Fort Sumter   

Facts about Fort Sumter:

Dimensions: 300 ft. long by 400 ft. high by 8-12 ft. thick

Fort Sumter was started in 1829

    The fort was named after Thomas Sumter.  He was born in 1734 and he died in 1832.    Fort Sumter is in the shape of a pentagon.  Fort Sumter was a symbol of independence. The fort  was still being built in 1860.  It was the site of the first shot of the American Civil War.  Captain Abner Doubleday shot the first shot of the Civil War.  The bombardment of Fort Sumter took place on April 12th and 13th, 1861.  On the following day, the United States troops under Major Robert Anderson surrendered to the Confederacy under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard.  Two men died as a result of a gun explosion during the surrendering ceremonies.  In 1863 the U.S. forces made two unsuccessful attempts to overtake Fort Sumter.   The U.S. flag wasn't raised over the fort until April 14th, 1865.  On April 14th, the U.S. troops withdrew from the fort.  The fort stands on an island in the harbor of Charleston.  After South Carolina's secession, the two sides prepared to fire on each other.  The crisis got worse when President Lincoln had supplies sent to the fort.  The Confederacy fired on the fort instead of allowing the supplies to reach the fort. 

    We got the following information from this site- www.nps.gov/fosu/fosufaq.htm  

    During the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the cannons could shoot one and a quarter miles. 

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This picture is from

http://www.nps.gov/fosu/index.htm

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This site was made by Alan Haas, Adam Brewer, Jared Rothell, and Cody Carter.

Seneca Middle School
Seneca, South Carolina