Why Is Fort Sumter Important

The Battle of Fort Sumter is the first battle of the Civil War. Fort Sumter is located in an artificial island in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, built in the wake of the War of 1812 . After South Carolina’s secession from the Union on December 20, 1860, Maj. Robert Anderson and his force of 85 soldiers were positioned at Fort Moultrie near the mouth of Charleston Harbor. On December 26, fearing for their safety, Anderson moved his command to Fort Sumter. All the forts along the coast except Fort Sumter and other four forts, had been given up to the Confederate States without having to fight. But Sumter was especially important because of its location and its purpose: to guard the Charleston Harbor, a territory of significance for the rebels. The rebels asked Abraham Lincoln to transfer the fort to them, but he decided not to do it because the Americans would see it as an act of betrayal. Lincoln knew Fort Sumter was short in supplies and men. If he attacked the Confederates would appear as a Northern aggression and he didn’t want to abandon the soldiers that were still in there, so he decided to send supplies. He let the rebels
After a few days, 92,000 people had already signed up. This also made people from the South decide to join the Confederacy army. The North obeyed the President, but the South felt like if had the right to secede. One of the Battle of Fort Sumter’s most immediate consequences was the secession of Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia from the Union to take part of the Confederacy. The states in which slavery was legal (Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri) stayed loyal to the Union. After the Battle of Fort Sumter, the states were force to pick a side now that the war over slavery and states’ rights had begun. Lincoln though this would be a short war, but it actually lasted 4 years and over 2 million men fought as part of the Union