashed to smithereens things tighter. Dwindling hope of reinforcement or res - pers, and news of it was disseminated worldwide by Five minutes at a saunter will take most who walk when Union forces returned to reclaim the fort in 1865 cue made things even worse. telegraph taps. It was the story of the day almost every it across its breadth, from the entrance gate to the was downed by later upgrades. Anderson’s garrison Gone are the vestiges of how the soldiers endured, day and became the public focal point in a high-stakes far gun line. burned most of the wooden structures as the artillery - but at the fort’s seaward side, Confederate state flags test of wills—national and personal. Great political and A dark gray blockhouse impedes those who stroll men ripped them apart one by one for fuel to survive— now fly atop a ring of flagstaffs around a taller central strategic questions came to be embodied by the struggle there today. It encased the command-and-control the cook shack consumed last in the desperation to flagstaff bearing the U.S. colors. Memorializing the over Sumter. center during World War II. Fort Sumter was an opera - hang on. losses on both sides, its design symbolizes restored alle - Newspapers, magazines and, uniquely, battlefield tional part of the Charleston Harbor defenses from its At the end of Anderson’s occupation of the fort, the giance under one flag. Despite its physical changes, Fort photography came to carry significant influence, shap - beginning as the Civil War’s flashpoint to nearly the garrison was on short rations that had been cut again. Sumter remains perhaps the strongest symbol of the ing public opinion and pulling politicians along mag - Cold War, and adaptations made during both World Not much more than a day’s worth was left at that Civil War, bookending its course from beginning to end. netically. The media assumed a newfangled power, too. Wars and the Spanish-American War changed the fort. trickle. Water was scarce and bad. Clothing and bed - In early 1861, the situation at Fort Sumter grabbed the The Associated Press came into its own during the It looks nothing like the night after Christmas in 1860, ding cloth went to make cartridge casings, which gun - nation’s attention and held it. Although other U.S. mili - war—a media game-changer on par with CNN’s 24/7 when MAJ Robert Anderson withdrew his garrison ners stitched with the seven needles on the property tary facilities in the South faced similar siege situations news cycle breakout during the Gulf War. Meanwhile, there for better force protection. book. Approximately 80 soldiers were isolated there for under varying degrees of menace, Sumter was the most local Charleston tensions were heightened by the city’s The outer walls are only one story tall now, shaved nearly four months, enduring all the petty problems prestigious and received the most press. Its ongoing firebrand paper The Charleston Mercury , pro-secession from a three-story height. The original interior build - that being too close for too long brings. Stress made story was reported extensively in American newspa - and pouring fuel on the city’s rage. 56 ARMY I April 2011 April 2011 I ARMY 57 An artillery projectile is stuck in an interior wall of Sumter, apparently fired during the heavy Union barrage in the late stage of the Civil War as Northern forces sought to retake the fort. A heavy gun on its carriage points toward Charleston Harbor from Battery Park. and allegations that he also drank too much and led too lit - Above, the harbor side of Fort Sumter: tle. He was replaced by MAJ Anderson. Tied up at the wharf is one of the The threat skyrocketed, however, when the South Carolina contractor vessels that shuttles visitors to legislature ratified the December 20, 1860, secession declara - the site. The open area largely was ringed tion passed by a state convention. It was the first state to se - and dotted by living quarters and various shops when the Charleston garrison cede, and it was the cornerstone of the Confederacy. Missis - withdrew there in 1861, and the exterior sippi, Florida, Alabama and Georgia followed quickly. was three stories tall. Right, the The issue of Fort Sumter increasingly chained both sides monument’s displays include heavy to their own honor. Like a duel, events there would decide cannons used during the Civil War. whose honor was upheld. And, as in duels of the day, honor could be upheld without bloodshed. At Fort Sumter, the matter centered on when, or whether, federal forces any on the southern side believed in a best-case sce - would abandon it and accede to seces - nario, which was that the federals, afforded generous sionist demands that U.S. authorities fanfare and flourish, would march out peacefully— turn over all federal facilities, includ - Mdrums beating and a transport ship waiting. The U.S. ing military establishments, within a flag would be lowered, folded and taken with them, and seceding state—imposed first by the the new Confederate flag would be raised, achieving the state of South Carolina and later the desired end state. Neither side wanted centrally organized Confederate States to shoot first, nor did the South want of America (CSA) in its nascent form. its actions to appear barbarous. among America’s officer corps (though The Sumter garrison’s mission was o long as the fort held, symbolic it was splitting apart) drove duty. to fly the flag for as long as possible, al - The dark hulk of accession to the demands and de - Personal honor also strongly led civil lowing time for a political settlement, the fort’s Word War clarations pressed upon it was de - conduct among the upper economic or holding out at least until the newly II command-and- Snied, and, by extension, denied to classes, especially in the South. elected President, Abraham Lincoln, control center the fundamental questions orbiting The direct threat to Fort Sumter be - took office and issued further orders. dominates the secession itself. gan as occasional less-than-cordial Anderson’s original directives were central portion of Sumter today. For both sides, it became a matter of brushes in Charleston’s streets. The ambiguous, with versions delivered honor at the state and national levels, threat level spiked when, in Novem - verbally at several political command more so directly at the scene of the ber 1860, the then-commander of the levels. Taken in net worth, however, Charleston standoff. There, honor was Charleston garrison, brevet COL John the orders as Anderson understood close and personal, and it was mani - C. Gardiner, tried to take ammunition them ran along this general track: fested in many ways. The affair was from the arsenal, which was situated Don’t start a war by shooting first, and, by extension, don’t OK as long as it stayed quiet. Reaction asserted that the gar - conducted in a rather gentlemanly in the city. A crowd turned back the raise southern hackles in other ways; hold out as long as rison’s move went beyond Anderson’s authority to protect fashion, up to a point. Personal honor fort’s working party, and the ammuni - humanly possible to buy time and not disgrace the flag, his force, although no specific encumbrances on force pro - tion was returned to the arsenal. The and take necessary actions to protect the garrison. tection had been placed on Anderson beforehand. incident caused secondary effects: Fort As it played out, the last general order was viewed differ - The then-Secretary of War telegraphed Anderson on De - Civil War-era mortars sit in Charleston’s Battery Park. Batteries there were at too Sumter would be short of ammo when ently in Washington after MAJ Anderson spirited his garri - cember 27: “Intelligence has reached here this morning that great a range for the attack on Fort Sumter, it was needed, and the commander son from Fort Moultrie, S.C., to Fort Sumter less than a week you have abandoned Fort Moultrie, spiked your guns, but the site served as an observation point soon would be sacked, taking into ac - after South Carolina’s secession. Anderson’s move frazzled burned the carriages and gone to Fort Sumter. It is not be - for the citizens of Charleston. count his behavior during the incident hypersensitive political nerves—everything at the fort was lieved because there is no order for any such movement. 58 ARMY I April 2011 April 2011 I ARMY 59 Explain the meaning of this report. J.B. Floyd, Sec’y of War.” South Carolinians viewed Anderson’s move as breaking an agreement (an “understanding,” at least) to keep the sta - tus quo, which excluded moving in any direction except away from Charleston. Anderson simply saw a bad tactical military situation and took the most prudent action available. The garrison headquarters at Fort Moultrie could not be defended from ground assault by the number of soldiers he had: nine line officers, one surgeon, 19 NCOs, 48 privates and eight band members (who probably were crosstrained rapidly). The garrison also had about 20 family members and 43 construction workers to consider. ort Moultrie occupies a position across the wide harbor from the city of Charleston on Sullivan’s Island, which was a resort property for Charleston’s elite.
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