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Today In History... April 12, 1861 Fort Sumter Bombed · Gil I Am

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: The election of Abraham Lincoln in November eighteen sixty provoked
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the secession of the Southern States from the Union. South
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Carolina was the first to leave. By the time of
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the convening of a constitutional convention to establish the Confederacy
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: in February eighteen sixty one, six other states had joined her.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The majority of the Southern leaders who attended the convention
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: expected a peaceful secession. They did not anticipate that their
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: action would lead to bloody conflict. They were wrong. Fort Sumter,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: lying in the harbor off the city of Charleston, South Carolina,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: would prove the point. After her secession from the Union.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: South Carolina perceived herself as a sovereign state. The presence
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of Union forces in an armed fortress whose guns commanded
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: her principal harbor was intolerable as it belied her independence.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: For President lincoln, voluntary abandonment of this fortress was equally intolerable,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: as it would be a tacit acknowledgment of South Carolina's
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: independent status. Lincoln learned that the garrison at Fort Sumter
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: was in trouble on the day he took office in
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: March eighteen sixty one. The garrison was running out of
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: food and supplies and had no way of obtaining these
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: on shore. The President ordered a relief expedition to sail
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: immediately and informed the governor of South Carolina of his decision.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Alerted General P. G. T. Beauregard, commander of the Confederate
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: military Forces, realized he had to quickly force the evacuation
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: of the fort before the relief expedition's arrival. He would
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: try threats first, and if these failed, he would bombard
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: the fort into submission. At that shot was a sound
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: of alarm that brought every soldier in the harbor to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: his feet. On the afternoon of April eleventh, waiving a
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: white flag, two members of General Beauregard's staff were rowed
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: across Charleston's Harbor to Fort Sumter, carrying a written demand
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: for surrender. One of the emissaries, Stephen D. Lee, wrote
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: of the experience after the war. This demand was delivered
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: to Major Anderson at three forty five pm by two
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: aides of General Beauregard, James Chesnutt Junior, and myself. At
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: four thirty pm, he handed us his reply, refusing to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: accede to the demand, but added gentlemen if you do
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: not batter the fort to pieces about us, we shall
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: be starved out in a few days. The reply of
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Major Anderson was put in General Beauregard's hands at five
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: point fifteen PM, and he was also told of this
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: informal remark. Anderson's reply and remark were communicated to the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Confederate authorities at Montgomery. The Secretary of War L. P.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Walker replied to Beauregard as follows, do not desire needlessly
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to bombard Fort Sumter. If Major Anderson will state the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: time at which, as indicated by him, he will evacuate,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and agree that in the meantime he will not use
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: his guns against us, unless ours should be employed against
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumter. You are authorized thus to avoid the effusion
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: of blood. If this or its equivalent be refused, reduce
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the fort as your judgment decides to be most practicable.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: The same aides bore a second communication to Major Anderson
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: based on the above instructions, which was placed in his
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: hands at twelve forty five a m. April twelfth. His
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: reply indicated that he would evacuate the fort on the fifteenth,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: provided he did not, in the meantime receive contradictory instructions
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: from his government or additional supplies, but he declined to
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: agree not to open his guns upon the Confederate troops
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: in the event of any hostile demonstration on their part
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: against his flag. Major Anderson made every possible effort to
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: retain the aids till daylight, making one excuse and then
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: another for not replying. Finally, at three point fifteen am,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: he delivered his reply in accordance with their instructions. The
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: aides read it, and, finding it unsatisfactory, gave Major Anderson
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: this notification. Fort Sumter, sc April twelfth, eighteen sixty one,
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  Speaker 1: three twenty a m. Sir, By authority of Brigadier General Beauregard,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: commanding the Provisional Forces of the Confederate States, we have
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: the honor to notify you that he will open the
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: fire of his batteries on Fort Sumter in one hour
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: from this time. We have the honor to be very
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: respectful your obedient servants. James Chestnut, Jr. Ady de Camp,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: Stephen D. Lee, Captain C. S Army, eighty de Camp.
