Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Taylor's DAR Essay Is On History Of Fort Sumter

Editor's note: this is the first of three essays written by Prescott Middle School students. The essays are sponsored by the Benjamin Culp Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The students are in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades. One will be printed each week, space permitting.

The topic this year is 'Forts in American History.' Second of three essays, this one is written by Madeline Taylor, a sixth grader. The text is unedited.

Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter - where the Civil War began. In the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina stood Fort Sumter, a federal fort. The building of Fort Sumter began in 1829. It was originally built to defend the United States from sea attack. They never guessed it would be attacked from land.

The year was 1860 and South Carolina decided to become a Confederate state. They wanted to capture all the forts in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, which were in the charge of Major Robert Anderson. His headquarters were at Fort Moultrie, another fort in Charleston's harbor, but when he realized that the harbor was going to be attacked, he moved to Fort Sumter, because Fort Moultrie would be hard to defend.

When Anderson and his men got to Fort Sumter, Chaplain M. Harris gave a prayer of thanksgiving. Major Anderson raised Old Glory and the band played "Hail, Columbia" as arms were presented. The men broke into cheers because they were glad to leave Fort Moultrie.

Fort Sumter was four times as big as Fort Moultrie and it was designed for three rows of 146 guns to be used by 650 men. It had not been completed when Anderson and his men arrived. The barracks weren't completed, only fifteen guns had been mounted, many embrasures were open, building materials were everywhere. It also had 5,600 shot and shell and sixty-six unmounted guns. It was definitely not ready for battle. Fort Sumter was about six miles southeast from Charleston.

In April, 1861, General Pierre G.T. Beauregard, a former West Point pupil of Anderson, insisted that Anderson surrender the fort. Anderson refused this request. He said, he would evacuate the fort April 15th, at noon, if he did not get more supplies or orders from his government. The Confederates knew that supplies and maybe reinforcements were coming and probably with further orders, so they notified Anderson in writing, that they were going to have to open fire.

In the fort, were nine commissioned officers and sixty-eight noncommissioned officers and privates. There were also forty-three workmen and eight musicians in the fort when the attack came.

After thirty-four hours of fierce fighting, Fort Sumter was forced to surrender on April 13. Neither side had any casualties except for a horse killed on Morris Island by a Sumter ball. As Horace Greeley once said, "A comparatively bloodless beginning for the bloodiest conflict America ever knew."

Confederate troops finished construction of Fort Sumter, greatly improved it and in 1863-64 held it through several fierce Union attacks and a 15-month siege. On February 17, 1865, only after the approach of the army of the Union general, William T. Sherman, did they surrender the fort.

The site became a national monument in 1948. I've been there myself. You ride a ferry out to the fort. A guide tells you a little about the history of the fort and then you are free to look around. It is a wonderful, historical place to visit.