by Ben Kritz

Created on: April 16, 2008

The most interesting account of the siege of Fort Sumter was written after the war by Abner Doubleday, who was at the time a Captain of the 1st Regiment, U.S. Artillery at Fort Moultrie, one of the four fortifications that guarded Charleston Harbor. Fort Sumter was the newest, set on an island in the harbor, and still unfinished in December, 1860. At the time, representatives from South Carolina were in Washington negotiating the ownership of the forts with the administration of outgoing President James Buchanan, so when the new commander of Fort Moultrie, Major Robert Anderson, decided to move his little garrison to Fort Sumter on December 26, it was considered a provocative act and inflamed outrage among the people of Charleston.

Anderson, although he sympathized with the Southern cause, was a loyal U.S. officer, and was only doing what he thought prudent. His commission gave him command of all the forts in Charleston, so as he saw it, he had the prerogative to move to whichever one he saw fit. According to Doubleday, Fort Moultrie was entirely indefensible, a low-lying Revolutionary War-era fort that had so much sand drifted against its seaside walls that cows could walk over the ramparts. Nearby houses actually stood taller than the walls of the fort. Bands of militia had been patrolling nightly near the fort, and boats of armed men constantly cruised nearby, and when the rumor came to Anderson that men might occupy the houses where they could shoot down into the fort, he had enough of the Charlestonians' provocations, and ordered his garrison to Sumter where they would be safer. Doubleday related that the families were first spirited away, then the garrison, "65 soldiers, plus the band, which made a total of 73 men," slipped across the harbor in small boats at dusk, disguising themselves as workmen.

Between December 26, 1860 and April 11, 1861 both the men in Fort Sumter and the Confederates of Charleston prepared themselves for the inevitable clash. Besides Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, and Fort Johnson which they had seized, the southerners also built a strong battery on nearby Morris Island, covering the main ship channel into the harbor. Thanks to the Federal arms they had captured, their new fortifications were well-equipped. Fort Sumter was also reasonably well-armed, and Major Anderson's garrison had done well to put the unfinished fort in good order, but there was only a few days' worth of powder and ammunition; if it came to a siege, everyone

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