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  Speaker 1: The above note was written in one of the casemates
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: of the fort, and in the presence of Major Anderson
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: and several of his officers. On receiving it, he was
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: much affected. He seemed to realize the full import of
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the consequences and the great responsibility of his position. Escorting
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: us to the boat at the wharf, he cordially pressed
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: our hands in farewell, remarking, if we never meet in
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: this world again, God grant that we may meet in
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the next. It was then four a m. Captain James
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: at once aroused his command and arranged to carry out
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the order. He was a great admirer of Roger a Pryor,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: and said to him, you are the only man to
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: whom I would give up the honor of firing the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: first gun of the war, and he offered to allow
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: him to fire it prior. On receiving the offer, was
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: very much agitated. With a husky voice, he said, I
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: could not fire the first gun of the war. His
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: manner was almost similar to that of Major Anderson as
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: we left him a few moments before on the wharf
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: at Fort Sumter. Captain James would allow no one else
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: but himself to fire the gun. The boat, with the
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: aids of General Beauregard, left Fort Johnson before arrangements were complete.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: For the firing of the gun, and laid on its
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: oars about one third the distance between the fort and sumter,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: there to witness the firing of the first gun of
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: the war between the States. It was fired from a
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: ten inch mortar at four thirty a m. April twelfth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one. Captain James was a skillful officer, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: the firing of the shell was a success. It burst
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: immediately over the fort, apparently about one hundred feet above.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: The firing of the mortar woke the echoes from every
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: nook and corner of the harbor, and in this dead
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: hour of the night before dawn, that shot was a
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  Speaker 1: sound of an alarm that brought every soldier in the
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  Speaker 1: harbor to his feet, and every man, woman and child
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  Speaker 1: in the city of Charleston from their beds. A thrill
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: went through the whole city. It was felt that the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: rubicon was passed. No one thought of going home. Unused
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: as their ears were to the appalling sounds or the
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: vivid flashes from the batteries. They stood for hours, fascinated
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  Speaker 1: with horror.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: The Civil War began at four point thirty a m.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: On the twelfth of April eighteen sixty one, General Pierre
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: gustaf to tomp Beauregard ordered his Confederate gunners to open
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: fire on Fort Sumter. At that hour, only a dark
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: shape out in Charlestown Harbor. Confederate commander Beauregard was a
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: gunner so skilled as an artillery student at West Point
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: that his instructor kept him on as an assistant for
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: another year. That instructor was Major Robert Anderson, Union commander
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: inside forts. So all the pent up hatred of the
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: past months and years is voiced in the thunder of
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: these cannon, and the people seem almost beside themselves in
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the exaltation of a freedom they deem already one. The
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: signal to fire, the first shot was given by a civilian,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: Edmund Ruffin, a Virginia farmer an editor who had preached
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: secession for twenty years. Of course, he said, I was
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: delighted to perform the service. Four hours later, a white
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: flag over the fort ended the bombardment. The only casualty
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: had been a Confederate horse. It was a bloodless opening
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  Speaker 2: to the bloodiest war in American history.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: The first gun that was fired at Fort Sumter sounded
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the death knell of slavery. They who fired it were
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: the greatest practical abolitionist this nation has produced.
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  Speaker 2: April thirteenth, so civil war is inaugurated, at last affirmed
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  Speaker 2: the right.
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  Speaker 4: On the twelfth of April eighteen sixty one, the American
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: Civil War began with the Battle of Fort Sumter in
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Welcome to history. Pod Prior to
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: the Battle of Fort Sumter, tensions had been building within
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: the United States. Issues such as states rights, slavery, and
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: the expansion of the United States into the Western territories.
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: Were exacerbated by the election of Abraham Lincoln as president
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: in November eighteen sixty His opposition to the spread of
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: slavery into the western territories prompted seven Southern states to
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: secede from the Union and form the Confederate States of America.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Fort Sumter, which contry rolled the entrance of Charleston Harbor,
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: was one of the few remaining Federal outposts in the
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: South still under Union control. Despite efforts to resupply and
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: reinforce the fort, Major Robert Anderson and his garrison found
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: themselves surrounded by Confederate forces and running low on supplies.
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: When Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard demanded the surrender
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: of the fort. Major Anderson refused. In response, Beauregard ordered
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: artillery batteries surrounding the harbour to begin bombarding the Union outpost.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Beginning at four thirty a m. On April twelfth, forty three.
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: Confederate guns and mortars began firing, having suffered significant damage
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: from more than three thousand artillery rounds over thirty four hours.
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: At two thirty pm the following day, Major Anderson and
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: his men formally surrendered and the Confederate forces took control
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: of Fort Sumter. The fall of Fort Sumpter galvanized support
• 12:03
  Speaker 4: for the Union cause in the North and led President
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Lincoln to call for seventy five thousand volunteers to suppress
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: the Southern rebellion. The Civil War quickly escalated into a
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: full scale conflict that was to last for four years
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  Speaker 4: and result in the deaths of more than six hundred
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: thousand Americans.
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: One of the original thirteen colonies in the sight of
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: over two hundred engagements during the American Revolution, South Carolina
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: was the first state to seceede in the United States.
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: In December eighteen sixty secession escalated into armed conflict on
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: April twelfth, eighteen sixty one, when Confederate troops under Pierre
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: Gustave Toutant Beauregard fired on Major Robert Anderson's Union garrison
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  Speaker 5: at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. This action precipitated not
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: only Civil War, but a nearly four year struggle by
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: the Union to recapture the city. At the outbreak of
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: the Civil War, the Palmetto State had a population of
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: approximately seven hundred thousand, including four hundred and two thousand
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: enslaved persons. Roughly sixty thousand South Carolinians served in the
• 13:34
  Speaker 5: eastern and western theaters of the war. Richard Anderson, James Longstreet,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: and Wade Hampton rose to corp command. Three South Carolina
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  Speaker 5: generals were killed in battle Maxi greg at Fredericksburg, States
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: Rights Gifts at Franklin, and Micah Jenkins by friendly fire
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: at the Wilderness. Joseph Kershaw led one of the most
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: prominent brigades in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: Among Kershaw's ranks was Richard Kirkland, who would be immortalized
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: as the Angel of Marie Heights. Of Fredericksburg for giving
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: aid to wounded Union soldiers. Operations around Charleston included some
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: of the most famous episodes of naval and Civil War history.
