Fort Sumter

Fort Sumter was a turning point in determining the outcome of the Civil War. Fort Sumter was built on a man-made island of seashells and granite. It was a pentagon shape that was fifty feet high and the walls were eight to twelve feet thick. Fort Sumter is located in South Carolina. It was a defense system for Charleston Harbor. It was named after a Revolutionary War hero from South Carolina.

For one of the causes of the Civil War was that the South demanded that fort Sumter be turned over to its new government. United States troops were to leave the fort. President Abraham Lincoln refused to let them. Lincoln said that Fort Sumter belonged to all of the people of the United States, not just to South Carolina. The people of South Carolina were determined to have the fort. They threatened to starve the men stationed there. Lincoln sent food and supplies to the men stationed there. The Carolinians fired on the ship and, then they fired on the fort and destroyed it. That was how the war began (Hakim 61).

On April 13, 1861, Fort Sumter surrendered after heavy bombardment to Confederate forces. Accounts of this victory created wild excitement in North Carolina. The Union was deeply saddened that war had started. On the other hand, the South was ecstatic (Hakim 62).

President Lincoln had a major role in the Civil War. Lincoln refused to withdraw soldiers from Fort Sumter. He sent a supply ship after the South threatened to stop supplying them. He differed with other northern leaders by that the other leaders told him to back out and Lincoln did not listen to them. He refused to let the South leave the United States. Lincoln proclaimed a blockade on April 16, 1861. The blockade extended from Virginia to Texas. At the time, it was impossible for the federal government to enforce a blockade of the coastline measuring almost four thousand miles and containing one hundred and eighty-nine harbors.

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