Fort Sumter
Civil War South Carolina

American Civil War
April 12-14, 1861

During the months leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War, the Union garrisons of Fort Moultrie and Fort Sumter found themselves isolated by a hostile population. Both forts were ill prepared for service, particularly Fort Moultrie, which was largely indefensible due to cracks in the walls and sand piled up in front of the embrasures. For this reason the two garrisons concentrated their forces in Fort Sumter in late December 1860. For the next 13 weeks, they worked to improve the defenses of the Fort, which had been left in the hands of a solidary caretaker for years. When secessionist troops garrisoned Fort Moultrie and built new batteries facing Fort Sumter, it became a matter of time before before someone fired a shot. Finally, at dawn on April 12,1861, the first shot was fired from a mortar in Fort Johnson, a battery erected just over a mile to the west of Fort Sumter on James Island. The Civil War had begun.

Captain Abner Doubleday recalled the effectiveness of the confederate fire:

The fort was not designed to fend off this kind of attack. While the garrison labored to contain the fires and save the powder, smoke filled the casemates, making it impossible to breath. All this time shot smashed into the casemates. "When at last nothing was left of the building but the blackened walls and smoldering embers, it became painfully evident that an immense amount of damage had been done."

The interior of the fort and the barrack block on its landward side lay in ruins. Shortly afterward, negotiations began under a flag of truce and the garrison surrendered. During the two day bombardment, the fort was subjected to a range of shot from almost every side, but the really damaging rounds came from mortars and the single rifled gun. Both were weapons that the Bernard Board had never imagined would ever be used against one of their coastal fortifications. The rules of fortification were being rewritten.

Civil War History Documentary DVD Movie Titles

Bad Blood: The Border War That Triggered the Civil War In the years leading up to the Civil War, a bloody conflict between slaveholders and abolitionists focused the nation's eyes on the state of Missouri and the territory of Kansas. Told through the actual words of slave owners, free-staters, border ruffians, and politicians, Bad Blood presents the complex morality, differing values, and life-and-death decisions faced by those who lived on the Missouri-Kansas border	Blue Vs. Gray - Killing Fields Relive the most vicious fighting of the Civil War, in which General Ulysses S. Grant forcibly reversed the tide of the conflict by paying with the blood of thousands. It was a desperate time for the Union	Civil War Combat: America's Bloodiest Battles The violent mayhem of the hornet's nest at Shiloh, the valiant charge on the sunken road at Antietam, the carnage in the wheat field at Gettysburg, and the brutal fighting at Cold Harbor	Jefferson Davis An American President One of the most outstanding statesmen of the United States during the first 60 years of the 19th century, he sacrificed everything to defend the South's position regarding the rights of the states and conservative constitutional interpretation. Against staggering odds he led the South and held it together in the bloody Civil War or War Between the States
The Blue and the Gray The Complete Miniseries The Civil War proved a backdrop for this 1982 miniseries. Complete and uncut three disc set. Two families divided by the War Between the States. A Southerner caught when he becomes a war correspondent for the Northern newspaper. He finds himself  where history's in the making from the Battle of Bull Run to Abraham Lincoln's assassination	Battle of Stones River The Fight for Murfreesboro At dawn on December 31, 1862 the two armies clashed in a deadly struggle along the banks of Stones River.	The Battle of Chickamauga Special Widescreen Edition Chickamauga one of the fiercest engagements of the American Civil War. Over a period of two days, more than 100,000 men struggled for control of the south's transportation hub, Chattanooga.	Struggle For Vicksburg Photography of the park with authentic battlefield illustrations and life-like paintings. Vicksburg's wartime role in the bloody and brutal conflict.