Journalist By Nature: Fort Sumter

The murder of Abel by his brother Cain in a calculated response to God's rejection of his improper sacrifice started a sad and wasteful behavior that came to be called war. It is two people, or groups of people, who cannot work out a peaceable solution to their different perspectives on life and so choose to battle it out for physical supremacy. The cost is human lives and vast destruction of lands and property.

"I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell." William Tecumseh Sherman

Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor

After the War of 1812, the battle between the United States and Great Britain, its colonies and the native Americans, Fort Sumter was constructed as part of the east coast defense system. Located three miles out in Charleston Harbor, it is perched upon a sand bar that is topped with 70 tons of northern granite. Built to sit 50 feet above the low tide line, it is a shield-shaped wall five feet thick with cannon firing holes spaced along it. The extent of the original design was never fully realized in terms of soldiers or cannon as it was called into service before it could be completely supplied.

The major significance of Fort Sumter is its part in being the launching site of the Civil War between the States. U.S. Army Major Robert Anderson made an independent decision to relocate two companies of soldiers to the fort after South Carolina moved to secede from the Union. The Confederate commander in Charleston, Brigadier General Beauregard, demanded that Anderson surrender the fort. Anderson refused. On April 12, 1861, Beauregard commenced firing upon the fort, demolishing it and causing Anderson to finally surrender on April 13, 1861. This action was the opening salvo of the Civil War.

Fort Sumter is a rather small defense site, built in two sections over a period of years. It is slightly connected to the surrounding lowland by a sandbar at low tide but is otherwise encompassed by the Atlantic Ocean waters that stream in and out of Charleston Harbor. It is strategic because it bisects the harbor entry point, making any ship entering the harbor vulnerable to being fired upon. On the reverse, supply lines to the fort could be threatened by ships anchoring just offshore. The complexities of the Civil War can be studied in detail from other sources. These pictures and plaques will give you a basic sense of the fort, or what's left of it after being bombarded and heavily damaged. War is hell wherever it occurs.