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: On the night of February seventeenth, eighteen sixty four, the H. L.
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: Hunley torpedoed and sank the USS Housatonic on his return
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: to Confederate held Sullivan's Island. The Hunley was lost, but
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: was raised from the sea in two thousand and can
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: be visited in Charleston today. The first African American regiment
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: to be raised in the North, the fifty fourth Massachusetts
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: Storm Fort Wagner, part of the Charleston Harbor defenses on
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: Morris Island on July eighteenth, eighteen sixty three. In early
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: eighteen sixty five, Union General William T. Sherman marched through
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: the state in his Carolinas campaign, and on February seventeenth,
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: eighteen sixty five, took the capital city of Columbia, My hometown. Today,
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: South Carolina boasts a number of destinations related to its
• 14:58
  Speaker 5: Civil War pass including Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, Magnolia Cemetery,
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: the South Carolina State House, the South Carolina Confederate Relic,
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: room and military museum in the South Carolina State Museum.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: Fort Sumter the American Civil War eighteen sixty one.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: Back in eighteen twelve, America was drawn into the war
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: between Britain and France. After the war ended in eighteen fifteen,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the United States had learned that it had a desperate
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: need to modernize and fortify the defenses on its vulnerable
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: eastern coastline. Subsequently, the Americans started to build a large
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: number of modern and strategically placed coastal sea forts. These
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: were called the Third System style forts.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: They had a very high, five sided mortification consisting of
• 16:01
  Speaker 4: three tiers with walls five feet thick, with batteries of
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: large caliber muzzle loading cannons.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: One such seaport was Fort Sumter, built to guard Charleston
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: Harbor in South Carolina. It was to supplement the much
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: older fort situated in the middle of the harbor, Fort Moultrie,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: an American War of Independence era sea fort. Though Fort
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Sumter was started in eighteen twenty nine, it was still
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: not completed due to a lack of funds by the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: time South Carolina seceded from the Union in eighteen sixty
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: and with the formation of the Confederate States of America.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: In February eighteen sixty one, the Union garrison at Fort
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: Sumter suddenly found itself inside hostile territory. The Union harbor
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: commander had.
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: Already realized the seriousness of the situation, so back on
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: December twenty sixth, eighteen sixty they abandoned the smaller fort
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: of Moultrie, redeploying its men across the harbor to Fort Sumter,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: as well as moving Moultrie's smaller guns than an attempt
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: to beef up the strength of Sumter's garrison.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: The garrison now consisted of eighty five souls, including eight
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: military musicians, and over the next few months they would
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: get around sixty artillery pieces up and running, but didn't
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: have sufficient men to man all the guns. Also, the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: majority of the guns were facing out to sea, when
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: in fact the real danger to the fort were the
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: land based Confederate infantry units and artillery batteries. The infuriated
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Confederates repeatedly demanded the surrender of the Fort Sumter garrison,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: but they refused, and things came to a head in
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: April eighteen sixty one. The situation for the fort had
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: become critical when it was realized it would run out
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: of food by the fifteenth of April.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: An earlier attempt to resupply the fort by sea back
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: in January had failed, having been driven off by gunfire
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: by cadets from the local Military College of South Carolina.
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: In March, Abraham Lincoln became the new Union President and
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: vowed to keep the fort resupplied, thus heightening the tension
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: between the two sides. On April twelfth, eighteen sixty one,
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: at four thirty a m.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: The Union garrison, having ignored an ultimatum to vacate the fort,
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: provoked the Confederates to start bombarding it.
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: This heralded the start of the four year long American
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: Civil War.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: After thirty four hours and an estimated three thousand shots
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: fired at Fort Sumter by.
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: The Confederate artillery, the Union garrison, realizing the situation was hopeless, surrendered,
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: therefore ending the very first.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: Battle of the American Civil War. No one was killed
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: during a short lived siege, though ironically, during the surrender
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: ceremony on April fourteenth, two Union soldiers were killed when
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a spark caused a pile of cartridges to explode as
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: a planned one hundred gun salute was taking place the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: following year.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: The war intensified and eventually led to an estimated six
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: hundred and twenty thousand Americans being killed before the war
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: ended in eighteen sixty five.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: Fort Sumter remained in the Confederate's hands until almost the
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: end of the war, despite several attempts by the Union
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: Army to retake it.
• 18:56
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