12 April 1861 A.D. FORT SUMTER, SC: Confederates Fire on Fort Sumter & America’s Very Un-Civil War Begins
12 April 1861 A.D. FORT SUMTER, SC: Confederates Fire on Fort Sumter & America’s Very Un-Civil War Begins https://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/april-12/ 1861 – The American Civil War begins when Confederates fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The fort had been the source of tension between the Union and Confederacy for several months. After South Carolina seceded, the state demanded the fort be turned over but Union officials refused. A supply ship, the “Star of the West,” tried to reach Fort Sumter on January 9, but the shore batteries opened fire and drove it away. For both sides, Sumter was a symbol of sovereignty. The Union could not allow it to fall to the Confederates, although throughout the Deep South other federal installations had been seized. For South Carolinians, secession meant little if the Yankees still held the stronghold. The issue hung in the air when Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, stating in his inaugurat...